"[Maya] Deren’s prime achievement reaches even beyond her artistry, her personality, the filmmakers she inspired, and the institutions she fostered. Above all, she both championed and embodied the idea that movies were art and, indeed, the art of the time."—Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Organic-electronic music duo ten thousand lakes (xkl) pay tribute to pioneering American experimental filmmaker Maya Deren with a live score performance to her iconic work. Accompanying some of her most influential pieces, this labor of deep admiration creates original music to honor her artistic legacy.
AT LAND
(1944, USA, 15 min) Dir. Maya Deren
According to Deren, this work is a "mythological voyage of the twentieth century," a voyage in which one is challenged with trying to maintain one's identity in a society that imposes its own values and expectations.
RITUAL IN TRANSFIGURED TIME
(1946, USA, 15 min) Dir. Maya Deren
A lifelong lover of dance, Deren treats the mundane as such, exemplified by turning a cocktail party into a choreographed social event. Eventually the film transforms into a beautifully choreographed chase, culminating in Deren’s merging with the sea.
THE VERY EYE OF NIGHT
(1955, USA, 15 min) Dir. Maya Deren
Deren collaborated with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School to create a visually cosmic experience. Dancers filmed in negative float through black outer space, gracefully moving through the heavens, as living constellations.
MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON
(1943, USA, 15 min) Dir. Maya Deren
One of the most influential works in American experimental cinema, this trance film follows a central figure (played by Deren) attuned to her unconscious mind caught in a web of dream events that spill over into reality.
Maya Deren conceived At Land and Ritual in Transfigured Time as silent films to be shown as a visual experience without sound or music. She collaborated with her husband, the musician Teiji Ito, to compose music for Meshes of the Afternoon and The Very Eye of Night. The Maya Deren estate has gracefully allowed ten thousand lakes to show these films with their own musical compositions, in order to allow her work to inspire them, to reach their own creative heights.
