Maya Deren — witch of the lens, socialist of dreamtime, fugitive from the machinery of capital — transformed the moving image into a site of ritual. Her films Meshes of the Afternoon, At Land, Ritual in Transfigured Time, Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti and Witch's Cradle dissolve boundaries between dream and waking, art and ceremony, self and spirit. She built a new language for film and died in poverty. She wrestled with addiction; her collaborations, including with her much younger husband Teiji Ito, shimmer with both creative brilliance and the complexities of power.
Deren, Maya. An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film. Alicat Book Shop Press, 1946.
———. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. Vanguard Press, 1953.
———. “Religion and Magic.” Tomorrow: Vol. 3, No. 1 (Autumn 1954): 29–35.
———. Essential Deren: Collected Writings on Film. Edited by Bruce R. McPherson. New York: Documentext, 2005.
———. “A Statement of Principles.” e-flux Notes. Accessed 2024. https://www.e-flux.com/notes/621433/a-statement-of-principles
Deren, Maya. Witch’s Cradle. 1943. With Marcel Duchamp.
———. Meshes of the Afternoon. 1943.
———. At Land. 1944.
———. Ritual in Transfigured Time. 1946.
———. Meditation on Violence. 1948.
———. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. Filmed 1947–1951, completed posthumously by Teiji Ito and Cherel Ito, 1985.
Barrett, Del. “Maya Deren.” Hundred Heroines. Accessed 2024. https://hundredheroines.org/weekendread/maya-deren
Durant, Mark Alice. “Sometimes I Am What I Really Am: On Mark Alice Durant’s Maya Deren.” LA Review of Books. Accessed 2024. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/sometimes-i-am-what-i-really-am-on-mark-alice-durants-maya-deren
The Marginalian (Maria Popova). “Legendary Filmmaker Maya Deren on Cinema, Life, and Her Advice to Aspiring Filmmakers.” January 23, 2015. https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/01/23/maya-deren-advice-on-film-letter
Ogawa, Michiko. Searching for The Cosmic Principle: Transcribing and Performing the Film Music of Teiji Ito. Doctor of Musical Arts Dissertation, University of California, San Diego, 2016.
Filmschoolrejects. “12 Filmmaking Tips from Maya Deren.” Accessed 2024. https://filmschoolrejects.com/filmmaking-tips-maya-deren-a6ddb39a6442
Wikipedia Contributors. “Ritual in Transfigured Time.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritual_in_Transfigured_Time
Inverted Audio. “The Cosmic Music of Teiji Ito.” Accessed 2024. https://inverted-audio.com/feature/the-cosmic-music-of-teiji-ito
Risa Dickens (personal notes, 2025).