Maya Deren: An Experimental Filmmaker - Research Paper Example

Maya Deren: Experimental Filmmaker Introduction Filmmaking has been an evolvingly challenging and colorful artistic journey. The tenacious pace of technological advancement profoundly influenced the growth of filmmaking from its crude origins of silent and black and white films to the intricately three dimensional movies of contemporary times. Concurrent with technology, exemplary individuals with unique, innovative and creative talents provided the impetus for filmmaking’s revolutionary development through time. One of the legendary figures in avant-garde filmmaking is Maya Deren. The essay is hereby written to proffer a brief background of her life and how she became a filmmaker. Likewise, the discourse would present relevant information on her films and shooting style as manifested in her various films. The Life of Maya Deren Born in Kiev, Ukraine, as Eleanora Derenkovskaya on the 29th of April, 1917, Maya Deren was the daughter of a musician and a psychiatrist. Her mother, Marie Fiedler’s propensity for music encouraged Maya’s genuine artistic flair. She had been a “dancer, choreographer, poet, writer and photographer. In the cinema she was a director, writer, cinematographer, editor, performer, entrepreneur and pioneer in experimental filmmaking in the United States” (Haslem, 2002, par. 2). Increasing pressures and threats to Jewish families necessitated the family’s migration to Syracuse, New York, where they initially lived with her father’s (Solomon Derenkovskaya’s) brother. They changed the long surname to Deren. The trials and difficulties faced by the family upon migration to a new soil led to her parents’ separation. Nevertheless, the family’s struggles did not prevent Maya from honing her skills in various endeavors leaning on diverse art forms: languages, writing, dancing, choreography, and eventually, experimental filmmaking. Her educational background had been rich as the theoretical background enhanced her skills in the arts. Maya studied in Ecole Internationale de Geneve for her lessons in various languages including French, German, and Russian (Zeitgeist Films, 2002, 3). In the US, Maya enrolled into three universities: Syracuse University, where she delved into journalism and political science. It has been reported that it was in this educational institution and while taking the journalism course that her interest in filmmaking started. At the young age of eighteen, she met and married her first husband, Gregory Bardackle, who she divorced at the age of 22 (Neiman, et.al., 1976, 1988). She was conferred her undergraduate degree in New York University and took her master’s degree in English literature from Smith College. Maya’s close association as an assistant to Katherine Dunham, known dancer and choreographer, increased her inclination to expressive arts. While on a tour with Dunham in 1941 in Los Angeles, Maya met and eventually married Czech filmmaker, Alexander Hammid, who was instrumental in collaborating with her in her first successfully famous experimental film, Meshes of the Afternoon. Maya completed six films during her short lifespan of only 44 years. She had four unfinished films; one unpublished and one film in collaboration (Zeitgeist Films, 2002, 5). Her controversial death due to brain hemorrhage in 1961 was shrouded with speculation as to the actual cause, whether it was primarily due to medications, Voodoo curse, or a legal court battle. Maya Deren’s Experimental Films and Shooting Style A review of Bryant Frazer (n.d.) on Maya Deren’s experimental films indicated complete awe and adoration for her works of art. Frazer averred that “the movies themselves (some made in collaboration with husband Alexander "Sasha" Hammid) are haunting, lyrical, and breathtaking fusions of human and cinematic movement, where the actors dance with the camera)” (par. 2). The style is clearly manifested in her first and famous film, Meshes of the Afternoon. In the film, Maya shoots and shows the same scenes several times with a variety of perspectives. Some scenes that were repeated shown were edited using different angles and characters and/or movement of characters, as deemed appropriate for the scene. There was one scene on the dining table where there was three of Maya’s character who eventually sat on respective chairs taking turns in holding a key at the center of the table. The hooded figure kept showing as a dream sequence repeatedly being chased by her but never being given the chance to approach it. One scene showed the hooded figure right inside the house eventually going up the stairs to the bedroom; only to be observed to contain a mirror face. The eventual personification of a man, who was actually Maya’s husband, Hammid, in the final sequence could be surmised at the dreamer’s (Maya’s) manifestation of a figure who brings her fear. The male character’s intentions are hidden from the viewers’ contentions leaving them with speculations on the real manifestations of the actors. Maya used objects as manifesting deeper meanings in her films: the key, the knife, the flower, the hooded figure, the ocean – were all repeatedly shown in the Meshes of the Afternoon. These objects depicted diverse meanings such as mystery, haunting emotions, anticipating revelations at the end of the film. As emphasized by Haslem in her description of the film Meshes of the Afternoon, “rhythm also impacts significantly on spectatorship. The rhythm of the sound, movement and editing conspire to produce the effect of a trance film. Meshes of the Afternoon's dream-like mise-en-scène, illogical narrative trajectory, fluid movement and ambient soundtrack invite a type of contemplative, perhaps even transcendental, involvement for the spectator” (Haslem, 2002, par. 9). In her second film, the At Land, also showed the ocean, the pawn piece from a chessboard, guests at a party, and male characters down the road to an abandoned house. There were two different locations for this film: the ocean and the dinner party where Maya appeared to be invisible to the guests. The opening scene at the ocean with Maya lying on the shore emphasized the oceans mystic movements. The shooting style for this film is Maya’s shooting of scenes from different angles and perspectives – here using different worlds. As Haslem averred, “this film begins by reversing the natural rhythm with images of waves breaking and descending back into the sea. Starring again, Deren is seen climbing up a dead tree trunk on the beach, magically emerging onto a table where a formal dinner party is in progress. This 'civilized' world ignores Deren as she crawls along their dinner table. By depicting herself as invisible to the diners, Deren highlights the myopia of the guests. The dinner sequence in At Land ends with an enchanted chess game. A pawn falls from the table and descends back into the dead wood on the beach, it falls over rocks, into the water and is washed away over the waterfalls. Chasing the pawn, Deren is restored to her original landscape” (Haslem, 2002, par. 14). However, the film does not end in the chase sequence. Maya suddenly finds herself on a road, initially by herself, and eventually walking with a male character who led her to an old, dilapidated house. Upon crawling at the entrance, Maya again finds herself in another world, on a more contemporary house at her time, but with images of covered furniture depicting mystery and the unknown. The article published by Film International (2007) on Maya Deren’s experimental films clearly indicated her shooting style as a “conceptual “anagram”, where ideas intersect and form a greater whole, discussed in her treatise An Anagram of Ideas on Art Form and Film (1946)” (par. 16). She again used this style in her film, Meditation on Violence when Wu Tang and Shaolin movements were shown by Chao-li Chi with Chinese flute playing in the background. The defining sequence was shown when “the martial artist leaps into the air thrusting a sword directly towards the camera. This movement is captured in freeze frame – symbolizing a clear break and at the same time a dynamic interrelationship between the two forms. The film speed reverses and becomes Wu Tang. The ritual represents the principle of eternity – illustrated by continuous movement” (Film International, 2007, par. 16). Haslem (2002) clearly explained Deren’s shooting style, to wit: “her argument emphasizes filmmaking as a matrix where elements exist outside of the constraints of hierarchy, order or value. It is a utopian approach, comparable to the logic developed by the Russian Formalists, which stresses the influence of individual elements within the anagram. In an anagram all the elements exist in a simultaneous relationship. Consequently, within it, nothing is first and nothing is last; nothing is future and nothing is past; nothing is old and nothing is new… Each element of an anagram is so related to the whole that no one of them may be changed without affecting its series and so affecting the whole. And conversely the whole is so related to every part that whether one reads horizontally, vertically, diagonally or even in reverse, the logic of the whole is not disrupted, but remains intact.” (par. 25). Another film, Ritual in Tranfigured Times uses images, objects and journey from one time to another. The Film International (2007) proffered, to wit: “Ritual in Transfigured Time is a rite of passage where “a widow becomes a bride”. Ritual archetypes juxtaposed with images of modernity and frozen matter - freeze frames, statues, bodies – are ‘spiritualized’ through movement, similarly how symbolist poetry (one of Deren’s poetic influences) ‘spiritualized language’” (par. 13) She used slow motion to emphasize changes in movements, a transition from one form to another. Maya’s shooting style had been quoted as surreal, trance-like, cinematic, mysterious, and transcended diverse scenes or locations as manifesting dream-sequences or other-world phenomenon in continuous movements. Some films were made in complete silence like the Private Life of a Cat which showed a He and She cat in progress to having a family. The documentary depiction of giving birth to kittens in close shots with professional editing paved the way for a film which was cleverly designed in its entirety. The end scene showed precisely the same scene at the beginning exemplified the routinary, continuous life of her feline subjects. The musical scores provided in her films were artistically created by Teiji Ito, who Maya married as her third husband. As Zeitgeist films indicated, Ito was a “visionary composer” (Zeitgeist, 2002, 9) whose talent complemented Maya’s creative ingenuity in her cinematic experimental films. The music provided for Meshes of the Afternoon supported the movements and the depiction of rhythmic pacing and repeated sequences. The musical scores highlighted anticipated emotions and enhanced the intensifying speculations of viewers on the climax of the film. Overall, Maya Deren was a legend in experimental filmmaking. Her creative and innovative approach to artistic genre provided the aesthetic appeal of her films. The people she encountered during her life, as well as her family background, education, and work experiences all contributed to the professionalism and dynamic approaches of her various films. The mystic, haunting, and trance-like qualities of the film sequences triggered the emotions of viewers and provoked intense anticipation on the outcome of her creations. The style of repeatedly using images, objects, and sequences taken of ordinary locations suddenly transformed into new worlds added to the dynamism and innovativeness of her cinematic approach. Her decisions to add music or to retain silence in different films were appropriate for the message she desired to relay to her audience. The overall effect of rhythm, movement, shooting same scenes at different angles, editing the movie as recorded, are necessary elements to ensure effective display of the intended purpose. Maya Deren was a woman of style and profound vision whose experimental films paved the way for future filmmakers to learn from her craft. Conclusion Art has been known to be an expression of a skill, a talent, or ability. The world has gained enormously in terms of developments in various art forms through the creativity of talented people throughout life. The exemplary contribution of Maya Deren in avant-garde or experimental filmmaking can never be discounted. The essay was therefore successful in achieving its objective of proffering a brief background of Maya Deren’s life and how she became a filmmaker. Likewise, the discourse presented significant revelations on her films and the shooting style as manifested in her various works of art. Without talented and visionary individuals like Maya Deren, the world of filmmaking would be left with a void, a temporary recluse prior to leaping into the highly technological realm viewers are currently enjoying in contemporary times. Works Cited Film International. 2x Maya Deren: Experimental Films. 2007. Web. 19 July 2010. < http://www.filmint.nu/?q=node/29> Frazer, Bryant. Maya Deren: Experimental Films. N.d. Web. 19 July 2010. Haslem, Wendy. Senses of Cinema: Maya Deren. 2002. Web. 19 July 2010. Neiman, Catrina, Clark, VeVe, Hudson, Millicent & Bailey, Francine. The Legend of Maya Deren, Volume 1, Part One; Part Two. New York. 1976, 1988. Print. Zeitgeist Films. In the Mirror of Maya Deren. 2002. Web. 19 July 2010. Read More