This is a compilation of some of Maya Deren's most important films: The very eye of night, (1955) Ritual in transfigured time, (1946) Meditation on violence (1948) Study for choreography and camera (1945). These films address dance as "... the stylization of movement which confers ritual dimension upon functional motion ..." She has been described as an inheritor of the surrealists, however, Maya Deren was one of the earliest pioneers in the adaptation...

Talley Beatty has had an illustrious career spanning six decades. He began studying with Katherine Dunham at the age of 11 and at 16 became a principal dancer in her company. His choreography has been performed by numerous companies including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Mr. Beatty was the recipient of the 1993 Scripps/ADF award. Also included is "A Study in Choreography For Camera" (1945), the seminal film by Maya Deren featuring Mr. Beatty....

Maya Deren is one of the most important American experimental filmmakers of all time. Along with being a filmmaker, Deren was a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer and photographer, and she brings all of these disciplines together in her dreamlike and ecstatic films. Stan Brakhage called Maya Deren “the mother of us all.” The history of avant-garde film is unthinkable without her.

This avant-garde classic, made in collaboration with husband Alexander Hammid, is an important piece of feminist filmmaking. Of the film, with its subjective camera movement, jump cuts, and visual repetition, Deren wrote, “[it] is concerned with the inner realities of the individual and the way in which the subconscious will develop, interpret and elaborate an apparently simple and causal occurrence into a critical emotional experience.” Here...

Maya Deren is one of the most important American experimental filmmakers of all time. Along with being a filmmaker, Deren was a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer and photographer, and she brings all of these disciplines together in her dreamlike and ecstatic films. Stan Brakhage called Maya Deren “the mother of us all.” The history of avant-garde film is unthinkable without her.

Jonas Mekas - filmmaker, film critic, archivist, poet, lecturer and curator - is one of the leading figures of American avant-garde film and video. Born in Lithuania, he immigrated to New York in 1949 after spending time in Nazi forced labor camps and displaced persons camps. In addition to his many narrative and diary films that have screened extensively at festivals and museums around the world, he has worked as editor-in-chief of Film Culture,...

Beginning with The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins in 1969, Les Blank has become known for his films about indigenous southern music and various other topics. He has received numerous major awards including the British Academy Award for 'Burden of Dreams,' about Werner Herzog and the making of 'Fitzcarraldo,' top prizes at the Melbourne Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival for 'In Heaven There is No Beer?,' and the Maya Deren Award for...