Film Record: Meshes of the Afternoon

Still image from Meshes of the Afternoon.

Date produced: 1943

Filmmaker(s):

Maya Deren

Alexander Hammid

Languages:

English

Duration:

00:13:47

Length:

500 ft

Format:

16mm

Colour:

B&W

Sound Notes:

Silent

Awards/Recognition:

ACL Ten Best 1945 - Honorable Mention Special Class
Cannes International Amateur Film Festival 1947 - Premier Grand Prize for Best Film
National Film Registry (U.S.), 1990

Description:

"Meshes of the Afternoon is experimental in nature and exciting in its cinematic development. In it, the producers — Maya Deren and her husband. Alexander Hamid — have been concerned with the inner experiences of an individual. Although one sees on the screen the familiar backgrounds and impedimenta of physical existence, the events which transpire among them, through a summer's afternoon, portray subjective feeling rather than objective incident. Miss Deren's creative use of her camera to suggest these emotions blazes new and stimulating trails in pure cinematography." Movie Makers, Dec. 1945, 497.

Resources:

Discussed by Deren in "Efficient or Effective?" (Movie Makers, June 1945, 210-211, 224-226). In the article, Deren makes a case for "imaginative filming," offering technical filmmaking advice with reference to Meshes of the Afternoon.

Mentioned in "Closeups" (Movie Makers, June 1945, 233), as well as "Films You'll Want to Show" (Movie Makers, Oct. 1945, 406); both mentions laud the film's "intelligent" experimentation, which is accomplished without the use of "gadgets."

In 1959, Teiji Ito, who was married to Maya Deren at the time, created a musical score for the film.

Record of Meshes of the Afternoon on the Museum of Modern Art's website.

Locations:

• Hollywood, California (Filming)

Subjects:

• Medicine
•      Psychology
•           Dreams

Genre:

• Experimental

Form:

• Short

Tags:

Screenings:

• Screened at the ACL club headquarters in New York in 1945: New York City, N.Y.
• Screened at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village in 1946: Greenwich Village, N.Y.
• Screened by the Amateur Motion Picture Club of St. Louis in 1947: St. Louis, MO
• Screened by the Experimental Film Society in 1947: Monterey Peninsula, CA
• Screened at the Theatre De Lys in 1953: Christopher Street, New York City, N.Y.
• Screened at a retrospective for the film at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010: New York City, N.Y.

Video Link:

• Silent version of Meshes of the Afternoon on YouTube

---