KDHX Film Review - In the Mirror of Maya Deren

Directed by Martina Kudlácek
Reviewed by Diane Carson

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Film historians have called her “the mother of avant-garde film.” Many have been deeply moved by her Meshes of the Afternoon, At Land, and A Study in Choreography for Camera. This memorable filmmaker is Maya Deren, the subject of a documentary made for Austrian television in English. Through informative and candid interviews with friends and colleagues as they revisit her pioneering experimental films, In the Mirror of Maya Deren chronologically charts the landmark events in Deren’s life, 1917-1961. To capture the artist so enormously influential in shaping the American avant-garde, Czech director Martina Kudlácek integrates film clips, reminiscences, and Deren’s own recorded commentary on her works’ theoretical underpinnings.

Jonas Mekas, Anthology Film Archives director, affectionately displays coffee tins with precious outtakes and Katherine Dunham comments on Maya’s early days in Dunham’s dance troupe. First husband Alexander Hammid, Hammid’s second wife and Deren friend Hella Hamon, Cinema 16’s Amos Vogel, the Living Theatre’s Judith Malina, Stan Brakhage, and significant others add depth and insight to Deren’s unique work and unusual behavior. Deren’s had life-altering experiences in Haiti—making four extended trips between 1947 and 1955. Her interest in voodoo receives substantive discussion with accompanying clips from the thousands of feet shot but never fashioned into a completed film. The kaleidoscope that was Deren comes through here: her love of mirrors, of the sea, of dreams, of metamorphosis, of attempting to represent inner reality on film. In the Mirror of Maya Deren complements this memorable talent with its own fascinating flow of thoughts and images with a strength and immediacy that would please Deren. This documentary screens Friday, January 16th through Sunday, January 18th [2004] at 7p.m. at Webster University’s Winifred Moore Auditorium. Call 314-968-7487 for more information on this or other films in the Webster University film series.

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