Extract
[...] Between 1947 and 1954, Deren madethree trips to Haiti. In total, she stayed there for 21 months. During her visits, she has deeply immersed in the community, mainly capturing dances, possession ceremonies, and festivals.in it she has been closely involved in the ritual, becoming the first white woman to be initiated into Vodou. On will understand, her work will have a determining role in the so-called experience ofNew American Cinema. Today, her cinema continues to fascinate aspiring experimental filmmakers, and each exhibition, each rediscovery, each cinematic screening of her works is an opportunity not to be missed, to enter this experimental cinema that will always find in Maya Deren a source of inspiration, an alternative view. [...]
[...] The stifling domestic space and the emphasis on circularity give a sense of unease and alienationwhich one often finds in the films of the "exiles"." In 1946, Maya Deren confirmed this will when she stated the following: « I haven't had the opportunity to experiment with sound, but I am convinced that an exploratory attitude towards recording, mixing, and amplification techniques could create an abundance of sound elements in film music2. (Deren, 1946). Let's now focus on the film Witch's Cradle co-directed with surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp in 1943. It is unique in being unfinished. The filming took place at the apartment of patron Peggy Guggenheim, where Duchamp was a guest. The film was shot without a script and explores the themes of time, space, and perception. Themes dear to the director, as we have seen above with her first film. [...]
[...] My films can be said to beexperimental in terms of the use of the medium itself [ . ]1. (Deren, 1961). Through this statement, it is easy to appreciate the way in which the filmmaker Maya Deren (1917-1961) envisioned her cinematic work. However, in order to truly account for the uniqueness of her approach, we must first recall that since its inception, the film industry has notoriously been a hostile environment for women, particularly in roles such as directing. The environment in which filmmakers have been able to express themselves best is the experimental and independent environment. [...]
[...] However, the academic and aesthetic potential of the filmmaker's work is inexhaustible and above all, astonishing by its versatility. Finally, each of her films is more than a project. It is a conjunction of ideas that establish themselves between them like a sequential narrative. That's why Maya Deren does not only participate in a large part of her films: she transforms her image into a confrontation with disturbing ideas. She remains, in our opinion, a figure who dances from one side of the camera to the other. [...]
[...] In collaboration with him, Deren thus shot her first experimental film,Meshes of the Afternoon in 1943. Upon reviewing his work, it can be stated that it already contains key themes of Deren's filmography. In a sense, it can be considered the first example of poetic psychodrama, namely an oniric film, which addresses questions of sexual identity, shows taboos and shocking images, and uses montage to liberate the spatio-temporal logic from the conventions of Hollywood realism. In this sense, in order to reinforce the experimental nature, Meshes of the Afternoon is shot like asilent film: there is no dialogue between the characters or diegetic sound. [...]
