In the Mirror of Maya Deren (2002)
Documentary about the life of avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren, who led the independent film movement of the 1940s.
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Excellent but underrated film
Absolutely Brilliant!
Blistering performances.
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
... lists like the IMDB users' top 250 mean nothing to me and why I don't rate movies. Maya Deren was one of the pioneers of the experimental cinema movement and this documentary sheds light on her life, her relationship with the people she worked with, her 2 last husbands, her trip to Haiti and the sacrifices she has to go through in order to continue making movies. In the mirror of Maya Deren is a fine introduction to Maya Deren's work but I would recommend her own films to anyone who wants to see something really different.
wonderful soundtrack by john zornmeetings/interviews with stan brakhage, jonas mekas, ... (every time a great pleasure to see them)[besides: we need all brakhage films out on dvd!]a lot of original film clips of maya's movies (this is the best part, especially worth mentioning is the footage from the haitian voodoo documentary, since i had never seen it before - i love it, it is accompanied with original music from maya's magnetic tapes recorded at the time of shooting in haiti. a lot of vitality, a lot of energy - you can almost feel it !there are also a lot of original soundclips of maya's voice used in this picture (very good sound quality, it really brings her to life for all of us)a definite must see[so release it on dvd for repeated viewings include all of maya's movies in an uncut version on an extra disc, PLEASE !!!]