TEHRAN – The Contemporary Iranian Experimental Cinema Festival will review movies by Maya Deren (1917–1961), the Ukrainian-born American experimental filmmaker.

The festival will open at the Iranian Artists Forum is today.

A lineup of films by Iranian filmmakers is scheduled to be screened and reviewed during the four-day event.

Experts and film critics, including Hamidreza Aslani, Mohsen Kheimeduz, Puya Aqelizadeh, Hamed Mostafavi and Mahnaz Mohamamd-Jafar are due to deliver speeches.

Deren was an influential director and performer who is often called the “mother” of American avant-garde filmmaking. 

Her films are not only poetic but instructive, offering insight into the human body and psyche, and demonstrating the potential of film to explore these subjects.

“Meshes of the Afternoon” (1943), “At Land” (1944), “A Study in Choreography for Camera” (1945), “Ritual in Transfigured Time” (1946) and “Meditation on Violence” (1948) are among Deren’s noteworthy credits.

Photo: Filmmaker Maya Deren in an undated photo.

RM/MMS/YAW