Marjorie, Maya, Dance and Champions of the Avant Garde: 16mm women filmmakers I respect a hella lot
Marjorie Keller (1950–1994) was a filmmaker, author, activist, film scholar, wife, mother, and my filmmaking teacher at University of Rhode Island. J. Hoberman called Keller “an unselfish champion of the avant-garde.” 1 She was a quietly influential teacher, and looked bemused through much of our crits, delighted and generous. She also wore cardigan sweaters and entertained with nice napkins at her house. Avant garde meets low key Martha Stewart. Holy moly, you just can’t underestimate a regular woman.
When she passed on a few years after I graduated, I didn’t attend her funeral. I think I was still upset at her that my sublet to me ended after only 3 months and I was forced to find my second New York apartment on Suffolk Street, which was loud and hot. Silly youthful shortsightedness, and disbelief that a mom of two toddler twins could go so fast. I was given a huge gift by her and her lineage of powerful, storytelling women. See the short movie of our shared space below. I also got bagels from Jason in the movie, but didn’t eat them, but I did use an umbrella, but more on that another time.
Keller was 43, with two girls, when she passed unexpectedly. I heard she went into the bathroom and died. Rumors were that it was a hemorrhage, but I can’t confirm that. I hope her girls are fine. They must be 30-something now. Augusta and Miranda, your mom was incredible and incredibly unassuming, although she could put truth on film that is rarely captured correctly. She was beloved and kept a killer spice rack in her NYC apartment, near a roach, some dusty stuff on a mantel and some odds and ends. The apartment her fridge had a bottle of wine for her quick city trips. She told me I could “make myself at home” when I moved in, and that I didn’t have to worry about replacing her cream of tartar if I finished it off. Who does finish that off, and what the hell is cream of tartar for anyway? This was her being bemused again, when I asked her about ‘truly’ moving into her territory. I didn’t want to encroach.
What the heck kind of question is that for a sublet in the city, anyway?
In 1992, I sublet Marjorie’s Forsyth Street apartment for $750/ month with all utilities included. The apartment was two apartments converted into one, and I had an enormous amount of space for one person including a bedroom, a bathroom and a half, an eat-in kitchen, a living room, a library and a tiny day bed bedroom. This was kind of unheard of for that price, and included an ephemeral 4th wall because this apartment also had a starring role in her film Herein.
This film was one of two of Marjorie’s I can still remember well. The other is “Daughters of Chaos” made in 1980, about the chaotic energy of teenage girls and how their budding sexuality can overthrow governments (no, just kidding, but they can). I was a wild 11 year old in 1980, so it spoke to me. Marjorie spoke to me. I hope I can let her work speak through me here, to whomever needs to read it. She was important.
Herein was about Marjorie’s early days in NYC, when she discovered there was an FBI file on her. The film is a layered piece where she intersperses footage of how that same apartment was also being used as a part of another film shoot. She had given it up for this purpose, to support film-making in the city. Cheap, independent film-making, not the commercial stuff through the Mayor’s Office. Moving into 100 (or was it 102) Forsyth St was an offer I couldn’t refuse after I saw Herein (it was a movie about a movie being made in a space and I was a 16 mm filmmaker), although I did refuse her offer to move into that space the first time. I only changed my mind and took her up on her sublet months after she first told me I should go to New York, because I broke up with my boyfriend and needed a change of pace. I still thank my younger self for doing that. Now more than ever.
Marjorie came from the tradition of Maya Deren, a legendary Avant Garde filmmaker most well known for the “amateuristic” pieces she made with her husband Alexander Hammid (who reminds me a bit of David Byrne, truth be told). Maya Deren made films during the war, but she made the films she wanted to make, and they were kind of revolutionary. Ukranian born, and richly connected to symbolism and dance, Maya Deren is best known for her short film Meshes of the Afternoon. The original film was silent, but Marjorie showed us a reboot of sorts, with a couple of clicks here, a tapping sound, a ring, an odd horn-like sound that was added by her third husband Teiji Ito in a later version released in 1959. Maya didn’t fuck around with her husbands and collaborators, they were all extraordinary in their own right.
At Land, a silent film Maya Deren made in 1944, was a journey of love of man for her and by her. Maya shows how she is directly cognizant of the sameness of all three stages of her lovers (one being John Cage), and yet their individuality was critical, Perhaps especially because her husband helped shoot it. Maya Deren showcased the “Immortal Chess Game” and was connected in, it seems, independently with Wartime Filmmaking. The term “choreocinema” was coined by New York Times dance critic John Martin to describe the way Deren linked dance and film.3
I can’t say enough about Maya Deren. Holy shit she was an artist, and although she was often called surrealist, she did not subscribe to that title. Avant-Garde is a better fit, says most of us who’ve seen her work. She was clearly 4th wall avant meta artist before we even knew of such things
Maya Deren died in 1961, at the age of 44 from a brain hemorrhage*
Marjorie Keller died in 1994, at the age of 43 from unknown cause*
1 Quote from Wikipedia
3 Quote from BFI
Bonus: Quality Interpretation about Deren’s Filmmaking Philosophy is here
Marjorie Keller Filmmaker Overview
Death date is here. Death date is here