Profile via TMDB · Courtesy of TMDB
Maya Deren
Sign in to saveAlso known as Eleanora Derenkowskaia, Eleanora Derenkowsky, Eleonora Derenkowsky
Ukranian-born American avant-garde filmmaker (1917–1961)
Film & TV
Kyiv, Ukraine
Maya Deren (April 29, 1917 – October 13, 1961), born Eleonora Derenkowska (Ukrainian: Елеоно́ра Деренко́вська), 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.
Known for
- Maya Deren, Take Zero — Herself2012
- Maya Deren's Sink — Herself (archival footage)2011
- Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film — Herself (archive footage)2011
- In the Mirror of Maya Deren — Herself2002
- Maya Deren - Experimental Films2002
- Invocation: Maya Deren — Herself (archive footage)1986
- Ritual in Transfigured Time1946
- At Land1944
- Meshes of the Afternoon — The Woman1943
via TMDB
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
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Maya
- Gender
- female
- Citizenship
- Russian Empire
- Place of birth
- Kyiv
- Place of death
- New York City
- Spouse
- Teiji Ito
- Occupation
- writer
- Educated at
- Smith College
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Notable work
- Meshes of the Afternoon
- Field of work
- cinematography
- Image
- Maya Deren.jpg
- Work location
- United States
Show 11 more facts
- date of birth
- 1917-05-12
- date of death
- 1961-10-13
- Commons category
- Maya Deren
- cause of death
- cerebral hemorrhage
- manner of death
- natural causes
- has works in the collection
- Whitney Museum of American Art
- related category
- Category:Films directed by Maya Deren
- Commons Creator page
- Maya Deren
- start of work period
- 1940-00-00
- writing language
- English language
- pseudonym
- Maya Deren
via Wikidata · CC0
~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.