In the Mirror of Maya Deren and Brakhage

When I first heard that the good folks at Zeitgeist picked up two biographical docs for distribution I must admit that I was more primed for the Stan Brakhage DVD than the Maya Deren disc. Surprisingly, the latter has more to offer and, although her body of cinematic work is only a fraction of Brakhage's, the DVD offers a more encompassing and illuminating portrait of one of cinema's most esteemed experimental filmmakers.

As far as I know, there is no biography on the life and work of Stan Brakhage, only shards of evidence and fragments of a rather reserved artist and his equally reserved artistry. Jim Shedden's doc weaves together an array of intellectual responses to his work. A heavily bearded P. Adams Sitney is perhaps the most illuminating subject and by far the leading critic on the history of avant-garde cinema.

Academic Bart Testa, filmed amidst an array of literature, contributes his own understanding of Brakhage's work and Phil Solomon, one of Brakhage's later collaborators, discusses some of the intimacies of Brakhage's artistic process. Thankfully, Shedden includes some of the more personal accounts and testimonies, including several by the late filmmaker's two wives, children, and some candid footage of Brakhage's personal friend, Allen Ginsberg.

Segments of Brakhage's films are presented throughout, in chronological order, and offer the viewer a brief glimpse into an exceptionally diverse body of work which spanned over fifty years. Naturally, a great deal of work is omitted but, thanks to the devoted cineastes at Criterion, a thorough (but incomplete) collection of Brakhage's work is already available on DVD. Strangely, Shedden's piece was funded almost entirely by Canadian institutions and investors. It feels good to know that Canadian taxpaying dollars have contributed toward preserving the life and work of one of cinema's greatest artists.

The extra features are initially fascinating but interest might easily wane upon subsequent viewings. The 1965 black-and-white documentary by Arnold Gassan and Carlos Steegmiller (Brakhage on Film) exposes Brakhage's earlier artistic process. The filmmaker is seen here filming and editing -- with his wife and children -- at his cabin in the woods.

The other offering, a segment from a show in the 70s, has Brakhage musing on the problematics of sound in filmmaking practices. This might come off as pretentious to those who are fully aware of the great sound achievements in the history of film. Regardless, he does make some pointed remarks and it's always interesting to see the young, bohemian Brakhage.

The Maya Deren doc, In the Mirror of Maya Deren, is the more engaging of the two, providing biographical and cinematic material which explores a radiant subject-artist and her peculiar and influential aesthetic career. Martina Kudlacek gathers an A-list of commentators, including Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas, in addition to some rather emotional interviews with personal friends and collaborators.

She focusses her attention on pivotal events including Deren's early emigration to Hollywood from the Ukraine and her travels to Haiti, the latter serving as a catalyst for her later work both in film and literature. An interview with Brakhage provides some inciteful commentary on Maya's later, often misunderstood, work. Unfortunately, Deren fans will have to look elsewhere for her complete works. Included here are excerpts from two early works.

The extra features include outtakes from an early film from 1943 starring Marcel Duchamp entitled The Witch's Cradle. This might have viewers scratching their heads trying to figure out how these fragments could have been edited to form a mildly coherent whole. The project might have been abandoned due to the traditional acting style, as her work otherwise tended to downplay conventional narrative performance techniques.

1951's Ensemble for Somnambulists will be interesting to Deren enthusiasts but is really a trial run for her far more mature execution of a similarly choreographed aesthetic in 1955's The Very Eye of Night, a dance-piece which must be seen to be believed.

Brakhage fans will probably want to include the Deren DVD in their collections. At several points, he is seen working on a hand-painted film entitled Water for Maya, a tribute to the late filmmaker and her fondness for water. On DVD, the film is included in its entirety and demonstrates the intimite level at which experimental artists often operate, inspiring each other's work in ways which would be difficult at a commercial level.

Unfortunately, the average person is ill-equipped to appreciate a great deal of avant-garde cinema, frequently due to the lack of concrete criteria with which to evaluate many works of this nature. So we rest hopeful and trust that time will carry the weight of these works into the present day. Thanks in part to Shedden and Kudlacek, it has.

By the way, if you know nothing about either of these landmark artists, this is not the place to start. Selected works by both have been made available commercially and these documentaries should only be screened as a companion piece to those essential bodies of work. -- Dan Stefik