Notes on Deren's Haitian Footage.
© Moira Sullivan, 1998. Updated October 13, 2017. Maya Deren's date of death was October 13, 1961.Picture shot by Maya Deren in Haiti ca 1950, courtesy of Boston University Mugar Library Special Collections
Maya Deren's original footage of 20,000 feet was shot in Haiti during trips in 1947, 1949 and 1954. It is stored at Anthology Film Archives in New City and occasionally featured in their film program. (Additionally, all of Deren's films are archived here including outtakes from her films and some unfinished work.The Haiku project, Medusa and parts from Witches Cradle with Marcel Duchamp).
The documentary film Divine Horsemen, the Living Gods of Haiti by Teiji and Cherel Ito is an assembled film of some of the best parts of the footage with sound added. (Parts are read from Deren's monograph Divine Horsemen.) It should be understand, however, that this is the Ito's editorial work since Deren insisted that a film was both a product of the camera and editing. Therefore, the Ito collaboration is a 'fiction' of the material. Donald Cosentino, ed. Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, UCLA Fowler Museum 1995 refers to Deren's 'surrealistic editing', an observation which can be attributed to the Ito assemblage. It should be noted also that Maya Deren abandoned all her artistic conceptions after arriving in Haiti to make a film about Vodou. (See the introduction to her monograph Divine Horsemen). She also did not consider herself a "surrealist" although this label is frequently and inaccurately applied to her work.The John Jacobs Museum in Zurich is in partnership with Anthology Film Archives, digitizing the Haitian footage of Maya Deren under the direction of filmmaker Martina Kudlacek (Vienna). The lab work will be done in the US.
For more information on the exact order and nature of Deren's work in Haiti, please read the following by Dr. Moira Sullivan, used in many scholarly studies and based on primary source material at the Boston University Howard Gotlieb archives and Anthology Film Archives: "Maya Deren's Ethnographic Representation of Ritual and Myth in Haiti"
Divine Horsemen, the Living Gods of Haiti is a good introduction to Deren's footage.
History of Anthology Film Archives Acquisition of Deren's footage
In 1972, Anthology Film Archives received from Grove Press five cartons of films in various canisters of the work of Maya Deren in Haiti owned by Barney Rossett. A rudimentary description of the contents was as follows: "The entire set of Haitian reels is markedly similar and repetitious in content with few exceptions. For the most part the action involves Haitian people involved in Voudoun ritual and dancing. This includes mystical drawings made on the ground, the oft-repeated sacrifice of chickens or cocks and small goats, accompanied by seated drummers. There are several instances of apparent religious hysteria and about 400 feet of Mardi Gras parade." (notes by Anthology Film Archives, Linda Patton, 1972)
The physical condition of the footage was in a state of deterioration with shrinkage and darkness and fading of the tonal quality due to aging. Some of the splices were old and need of repair. Anthology Film Archives restored the prints through reprinting and correction of the original splices.
The Making of the Ito Compilation Documentary
In 1973, Cherel Winnett and Teiji Ito requested to edit Deren's footage.Teiji Ito, (Maya Derens husband at the time of her death), was sound editor who had recorded music in Haiti which was to be used in the film. Cherel Winett, film editor, who had studied film at the San Francisco Art Institute made the documentary "Blueberry Summer". According to Anthology Film Arhives curator Jonas Mekas, they were advised not to work with the the footage because of its delicacy and age which would jeopardize the only existing material on Deren's work in Haiti. In an application for funding to edit Deren's footage in 1973, Mekas supervised the intended project, coordinated by "Mr. Teiji Ito and Ms. Cherel Winnett". One result of the completed project unfortunately is that some of the original footage can not be viewed in the original sequence as it was cut out of the material.
According to the budget appropriation, there was 18,000 feet or negative and positive (re)print. Half of the footage was requested to be optically treated with sound transfer and editing.
Parts of the introduction to Divine Horsemen were quoted including Deren's reference that the plan for a film was somewhere among her belongings and her footage was kept in "a fire-proof box in her closet". One of the most frustrating setbacks of Deren's career was her failure to release the footage and she tried countless times to have it accepted for anthropological use--and denied because she was an outsider to the field. Ironically, Divine Horsemen is still considered a classic study of Haitian Voudoun.
Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, taken from the title of Deren's monograph, was released in 1977.
Editorial details
The Ito compilation which claims to contain footage from 1947 to 1951 also includes material from 1954. There is some synchronization of sound to image such as birds chirping or their wings fluttering but the predominant focus is on the music of the ceremonies--in particular ceremonie caille (described below by Deren). The narrators were John Genke with Joan Pape reading a short description of the Agwe ceremony. Focus is on the different loa, or gods and goddesses in Voudoun ceremony including Legba, Ogun, Ghede, Erzulie, Damballah and Azacca and Agwe--with animation of the particular vevers.
Editorial inconsistencies with Deren's original material are the insertion of animation of the loa Damballah after the closeup of an individual under possession lasting through a minute of material from the Agwe ceremony; a long shot of a La-place (assistant) to the houngan (priest) Isnard in 1947 cracking a whip introducing the Boeuf Azacca ceremony in 1949; and footage from 1954 showing the Haitian boy Jacques doing the juba intercut with Mardi Gras material. Some use of corresponding movement is used such as Jacques and the baton twirlers and the pelvic movement of a woman possessed by Ghede with the pelvic movements of baton twirlers at Mardi-Gras. The films ends with a freeze frame of Ghede at the Mardi Gras (Cosentino noted this edit, see above). All postproduction by the Ito's.
Boston University Mugar Library Special Collections, Home of the Maya Deren Collection
Marie Deren, Maya's mother, bequeathed her deceased daughter's papers , photographs and sound recordings to Boston University Mugar Library Special Collections, which is the largest center for Deren researchers in the world. One interesting document found there is Deren's Guide to Haiti Film Catalogue, a shot description of 5400 ft of her best footage from Haiti. This inventory is the best record for understanding her footage. The film was divided into seventeen sections. The first eight reels were for the eight day ceremonie caille filmed in 1947; the next four reels were sections she refilmed of the ceremony in 1949; the last five reels were dance festivals and ceremonies, dates between 1949 and 1954.
REELS MARKED BY MAYA DEREN
Reel 1 Ceremonies, Yam, Legba and House
Reel 2 Ceremonies Ogoun and part of Azacca
Reel 3 Ceremonies Azacca continued
Reel 4 Ceremonies Azacca continued
Reel 5 Ceremonies Ghede
Reel 6 Filming ceremony
Reel 7 Filming ceremony
Reel 8 Filming ceremony
Reels IX through XII are marked from 1949
Reel 9 Aguet
Reel 10 Ghede
Reel 11 Dancing at Isnards, Dancing at House
Reel 12 Congo Dancing
Reels XIII through XVII are different aspects of Haitian culture/and or dance
Reel 13 Mardi Gras [footage of the festival and parade]
Reel 14 Rara [footage of Haitian dance festival in spring]
Reel 15 Walking [a pre-planned sequence of Haitian women walking to market]
Reel 16 Titon dancing-- Petro, Juba, Martinique [pre-planned sequence of Haitian dances]
Reel 17 Boeuf Azacca [part of a ceremony to the loa]
CEREMONIES MARKED BY MD:
MONDAY--LEGBA, YAM
TUESDAY--MAISON
WEDNESDAY--OGOUN
THURSDAY--AZACCA
FRIDAY--Ghede
SPECIAL NOTE : CEREMONIE CAILLE
A description of the eight-day ceremony ceremonie caille in Divine Horsemen provides a background to this footage: "Sunday: Action de Grace; Monday Service for les Marassa [Divine twins] and les Morts (the collective dead]; in the evening, the coucher yam [ritual where yams are laid to sleep at night],late afternoon and evening,feasting of Legba, Loco, Ayizan, Damballah, Ayida, Erzulie and Agwe; and their escorts (these loa are considered to be on very good terms and amenable to being served together);Wednesday: Ogoun with a dance in the evening in his honor; Thursday: Azacca, or Erzulie, or perhaps one of the other loa; Thursday: Azacca, or Erzulie, or perhaps one of the other loa especially important to the hounfor; Friday: Ghede; Saturday, the Petro loa; Sunday: often a bapteme[baptism], followed by a reception; Monday: a personal loa perhaps a work loa such as Mounanchou. If possible, each loa is served on the day of the week sacred to him. The procedure,usually,is to perform the individual ceremony either in the mid-morning or in the late afternoon, while the rest of the day is devoted to the preparation of food,and in the evening, there is generally a "danse de rejuissance" in honor of the loa feasted that day. (Divine Horsemen, p. 212.)
MAJOR HAITIAN LOA , OR GODS AND GODDESSES
Azacca =loa of agriculture
Ghede =loa of the Dead
Erzulie =loa of love
Agwe =loa of sea
Legba = loa of the crossroads
Damballah =ancient serpent loa
Ogoun = loa of war
Damballah and Ayida= supreme parents
Loco and Ayizan =priestly parents
Petro loa = nanchon (tribe) of loa of American origin Rada loa = nanchon of loa of Dahomean origin
FOOTAGE AS CLASSIFIED AT ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES, NEW YORK. (Deren's marking= [MD] )
CBS Odyssey 303 B 305 306 Includes several ceremonies, including Agwe.
#306 600 ft 16mm silent . From 400 ft can labeled "Odyssey". Ceremony around poteau mitan. [MD]
A2978 Haiti Voudoun. Reel 1 of 2. Reel 2 of 2. A2977. Chicken and goat. 400'cans labeled CBS Odyssey. Chicken and goat offering to loa. Tuesday-Goats. #305 outs 300 ft.
#303 A+B
300 ft [MD]: Titon, Juba, Martinique, Titon XV, XVII Azacca Boeuf. #303B
Walking. From XVI Walking. PT. I - IV Haiti # 304
(Each 4325 ft=17.300 ft.) Ceremonie caille. Isnard Monday Yam and Legba, PM Agassou. Tuesday Maison. Wednesday Ogoun and Azacca. Agwe;--barque d'Agwe [raft of offerings to Agwé set to sea] ceremony on boat. Ghede, Congo ceremony. PT V Haiti # 300
1825 ft Yam and Ghede, Mardi Gras. PT VI Haiti #300
1825 ft., Haiti 1954 [MD]: Joe & Isnard. Ceremony, bull, Ghede,Mardi Gras, Indoor altar, outside drawing of vever. Jacques doing juba, home of Haitian family. Part VII #302
1825 ft. Joe and Isnard [MD] :XIII, XIV Rada , XII-XIX Mardi Gras, XVI Walking.
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