“Unique among modern art forms, film has, since its beginnings, been shaped by a feminine as well as a masculine vision. This affords us the opportunity to see the development of forms affected by the full spectrum of human experience. Each artist in this program presents a distinctive vision, espousing deep values of creativity, humanism and spirit, that spark an awareness in ourselves - and our society - of images emerging from the universal feminine.
“The first show concentrates on leading figures in the history of independent cinema whose work has had important influence on the development of this art form, both here and abroad. Maya Deren, one of the earliest prophetic voices in cinema, in 1942 made Meshes of the Afternoon, a landmark work marking the beginnings of a personal, critically emotional approach to inner and outer experience; the making of art as ritual and a movement toward self discovery. Deren's films and writings have left an indelible influence on artists and viewers in the U.S. and Europe. Marie Menken has been equally influential. Contemporary filmmakers such as Stan Brakhage often cite her in hommage. Films such as Notebooks (Notebook is correct title)(compiled 1962) and Go Go Go (1962-64) show her influential, diaristic style, quixotic humor and wonder at the spontaneous world of nature. The works of local, contemporary filmmaker Gunvor Nelson are already considered classics. In Fog Pumas (1967), she and her long-time friend and filmic collaborator, Dorothy Wiley, create their own style of lyrical fantasy which updates surrealist technique and creates a flow of beings, creatures and events in a serene and natural world of dream and reality. Moon's Pool (1974) is a climactic film in the movement toward making unconscious being, in the symbolic waters of the film, into conscious and integrated being in the world. ‘A masterful and lyrical use of film...to portray the search for identity and resolution of self' (F. Bartlett). A different exploration of poetic form is Chick Strand's Guacamole (1976), ‘an experiment in the relation of sound-image...a film about the loss of innocence and search for the essence of the human spirit.'” --Sandra Davis