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A journey into the fascinating world of the Voudoun religion of Haiti filmed by Maya Deren during 1947-1951, and edited posthumously by Teji and Cherel Ito. The viewer attends the rituals of Rada, Petro and Congo cults, whose devotees commune with the cosmic powers through invocations - ritual offerings, song and dance. The Voudoun pantheon of deities, or Ioa are introduced as living gods, actually taking possession of their devotees. Also featured are the Rara and Mardi Gras celebrations.
Although best known as a pioneer of independent experimental cinema, Maya Deren was also a Voundoun initiate, and hence able to take her camera and recorder where few have gone before or since. The soundtrack conveys the stirring, invocatory power of the ritual drumming and singing. Maya went first to Haiti as an artist, to make a film in which Haitian dance should be a leading theme. But the manifestation of rapture that first fascinated and then seized her transported her beyond the bounds of any art she had ever known. She was open to the messages of that speechless deep, which is, indeed, the wellspring of the mysteries.
| Catalog Number: MC-521 |
Type: Feature |
Genre: Art / Artist, Experimental |
| Copyright: 2006 |
Length: 60 minutes |
Format:
DVD Region: 0 (All) |
| TV System: NTSC |
ISBN: 1-56176-501-5 |
UPC/EAN: 880198052193 |
| Label: Mystic Fire Video |
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This is a Microcinema Exclusive title.
Wholesale Purchasing:
Program MC-521 is available for wholesale from Microcinema DVD. Contact info[at]microcinema.com or call at +1-415-447-9750
Exhibition:
Program MC-521 may be licensed for Exhibition.
Films In Compilation
Divine Horsemen directed by
Maya
Deren
USA,
Experimental,
1985,
00:52:00
The Living Gods of Haiti (1985) is a black and white documentary film about dance and possession in Haitian vodou that was shot by experimental filmmaker Maya Deren between 1947 and 1952 and edited and completed by Deren's third husband Teiji Ito and his wife Cherel Winett Ito (1947-1999) in 1981, twenty years after Deren's death. Most of the film consists of images of dancing and bodies in motion during rituals in Rada and Petro services.
Deren had studied dance as well as photography and filmmaking. She originally went to Haiti with the funding from a Guggenheim fellowship and the stated intention of filming the dancing that forms a crucial part of the vodou ceremony.
The film that resulted, however, reflected Deren's increasing personal engagement with vodou and its practitioners (Wilcken, 1986). While this ultimately resulted in Deren disregarding the guidelines of the fellowship, Deren was able to record scenes that probably would have been inaccessible to other filmmakers.
Deren's original notes, film footage, and wire recordings are in the Maya Deren Collection at Boston University's Howard Gotlieb Archive Research Center.
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2008-10-24 All Movie Guide
By Sarah Welsh
This intimate ethnographic study of Voudoun dances and rituals was shot by Maya Deren during her years in Haiti (1947-1951); she never edited the footage, so this "finished" version was made by Teiji Ito and Cherel Ito after Deren's death. The possession rites of the Rada, Petra, and Congo sects are featured along with Rara and Mardi Gras celebrations. |
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In the Mirror of Maya Deren
MC-283, 2004
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Deemed “Fellini and Bergman wrapped in one gloriously possessed body,” Maya Deren is arguably the most important and innovative avant-garde filmmaker in the history of American cinema. Using locations from the Hollywood hills to Haiti in the... more >
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Maya Deren - Experimental Films
MC-377, 2002
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The collected shorts of Maya Deren the "Mother of the trance film" who worked completely outside the commercial film industry and made her own inner experience the center of her films.
“From the early 1940's until her death in 1961, Maya Deren... more >
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Un Chien Andalou
MC-721, 1929
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Made in 1929, Un Chien Andalou (The Andalusian Dog) is regarded as the first film produced purely from within the Surrealist Movement, and a landmark in the history of cinema. Based on an exchange of dreams between Salvador Dali and acclaimed... more >
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