Avant-gard filmmaker Maya Deren’s feminist film At Land, analysis, and comparison

Abstract

Shortly after the french new wave movement, avant-garde films during the 20th century with black and white colors create a spark of feminist ideologies. They successfully achieved their original goal - anti-Hollywood filmmaking - through films with not simple action and adrenaline but rather ones with depth and aesthetics. Maya Deren’s films, specifically, reflect her own experiences as an artist and feminist director with many metaphors and foreshadowings to uncover the true depth behind the aesthetic of gestures. During this style of filmmaking, different cinematic skills and the progress of films in the avant-garde genera became more sophisticated ideas and filmmakers appear on the screen. This is when At land appears, it was not only a well-known black and white film but also a representation of progression in people’s feminist views and appreciation of subject matter in the film industry. Maya Deren used this short film to illustrate a woman’s life which we can relate to almost 80 years after the film was produced.