Invocation. Maya Deren - ACE167.3

New York. Sasha Hammid on he and Deren both being of European origin. Narration describes her background and early life. Family photographs. Letter from Deren to her mother from her time at school in Switzerland. Hella Hammid on Deren’s need for outside stimulants to achieve her goals. New York where Deren moved after marrying a Union organiser. Photograph of her when she was National Secretary of the Young People’s Socialist League. Photographs. Commentary talks of Deren presenting her first three films in 1946. Amos & Marcia Vogel, Film Distributors, on seeing this presentation by "a very major new talent". Stan Brakhage, Film-maker, talks about Deren being the first to present and discuss her films with audiences. Jonas Mekas, Film-maker and Director of Anthology Film Archives, says that Anthology Film Archives’ second cinema will be called the Maya Deren Theater, devoted to independent avant-garde and classic film. He points out that Deren not only worked on every aspect of her films but also helped enlarge the audience for these and similar films. The Vogels were inspired by Deren’s New York screenings to start Cinema 16, a film society devoted to independent films. Amos Vogel; Mekas describing Cinema 16 as being hugely influential on a generation of independent film-makes. Caption: "23 October 1953. Symposium on ‘Poetry & Film’ at Cinema 16. The panel included Maya Deren and Dylan Thomas." Shots of New York. Deren and Thomas VO from this symposium. Photographs of the event; Vogel’s VO. Photographs of Deren in line-up as National Secretary, Creative Film Foundation. Vogel talks about the Foundation which was intended to help avant-garde film-makers but never succeeded in raising sufficient funds.