Maya Deren Collection

There's simply nothing to say about Maya Deren that hasn't been said already by more talented writers and historians. She was, and still is, heralded as the mother of the American avant-garde, a style of filmmaking that introduces ideas through movement and editing that exist separately from the status quo. Her films are exercises in exploring the self, and her background in dance choreography helped her to create works that have shaken the very foundation of contemporary filmmaking even today.

What Kino Lorber has done is put all her films – the finished ones, anyway – together in a one-disc set that is sure to be one of the most important home entertainment releases of 2020. "The Maya Deren Collection" comes highly recommended.

The new 2K restorations of her films are stunning and preserve the texture of her methods. Using digital tools to sharpen her compositions would only remove what's so special about her career. Speaking of, as a filmmaker that started in a variety of occupations – writer, choreographer, and publicist – she grew an affinity for the everyday tools people in those jobs use to get their work done. To her, a film camera was a tool for expression - a way of putting an audience through a temporal experience.

You can see that much in her first film "Meshes of the Afternoon," in which she uses the camera as a tool to capture her own self-identity. Shot using a 16mm Bolex camera, and following a narrative structure that's perpetually in a dreamlike trance, it studies Deren's own interactions with the physical and metaphysical. Even more, it presents a story that is so close to classic dramatic logic, but presents it in a way standard filmmaking practices never could. As we see Deren herself walk back through actions she had taken at the beginning of the film, her mind starts to twist reality into a reflection of her ego and id. While there's no concrete information regarding the conception of the story, Deren commented on it being a record of an event that cannot be witnessed by other people; a true subconscious projection.

But what's so breathtaking and incendiary about "Meshes of the Afternoon" is that although it's so singular in its approach to depicting one woman's experience, so much of it can feel personal to whoever watches it.

In "At Land," she uses the same introspection of the mind to explore the external world. Her movements are concerned with the existence of physical things like a fish, traveling forwards - and, later, backward - through time to gain insight into things we can't access. And what's so striking about this film is that it has a dancer-like quality that only bolsters Deren's fluid approach to narrative. As the waves roll backward, the self moves with it.

As for the special features in this set, there are a couple of terrific essays about Deren in a booklet, a 1987 documentary by Jo Kaplan about her life and career, and some never-released outtakes from the original soundtrack recording sessions with Teiji Ito on "Meshes of the Afternoon" and "The Very Eye of the Night." What Kino Lorber and Re:Voir have done in compiling Deren's works is also giving the audience added insight through audio commentaries and other features that any fan of the avant-garde would hate to miss. This release is as much about the preservation of art as it is about showing how Deren changed filmmaking forever.

Other special features include:

� Audio commentaries on "At Land," "Meshes of the Afternoon," and "The Very Eye of Night" by film curator Thomas Beard
� Audio commentaries on "Divine Horsemen," "Meditation on Violence," and "Ritual in Transfigured Time" by film scholar Moira Jean Sullivan
� Alternate French audio for "Divine Horsemen" recorded by Raymonde Carasco

"The Maya Deren Collection"
Blu-ray
$34.95
https://www.kinolorber.com/product/maya-deren-collection-dvd