Museum of the Moving Image Presents Seminal Films by Maya Deren and F.W. Murnau

Maya Deren: Choreographed for Camera, includes four of Deren’s most iconic films made between 1943 and 1445.

Maya Deren is one of the most influential figures in American avant-garde cinema. Her work possesses dreamlike qualities, features innovative editing and camera techniques, and serves as an exploration of the unconscious mind. MoMI welcomes special guest Mark Alice Durant, author of the new book, Maya Deren: Choreographed for Camera, for a program exploring Deren’s life and work.

SUNRISE, directed by F. W. Murnau. 1927, 94 mins. 35mm. With Janet Gaynor, George O’Brien.

After establishing himself as one of the most important German expressionist filmmakers (NOSFERATU, THE LAST LAUGH), Murnau came to America and used the best of Hollywood’s resources to create SUNRISE, possibly his greatest achievement and certainly one of the high points in silent cinema. This exquisite story of love, marriage, temptation, and the lure of the big city is so bursting with glorious visual poetry that one can easily see why it won Best Unique and Artistic Production at the first ever Academy Awards ceremony.

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GME distributes volumes of experimental and dance films by Maya Deren on DVD and Blu-ray, and PHANTOM (1922) and THE LAST LAUGH (1924) by F.W. Murnau.