Moving to Los Angeles with the touring Katherine Dunham dance company in the early 1940s, Deren met Alexandr Hackenschmied (later Hammid), who would lend some technical expertise to transform her efforts in still photography into the watershed experimental short, MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON. Deren is perhaps the most catalytic artist to work in avant-garde cinema; that short, her studies in ritualistic dance and her early efforts in independent film distribution would trace an unparalleled legacy of inspiration and feminist art practices still resoundingly felt to this day. Celebrating the bohemian avant-gardia in which she moved, we present this marathon screening of her short-form work in 16mm at the polyvalent arts hub, Coaxial.
Meshes of the Afternoon (with Alexandr Hammid), 16mm, 14min., 1943
The Witch’s Cradle (with Marcel Duchamp), 16mm, 13min., 1943
At Land, 16mm, 15min., 1944
A Study in Choreography for Camera, 16mm, 3min., 1945
Ritual in Transfigured Time, 16mm, 14min., 1946
Meditation on Violence, 16mm, 13min., 1948
The Very Eye of Night, 16mm, 15min., 1958
Prints courtesy of the Filmmakers Coop
Curated by Coaxial + Bradford Nordeen
$10