FM4 - Spectatorship - Maya Deren: Experimental and Expanded Film/Video

Maya Deren was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist of the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, poet, writer and photographer. Throughout the 1940s and 50s, Deren attacked Hollywood for its artistic, political and economic monopoly over American cinema. She stated, “I make my pictures for what Hollywood spends on lipstick,” and observed that Hollywood “has been a major obstacle to the definition and development of motion pictures as a creative fine-art form.” She set herself in opposition to the Hollywood film industry’s standards and practices. Deren's 'Meshes Of The Afternoon' is considered a key film in experimental/avante-garde cinematic history.