7:30 p.m.	Home Movies: Autobiographical Films by Women Maya Deren, Su Friedrich, Carolee Schneeman (U.S., 1943–1990)

Marilyn Fabe teaches in the Film Studies Program at UC Berkeley.

Film as an art form, Maya Deren believed, should convey inner experience, not events that can be witnessed by other persons. This position is evident in her landmark Meshes of the Afternoon, which features herself and was filmed at her home in Los Angeles. Shown in a new preservation print, Carolee Schneemann's Fuses provides a sensual, graphic portrayal of her lovemaking with James Tenney. Erotic rather than pornographic, the film was shot by both Schneemann and Tenney, so that the point of view is fluid and shifting. The very film itself is eroticized by Schneemann's touch—she painted, scratched, and sculpted the film material, even baked the film, creating a true "home" movie. In Sink or Swim, Su Friedrich uses black-and-white home movies, archival footage, and her own cinematography to examine her relationship with her father, who departed from her life when she was a young girl. Friedrich's film is filled with personal, fragile memories.


• Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid, 1943, Music by Teijo Ito added in 1959, 14 mins, B&W, From UC Berkeley Film Studies). Fuses (Carolee Schneemann, 1964–67, 22 mins, Silent, Color, From Anthology Film Archives). Sink or Swim (Su Friedrich, 1990, 48 mins, B&W, From Canyon Cinema)

• (Total running time: 84 mins, 16mm)