In the striking psychodramas Deren created in the early 1940s with her cameraman husband, Alexander Hammid, she often placed herself in the frame, navigating a path through anxiety-laden Freudian environs, dreamscapes of the seemingly unphotographable. In this first and most famous work, a woman (Deren) dreams within a dream about suicide, about a phallic attack by her mate (Hammid), and about inanimate objects that assume threatening aspects. Finding innovative means to render states of mind visually and kinesthetically palpable, Meshes of the Afternoon drew upon an earlier, European artists’ cinema and created the groundwork for a distinctly modern, personal, and proto-feminist film practice in America.

This experiment in time and space features Deren as an alienated figure, unable to integrate with the social milieu that surrounds her. Like Meshes of the Afternoon, it is an oneiric tale that exhibits the marked influence of Surrealism and its symbol-laden, dreamlike portrayal of psycho-sexual anxiety.

Deren’s exploration of female sexuality and the human psyche is given form here through figures inspired by Greek mythology. This elaborate “choreography for the camera” transforms everyday movements into dancelike passages with the assistance of slow-motion effects.

A dancer unfurls his body, runs, and leaps into the air. Through Deren’s ingenious camera work, this simple gesture becomes a testimonial to the glory of movement.

In the final film Deren completed before her untimely death, the night sky comes to life as dancers from the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School reenact the ancient dramas of constellation mythology. The Very Eye of Night features a mesmerizing soundtrack by Japanese composer Teiji Ito, the director’s third husband.

This lyrical film chronicles the ritualistic training exercises of three increasingly aggressive styles of Chinese boxing—Wu-Tang, Shao-lin, and Shao-lin with a sword. To emphasize the gradual shift from tranquility to violence, Deren’s soundtrack and editing patterns grow ever more frenetic.