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Screenings: 5 November 2026 Thursday 20:00 / 10 December 2026 Thursday 20:00
Part 1 presents Meshes of the Afternoon, Ritual in Transfigured Time and The Very Eye of Night consecutively. Total running time: 44 minutes.
* The screening will feature live musical accompaniment by Ekin Fil.
Director: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
Screenplay: Maya Deren
Cast: Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid
USA / 1943 / 14 min. / Black and white / DCP / Silent
Maya Deren’s debut film, made with her then-partner Alexander Hammid amid the unsettling atmosphere of the Second World War, Meshes of the Afternoon has secured its place in film history as a pioneering and profoundly inspiring work of avant-garde cinema. Uninterested in Hollywood’s realist narrative conventions, Deren creates an uncanny dream world through symbolism, cyclical structures, repetition and doubling, elements that recur in her later films. In this silent, dialogue-free universe, created solely through the possibilities of the camera, Deren also appears on screen.
Director: Maya Deren
Screenplay: Maya Deren
Cast: Rita Christiani, Maya Deren, Anaïs Nin, Frank Westbrook, Gore Vidal
USA / 1946 / 15 min. / Black and white / DCP / Silent
Ritual in Transfigured Time transforms time through its fragmented structure, slow motion and freeze frames, bringing dance together with the possibilities of cinema in a distinctive way. Deeply interested in dance and ritual practices, Maya Deren turns everyday rituals such as unwinding yarn and exchanging greetings into a performance with a constantly shifting rhythm. Frozen images, statues and bodies acquire new meanings through movement.
Director: Maya Deren
Screenplay: Maya Deren
Cast: Don Freisinger, Richard Sandifer, Patricia Ferrier, Bud Bready, Genaro Gomez, Barbara Levin, Richard Englund, Rosemary Williams, Phillip Salem
USA / 1955 / 15 min. / Black and white / DCP / Silent
Deren’s last completed film, The Very Eye of Night emerged from a collaboration with choreographer Antony Tudor and students of the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Through its distinctive use of negative imagery, the dancers’ bodies are freed from spatial reference points, creating the impression that they are floating in a void.