Maya Deren

[allynh%miro@BERKELEY.EDU (Allyn Hardyck)]

Aargh, has Doug already gone off for his interview!!!?!?!?!

It would have been so IDEAL if I could find out about this..

I am currently taking a film class.  One of the people we have studied
is Maya Deren, who is considered the founder of American experimental
film.  She made a movie in 1943 called "Meshes of the Afternoon" which,
if KB has seen it, she has lifted a lot of ideas from, or if she hasn't,
we have a MAJOR case for Jungian synchronicity here!

First off, Maya Deren looks very much like KB, long frizzy brown hair -
sort of between KB and a prettier Sandra Bernhard.  The film is basically
a sequence of images constructed around the general situation of (you
guessed it) a woman's dream.  Images of removing keys from her mouth,
the key becoming a knife and switching back, flowers to knives, strange
hooded figures with mirrors for faces, ha! a *record player* providing
some sort of soundtrack to her dream as she sleeps next to it!

It really was unexpectedly good, not at all what you'd expect from that period
of time in terms of filmmaking.  The soundtrack to the film is very eerie -
guitar played in a very Japanese style (the soundtrack was done by her husband
Teiji Ito) and resonant violin glissandos.  I can't really say more, it
absolutely requires viewing.  Hopefully there is some sort of film library
near where you live - it's worth it.  (Of course it takes a lot for me to hate
a film, but if my view of KB's work is correct l-hers should enjoy it.)