Alexander Hammid

Of Men and Music

Irving Reis, Alexander Hammid

Deems Taylor, Arthur Rubinstein

A documentary featuring musicians including Artur Rubinstein, Jan Peerce-Nadine Conner, and Jascha Heifetz.

Meshes of the Afternoon

Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid

Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid

A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.

At Land

Maya Deren

Maya Deren, John Cage

A woman lies on the sand, left there by the tides and waves (and in a pose that would be copied in From Here to Eternity). She reaches up across tree roots and makes a difficult climb. Only to discover herself climbing horizontally along a long dinner table as bourgeoise black-tie guests chat and drink and smoke, oblivious to her. At the top of the table, a man is playing chess but abandons the game. Fascinated, she gazes at board, the pieces moving unaided. The woman chases a pawn as it falls to the floor. Falls down a waterfall. Is lost.

Crisis

Hans Burger, Herbert Kline

Edvard Beneš, Leif Erickson

A documentary about the conquest of Czechoslovakia by the Nazis just prior to World War 2.

Im Spiegel der Maya Deren

Martina Kudlácek

Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage

Documentary about the life of avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren, who led the independent film movement of the 1940s.

A Better Tomorrow

Alexander Hammid

A Better Tomorrow (1945) is a documentary short that focuses on New York City progressive public schools.

The Private Life of a Cat

Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid

Maya Deren

An intimate study of the life of a domestic cat, taking place over a period of months as she gives birth to a litter of kittens and cares for them as they grow.

Aimless Walk - Alexander Hammid

Martina Kudlácek

Alexander Hammid

We accompany the 90-year-old filmmaker Alexander Hammid on a stroll through New York, wandering with him through the outer and inner landscapes of his world. The observation of details takes on a meditative character.

Maya Deren, Take Zero

Jaime Ballada, Gerard Gil

Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid

This documentary interweaves celluloid and voice recordings by Maya Deren, and colleagues who knew her firsthand: Jean Rouch, Jonas Mekas, Alexander Hammid, Cecile Starr etc. Maya Deren (1917-1961) was an experimental filmmaker. In the 1940s and 1950s she made several influential avant-garde films, such as Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). Images from this and her other work are used in this documentary. You can also hear her voice, as well as accounts by contemporaries such as Jean Rouch and Jonas Mekas.

Bezúčelná procházka

Alexander Hammid

This first true Czech avant-garde film turns away from a purely celebratory approach to the city. The camera follows a detached protagonist on his wanderings, as his highly subjective journey becomes a fragmented visualization of urban landscapes.

To Be Alive!

Francis Thompson, Alexander Hammid

Robert Fields

"To Be Alive!" was designed to celebrate the common ground between different cultures by tracing how children in various parts of the world mature into adulthood.

Angry Boy

Alexander Hammid

Alexander Hammid's sensitive narrative of how a pre-adolescent boy is helped by a psychiatrist to come to terms with his feelings.

To the Fair!

Wheaton Galentine, Alexander Hammid

Robert Fields

Promotional film extolling the wonders to be seen at the New York World's Fair.

The Forgotten Village

Herbert Kline, Alexander Hammid

Documentary examining the conflicts between the coming of modernization and the traditional culture of a small Mexican village.

Library of Congress

Alexander Hammid

Ralph Bellamy

A 1945 Oscar nominated short documentary about the Library of Congress. It is one of 26 documentary shorts produced between 1942 and 1945 by the U.S. Overseas Film Bureau, and intended to show foreign viewers something about America and it's values, this one focuses on the important institution in Washington D.C. which preserves written and other works that have been copyrighted, as part of the country's heritage.

Night Journey

Alexander Hammid

Martha Graham, Bertram Ross

Night Journey, the dance, had its premiere only two and a half years after Appalachian Spring, and it is a close cousin. It too has a stream-of-consciousness narration: Jocasta, as she is about to kill herself, remembering what has happened to her. It too contains soul-delving solos, broken up by ensemble dances. Here, however, the ensemble is a darker element. As the story was taken from Greek tragedy, so the corps is the equivalent of Greek tragedy’s chorus. They tell us how to feel: afraid mostly. In this piece Graham pushed her habitual economy to its limits.