In the Mirror of Maya Deren

A film by Martina Kudlacek

Deemed “Fellini and Bergman wrapped in one gloriously possessed body,” Maya Deren is arguably the most important and innovative avant-garde filmmaker in the history of American cinema. Using locations from the Hollywood hills to Haiti in the 1940s and ’50s, Deren made such mesmerizing films as AT LAND, RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME, and her masterpiece, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON, which won a prestigious international experimental filmmaking prize at the 1947 Cannes Film Festival.

Starting with excerpts from these films, IN THE MIRROR seamlessly and effectively interweaves archival footage and observances from acolytes and contemporaries such as Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas with an original score by experimental jazz legend John Zorn. Documentarian Martina Kudlácek has fashioned not only a fascinating portrait of a groundbreaking and influential artist, but a pitch-perfect introduction to her strikingly beautiful and poetic body of work.

DVD Special Features

• Two rare Maya Deren film “fragments”: WITCH’S CRADLE (1943), outtakes from a lost work starring Marcel Duchamp; and ENSEMBLE FOR SOMNAMBULISTS (1951), an unpublished choreographic work.
• Stan Brakhage’s hand-painted film WATER FOR MAYA (2000), a tribute to Deren that he is seen creating during IN THE MIRROR
• Maya Deren filmography
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

Running time: 103 mins
Color/B&W
In English
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Not Rated