“I am content if, on those rare occasions whose truth can be stated only in poetry, you will perhaps recall an image, even only the aura of my films. And what more could I possibly ask, as an artist, than that your most precious visions, however rare, assume, sometimes, the forms of my images.”
Maya Deren
“Maya Deren is an avant-garde godmother. Her mysterious images have burned into my consciousness like fiery, exotic dreams we are not supposed to talk about - each one a secret location of a symbolic prediction made with deep, dark magic in her sibyl cave.”
Thurston Moore
Witch’s Cradle (1943, 13’)
At Land(1946, 15’)
Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946, 15’)
Meshes Of The Afternoon (1944, 14’)
“We know Thurston Moore from the proto-noise band Sonic Youth, his unfalteringly exceptional solo work and exciting side-projects such as Thurston Moore Group and Chelsea Light Moving. Especially for VIDEODROOM, the American artist will be coming over to Ghent for an exclusive, one-night-only show. Moore has composed new guitar scores for four experimental silent films by Maya Deren.The work of the Ukrainian-American cineaste represents a milestone in the history of experimental film. For Deren, film’s main function consisted of creating a total experience. In her work she combines dance, Haitian voodoo and psychology to create surreal, black-and-white short films. Using editing, multiple exposures, jump cutting, superimposition, slow-motion, and other camera techniques to her fullest advantage, Deren created continued motion through discontinued space, while abandoning the established notions of physical space and time, with the ability to turn her vision into a stream of consciousness. Moore has written four new compositions to accompany Maya Deren’s short films.”
Film Fest Gent