Northern Arizona University Maya Deren & Stan Brakhage Film Art Discussion

…The nature of the human mind is such that it tries to build concepts out of each moment, and so, therefore, if I think the concept it can build is interesting and poignant, then I’ll stick with it. – Nathaniel Dorsky

Before you start writing the response, please:

• Watch Meshes of the Afternoon (Deren, 1943, USA) in Collected Experimental Films (01:25 – 14:45)
• Watch At Land (Deren, 1944, USA) in Collected Experimental Films (14:50 – 29:37)
• Read some of Maya Deren’sAn Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film, The Alicat Book Shop Press, 1946.
• Watch The Way to Shadow Garden (Brakage, 1954, USA): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVGA8b7UnPw
• Watch Mothlight (Brakage, 1963, USA) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt3nDgnC7M8
• Read Brakage Interview: The Avant-Garde in American Film, in Seacred Heart University Review. (#9.1) 1988: 1-13.

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Writing response requirements:

1.What do you like about Maya Deren’s works? (150-300 words)

2. Choose to write about Stan Brakhage. Choose a couple of ideas that stood out to you from each from the readings, interviews, etc. Write about one of their films and pick a scene from one and talk about your emotional reaction to it, then put it in context with the interviews and other written material from the list, discuss what it means to be experimental in the film you watched. (at least 400 words)