In Los Angeles, 1943, Maya Deren made her first and what would prove to be the most highly regarded film of her career: MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON. A collaboration with her first husband, Alexander Hammid, MESHES is an exercise in the principles of cinema that would go on to define her practice: slow motion, reverse shot, montage, and the negative image. Using a 16mm Bolex camera, Deren and Hammid used cinema’s unique ability to transcend time and dislocate space to create a radically surrealist account of one woman’s (Deren’s) dream state. Recurring symbols, dramatic angles, and doubling effects all contribute to the hypnotic representation of Deren’s subconscious mind. Free to the public! Witness Avant-Garde Mama, Maya Deren’s, pioneering film at the Harvard Film Archive TONIGHT!
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON (1943) DIRECTED BY MAYA DEREN & ALEXANDER HAMMID
Harvard Film Archives
24 Quincy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
3/12 – 7pm
FREE FREE FREE
