Tuesday, April 10, 2007

MAYA DEREN @ UBUWEB


Maya Deren is unofficially the grandmama of American experimental cinema (a genre that has long been very male-dominated), and her films have not only withstood the test of time, but have become increasingly popular with each new generation of avant-garde film lovers.

Once difficult to find and expensive to rent/buy, Deren's films have become much more easily accessible in the age of p2p and DVD. The same can not be said of most of her collegues, with elitism rampant among most experimental filmmakers (especially formalists and purists, who will only screen their work on film at museums and galleries and refuse to transfer their work to video).

Now it's even easier to see Deren's work, as the majority of her films have been posted to view and download at UBUWEB.COM. While the page is referred to as "Maya Deren: The Complete Films", there are some missing works (most notably, her beautiful collaboration with husband Alexander Hammid called "The Private Life of a Cat" (which is available to download in a variety of formats at Archive.org).

While Deren's work can be challenging, the surrealistic imagery and groundbreaking techniques are well worth some patience to experience.

1 comment:

Cuthbert said...

So, I don't really believe it may have success.
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