At Land (1944)

At Land (1944) is a 15-minute silent experimental film written, directed by, and starring Maya Deren. It has a dream-like narrative in which a woman, played by Deren, is washed up on a beach and goes on a strange journey encountering other people and other versions of herself. Deren once said that the film is about the struggle to maintain one's personal identity.

The composer John Cage and the poet and film critic Parker Tyler were involved in making the film, and appear in the film, which was shot at Amagansett, Long Island.

Synopsis

At the beginning of the film, a woman is lying on a beach as if she has been washed up by the ocean. She climbs a tree with some difficulty, but when she finally reaches the top, she finds herself at the end of a long dining room table during a bourgeois dinner party. All the guests ignore her as she drags herself on top of the table and pulls herself across it, trying to reach a man (played by graphic designer Alvin Lustig) at the opposite end who looks deeply concentrated on a chess game. When she finally gets to the man, he stands up and leaves the table; she looks disappointed and hopeless.

Actors