Martina Kudlácek • Austria, Switzerland, Germany • 2002 • A portrait of a groundbreaking artist.
Maya Deren is considered by many to be the most innovative avant-garde filmmaker in the history of American cinema. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Deren’s family fled the USSR in 1922 to escape anti-Semitic pogroms. They settled in Syracuse, New York, where Deren attended university before moving to Greenwich Village, where her social circle was populated with fellow European émigrés including Marcel Duchamp, André Breton and Anaïs Nin. Revolting against the Hollywood studio system, Deren’s low-budget black-and-white films—including the groundbreaking Meshes of the Afternoon—expanded the form beyond a mere vehicle for plot and hegemony.
Delving into Deren’s singular cinematic world, In the Mirror of Maya Deren portrays not only the famed Troyskyist and feminist icon of experimental cinema, but the process behind her work. Martina Kudlácek’s third documentary premiered at Stockholm, Karlovy Vary, Rotterdam and Vienna, where it won the Vienna Film Award.
Walter Salles • Brazil • 2014 • An intimate portrait of one of China's greatest living directors.
Jia Zhangke is one of China's greatest living directors. His friend, the Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles, accompanies Zhangke throughout China—together, they visit Zhangke's hometown as well as s...
Amei Wallach & Marion Cajori • U.S. • 2008 • The life and imagination of an icon of modern art.
As an artist, Louise Bourgeois is best known for her large-scale sculptures, towering arachnids that seem to defy gravity. As a screen presence, she is magnetic, mercurial and emotionally raw. Fro...
Lisa Immordino Vreeland • United States • 2017 • A stirring portrait of queer icon Cecil Beaton.
Cecil Beaton was an incandescent talent. Born to a well-to-do British family, Beaton charmed his way into the upper echelons of the elite, learning to photograph on his nanny’s camera before embarki...
