Hailed as mother of experimental cinema, US filmmaker, poet and dancer Maya Deren made seven films before she died in 1961, all of which will be screened in the Filmmakers in Focus program. This section is a rare chance to see the artist's mystical meditations on the self and human body, especially in the groundbreaking Meshes of the Afternoon (1943).
To mark the tenth anniversary of the death of Marguerite Duras, the festival is holding a retrospective on influential female writers and filmmakers of the 20th century.
In Duras' best-known work, India Song, the audio and the visual are split and fragmented and the sound track was later transplanted to the experimental feature Son Nom de Venise dans Calcutta Desert, creating a mysterious loop between the two works. L' homme Atlantique is Duras' most daring experiment with the cinematic form. The film comprises a 40-minute shot of a black screen and is accompanied by the artist's monologue on the disappearance of the imagery and a letter to her lover.
“Duras' films are filled with voice-overs and audio plays as if the novelist rediscovered the sound in cinema… . The artist created an original cinematic vocabulary that is unique to her and whose works can be seen as the best example of cross-over cinema,” Huang said.
Two documentaries made by Duras' son and close friend Dominique Auvray will be screened in the Portraits of Influential Female Artists program that presents over 40 films made by renowned directors such as Belgian experimental filmmaker Chantal Akerman and Peter Greenaway from UK about female experimentalists.
Worthy of special mention in the programs is the documentary Lover Other: the Story of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore by veteran US filmmaker Barbara Hammer. Interweaving interviews, historical footage and reenactments by two actresses, the film reintroduces the little-known French lesbian sisters who were among the first female artists to express lesbian sexuality in art through visually stunning gender-bending photographs and collages. The pair were also actively engaged in acts of resistance during the Nazi occupation of France during World War II.
After the screenings in Taipei, the festival will embark on a two-month tour around the island with scheduled stops at Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Hualien and Nantou. For more information on the locations and screening schedules, visit the festival's official Web site at www.wmw.com.tw.
Festival Notes:
What: Women Make Waves Film Festival 2006 – Women's Arts: The Ultimate Female Allure (2006女性影展：最恆遠最深刻的一種女性魅力所在)
Where: Shih Kong Cineplex (新光影城), 4F, 36, Hsining S Rd, Taipei (台北市西寧南路36號4樓)
When: Today through Oct. 27
Ticket: NT$180 for weekday screenings before 5pm; NT$200 for weekend screenings and weekday screenings after 5pm, available through NTCH ticket outlets or at www.artsticket.com.tw
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