FILM DIRECTOR

Maya Deren

1917 - 1961

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Maya Deren (; born Eleonora Derenkovskaya; Ukrainian: Елеоно́ра Деренко́вська; May 12 [O.S. April 29] 1917 – October 13, 1961) was a Ukrainian-born American experimental filmmaker and important part of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s. Deren was also a choreographer, dancer, film theorist, poet, lecturer, writer, and photographer. The function of film, Deren believed, was to create an experience. She combined her expertise in dance and choreography, ethnography, the African spirit religion of Haitian Vodou, symbolist poetry and gestalt psychology (as a student of Kurt Koffka) in a series of perceptual, black-and-white short films. Read more on Wikipedia

Her biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Maya Deren is the 451st most popular film director (up from 454th in 2019), the 331st most popular biography from Ukraine (up from 335th in 2019) and the 8th most popular Ukrainian Film Director.

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Among FILM DIRECTORS

Among film directors, Maya Deren ranks 451 out of 2,041. Before her are Václav Vorlíček, Alexander Korda, Chuck Lorre, Jan Troell, Ernst Marischka, and Jerzy Hoffman. After her are Néstor Almendros, Robert Rossen, Larisa Shepitko, James L. Brooks, Joe Dante, and John Boorman.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1917, Maya Deren ranks 125. Before her are John Connally, Carlos Puebla, Erich Rudorffer, Paul Frère, Petar Brzica, and Fulbert Youlou. After her are Mak Dizdar, Wieland Wagner, Yakov Pavlov, Henri Salvador, Asima Chatterjee, and Samael Aun Weor. Among people deceased in 1961, Maya Deren ranks 54. Before her are Shigeko Higashikuni, Gustav Ucicky, Henri Breuil, Anna May Wong, Thomas Beecham, and Nicola Canali. After her are Paul Ramadier, Grandma Moses, Herbert Pitman, Hélène Dutrieu, Howard P. Robertson, and Robert Garrett.

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In Ukraine

Among people born in Ukraine, Maya Deren ranks 331 out of 1,365. Before her are Yaakov Dori (1899), Igor Shafarevich (1923), Mark Taimanov (1926), Sergei Natanovich Bernstein (1880), Zbigniew Herbert (1924), and Tamara Smirnova (1935). After her are Larisa Shepitko (1938), Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky (1864), Theodosius of Kiev (1029), Sergei Bortkiewicz (1877), Michał Boym (1614), and Sholem Schwarzbard (1886).

Others born in Ukraine

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Among FILM DIRECTORS In Ukraine

Among film directors born in Ukraine, Maya Deren ranks 8. Before her are Sergei Bondarchuk (1920), Alexander Dovzhenko (1894), Otto Preminger (1905), Anatole Litvak (1902), Richard Boleslawski (1889), and Jerzy Kawalerowicz (1922). After her are Larisa Shepitko (1938), Grigori Kozintsev (1905), Aleksandr Ptushko (1900), Les Kurbas (1887), Aleksei Kapler (1904), and Yuri Ilyenko (1936).

Ukrainian born Film Directors

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