Today’s obsession will be over in less than 4 hours. “That’s I fad!” I hear you yell. Well, when I tell you that the entire career of experimental film maker Maya Deren is represented by 12 films made between 1943 and 1959 totalling just four hours of screen time you’d understand. I stumbled upon Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), quite by chance and I was blown away, not just by the film but by the on-screen presence of its star and director Maya Deren. A dancer, a poet, celebrated experimental filmmaker and feminist I had to wonder why I’d never heard of her before. Then again after soaking up The Witch’s Cradle (1943), At Land (1944), A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945) and Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) I suspect we’ve all heard of her, at least through the influence she clearly had on filmmakers and artists such as David Lynch and Kate Bush. It’s sad to think she died in 1961 when she was only 44.