Maya Deren in a film still from Meshes of the Afternoon. 1943.
Maya Deren: Biography
Maya
Deren could be considered a woman who was Beat before the Beat generation existed. She had no direct
connection to any of the major Beat figures, and she was more concerned with
innovating and preserving a blossoming art form, independent filmmaking,
than with being hip. Yet her Bohemian style,
artistic eclecticism, and fascination with spirituality foreshadowed this
movement to come. Although best known for her monumental contributions to
the development of independent and avant-garde American cinema (the American
Film Institute award that honors �Independent film and Video Artists� was
named for her), Deren was also a dancer, choreographer, writer,
photographer, poet, film theorist, and Voudoun (Voodoo) priestess. As such,
she was something of a prototype of the Beat woman.
Born Eleanora Derenkowsky in Kiev on April 29, 1917, she moved to America with her father Solomon, a psychiatrist, and her mother Marie, an artist and student of language, in 1922 to flee the anti-Semitism pogroms. They settled in New York, shortening their name to Deren to make it more American.
Deren attended the L'Ecole Internationale (League of Nations International School) in Geneva. She then returned to New York, enrolling at Syracuse where she studied political science and journalism. She married her first husband, Gregory Bardacke, in 1935, but they divorced within three years. After graduating in 1936, she began studying literature at Smith College and received her Masters in 1939. She began working with Katherine Dunham, eventually touring with Dunham�s dance company. It was at this time that Maya became fascinated with VouDoun.
In 1941, Deren met Alexander Hammid, a Czech filmmaker who helped her produce her first film Meshes of the Afternoon. She married Hammid in 1943 and changed her name to Maya because of the name's connections to various mythologies.
Written
by:
Maureen Latvala
Last updated: 07 February 2006