Film

Maya Deren, the godmother of the American avant-garde, created trance-state explorations of consciousness, movement, the body, and nature rooted in the dream logic of surrealism and awash in unforgettably uncanny images. From the time-and space-collapsing psychodrama of her forever influential debut Meshes of the Afternoon to the mesmerizing dance film Ritual in Transfigured Time, these profoundly personal landmarks of experimental film showed that cinema could be a direct conduit to the unconscious mind.

Naomi Watts’ eager aspiring actress arrives in LA with stars in her eyes, but soon finds herself sucked into the nightmarish underbelly of the Hollyweird Dream Factory as she becomes entangled with an amnesiac femme fatale. Hitchcockian doubles, illusory identities, and surreal slips into the dark and disturbing abound in David Lynch’s neo-noir freak-out.