SOURCE: A review of The Legend of Maya Deren: A Documentary Biography and Collected Works. Vol. 1, Part 2, in Film Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 2, Winter, 1989–90, pp. 56-8.

In the following review, Wees asserts that The Legend of Maya Deren "is not only for fans of Maya Deren, but for everyone interested in the development of the avant-garde film movement in North America."

With photographs, letters, interviews, articles by and about Maya Deren, and unpublished documents of many sorts, including sketches and scripts for her films—all held together by the clear and intelligent commentary of Catrina Neiman—the second installment of The Legend of Maya Deren chronicles the years during which Deren made her first four films and became a well-known figure among the artists and intellectuals of New York. The angst-ridden images and themes of isolation in her early films give no hint of the energetic, outgoing, exceedingly practical...