Editing Maya Deren (section)

{{short description|American experimental filmmaker (1917–1961)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2016}}
{{Infobox artist
| name             = Maya Deren
| image            = Maya Deren.jpg
| caption          = Deren in the film ''[[Meshes of the Afternoon]]'' (1943), her debut
| birth_name       = Eleonora Derenkovska
| birth_date       = {{OldStyleDate|May 12|1917|April 29}}
| birth_place      = [[Kyiv|Kiev]]<!--See WP:KYIV-->, [[Kiev Governorate]], [[Russian Provisional Government]]<!--the Ukrainian People's Republic was founded in June 1917--> (present-day Ukraine)
| death_date       = {{death date and age|mf=yes|1961|10|13|1917|5|12}}
| death_place      = [[New York City|New York, New York]], U.S.
| nationality      = American
| movement         = [[Experimental film|Avant-garde cinema]]
| spouse           = {{Plainlist|
*{{marriage|Gregory Bardacke|1935|1939|end=div}}
*{{marriage|[[Alexandr Hackenschmied]]|1942|1947|end=div}}
*{{marriage|[[Teiji Itō]]|1960}}
 }}
| awards           = {{Plainlist|
*[[Guggenheim Fellowship]] 1946
*Grand Prix International for Avant-garde Film, [[Cannes Film Festival]] 1947
 }}
| alma_mater       = {{ubl|[[New York University]]|[[New School of Social Research]]|[[Smith College]]}}
| works            = '''Films:'''{{Plainlist|
* ''[[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:'''{{Plainlist|
* ''An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film'' (1946)
}}
}}
'''Maya Deren''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|ɛr|ən}}; born '''Eleonora Derenkovskaya'''; {{langx|uk|Елеоно́ра Деренко́вська|links=no}}; {{OldStyleDate|May 12|1917|April 29}}<ref name="metrica">[https://cdiak.archives.gov.ua/images/arxiv_cetera/ac_2016_09_20/1164_0001_0517_73zv-74.jpg Запись о рождении в метрической книге Киевского раввината за 1917 год] // ЦГИАК Украины. Ф. 1164. Оп. 1. Д. 161 (517 — по старой нумерации). Л. 73об–74 (in Russian).</ref> – October 13, 1961) was a Ukrainian-born American [[experimental film]]maker 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.<ref name=anagram/> She combined her expertise in dance and choreography, ethnography, the African spirit religion of [[Haitian Vodou]],  [[Symbolism (movement)|symbolist poetry]] and [[gestalt psychology]] (as a student of [[Kurt Koffka]]) in a series of perceptual, black-and-white short films. Using editing, [[multiple exposure]]s, [[jump-cut]]ting, [[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.<ref name="Legend">{{cite book |last1=Clark |first1=VèVè |title=The Legend of Maya Deren: a documentary biography and collected works. Vol. 1, pt. 1, Signatures (1917-42) |last2=Hudson |first2=Millicent |last3=Neiman |first3=Catrina |publisher=Anthology Film Archives/Film Culture |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-91168-914-3 |editor-last=Melton |editor-first=Hollis |location=New York}}</ref><ref name="Athology Film Archive/Film Culture" />

''[[Meshes of the Afternoon]]'' (1943), her collaboration with her husband at the time, [[Alexander Hammid]], has been one of the most influential experimental films in American cinema history. Deren went on to make several more films, including but not limited to ''[[At Land]]'' (1944), ''[[A Study in Choreography for Camera]]'' (1945), and ''[[Ritual in Transfigured Time]]'' (1946), writing, producing, directing, editing, and photographing them with help from only one other person, [[Hella Hammid|Hella Heyman]], her camerawoman.