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Maya Deren

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Also known as Eleanora Derenkowskaia, Eleanora Derenkowsky, Eleonora Derenkowsky

Ukranian-born American avant-garde filmmaker (1917–1961)

Person · Open Library

Works
8

Top works

  • Divine horsemen; Voodoo gods of Haiti
  • The voodoo gods
  • El Universo Dereniano
  • Der Tanz des Himmels mit der Erde
  • No Title Exists

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Female
Origin
United States
Active from
1917-04-29
Active to
1961-10-13

Discography

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
503
Total plays
2,909

Tags

UkraineAvant-Gardetribalfield recordingsethno

Maya Deren (April 29, 1917 – October 13, 1961), born Eleanora Derenkowskaia (Russian: Элеоно́ра Деренко́вская), was one of the most important American experimental filmmakers and entrepreneurial promoters of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, writer and photographer. The function of film, Deren believed, like most art forms, was to create an experience; each one of her films would evoke new conclusions <a href="https://w

via Last.fm · Maya Deren

Key facts

Born
Eleonora Derenkovskaya , May 12 [ O.S. April 29 ] 1917, Kiev , Russian Empire
Died
October 13, 1961 (1961-10-13) (aged 44), New York City, U.S.
Alma mater
New York University New School of Social Research Smith College
Notable work
Films: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) At Land (1944) A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945) Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) Meditation on Violence (1947) Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1953) The Very Eye of Night (1955) Books: An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film (1946)
Movement
Avant-garde cinema
Spouses
Gregory Bardacke ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1935 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1939 ) ​ Alexandr Hackenschmied ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1942 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1947 ) ​ Teiji Itō ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1960 ) ​
Awards
Guggenheim Fellowship 1946 Grand Prix International for Avant-garde Film, Cannes Film Festival 1947

via Wikipedia infobox

~31 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Maya Deren (/ˈdɛrən/; born Eleonora Solomonovna Derenkovskaya; Russian: Элеонора Соломоновна Деренковская; May 12 [O.S. April 29] 1917 – October 13, 1961) was a Russian-born American experimental filmmaker and important part of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, writer, and photographer.

The function of film, Deren believed, was to create an experience. She combined her expertise in dance and choreography, ethnography, the African spirit religion of Haitian Vodou, symbolist poetry and gestalt psychology (as a student of Kurt Koffka) in a series of perceptual, black-and-white short films. Using editing, multiple exposures, jump-cutting, superimposition, slow-motion, and other camera techniques to her advantage, Deren abandoned established notions of physical space and time, innovating through carefully planned films with specific conceptual aims.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Maya Deren” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.