Meshes of the Afternoon

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), by Maya Deren and her then husband Alexader Hammid, is the most important film in the history of American avant-garde cinema. John David Rhodes traces the film's history back into the lives of Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, but in particular that of Deren. He reads the film as a culmination of Deren's abiding interest in modernism and her intense engagement in socialist politics. Rhodes argues that while the film remains a powerful point of reference for feminist film-makers and experimentalists, it is also an example of political art in the broadest terms. This edition includes a new foreword by the author.