Paper presentation

“Remaking the Cradle: The Lost Film of Maya Deren” presented at INEFF Conference: Experimental Fiction Filmmaking, MediaCityUK, Manchester, 17-18 July 2025

Abstract

This paper discusses the author’s recomposition of Maya Deren’s unfinished experimental film “The Witch’s Cradle” (1943). Following her legendary debut “Meshes of the Afternoon” (shot by Alexander Hammid) Deren embarked upon her first project as cinematographer. Created with limited means and without the technical support of her partner, this film was soon abandoned, with only fragments preserved. My goal with this project was to reaffirm Deren’s status by reinstating in this film her characteristic concerns: personal symbolism, dream logic, vertical montage, choreographic use of space, and feminist principles. Though this version was implemented in the digital realm, the methods were largely constrained to those techniques of optical film editing and musique concrète composition that were available in the 1940s. The resulting recomposition of “The Witch’s Cradle” affirms experimental fiction film as a space for creative discovery… and failure.