SOURCE: "Maya Deren 9 Times a Life," in Monthly Film Bulletin, Vol. 55, No. 653, June, 1988, pp. 183-85.

In the following essay, O'Pray presents an overview of Deren's life and career and discusses the legacy of Deren's work.

1. Maya Deren had a rich, eventful life, cut tragically short when she died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of forty-four in 1961. A legendary figure of the American avant-grade cinema, which she was so instrumental in founding and nurturing, she was also active in dance, literature, anthropology, photography and politics. Astonishingly, her reputation as a filmmaker rests on a mere six completed short films, only five of which have been available in this country until recently, when the remaining one, The Very Eye of Night, was brought into distribution by the BFI. Her film footage of Haitian voodoo dances and rituals was edited by others after her death under the title Divine...