Meshes of the Afternoon

On Collaboration and Interdisciplinarity: Meshes of the Afternoon

“…Rhodes highlights the dangers of this approach in regard to Meshes, referring to the details of Deren's life as being "dangerously seductive, " suggesting that "Deren with her antipathy to the claim of the personal and the biographical, would herself have been the first to object to any emphasis on the facts of her life as a way into an understanding of her work. " 13 The biographical nature of Haslem's article does, to some extent, lead her in this direction. This approach, regardless, would need to address the histories of both authors of Meshes.…”

“…He acknowledges that his writing on the film focuses on Deren far more than Hammid, and offers as an apology his conviction that Meshes "emerges from a set of concerns and passionate commitments that are native to Deren's life and her trajectory" that preceded the making of the film. 16 However, Rhodes also points out that "Hammid was truly a man of cinema, whereas, in the tremendous paper trail that documents her life prior to meeting Hammid, Deren makes only the scarcest and most desultory of references to cinema. " 17 Rhodes draws attention to precedents in innovative film form that can be seen in Hammid's earlier work, most notably the "startling intervention in point of view editing" 18 that Hammid employs towards the end of his early avant-garde film, Aimless Walk (1930 Hammid skilfully dramatizes the idea of separation in the three climatic sequences that end the film.…”

“…26 Rhodes notes Hammid's tendency for self-effacement and his reluctance to be credited, in contrast to Deren who showed herself to be a great self-promoter. 27 Valasek draws attention to how Hammid contributed greatly at a conceptual level to many of the projects he worked on but rarely took sole credit for a directorial role. He appears to have been most comfortable in collaborative roles and in collective ways of working.…”

“…Rhodes describes the complex circumstances that led to his emigration to the USA, where, having worked with American leftist documentary filmmaker Herbert Kline on his film Crisis (1939)-a film documenting the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia-Kline, fearing for Hammid's life, arranged for his immigration. 31 It was only on meeting Deren that Hammid applied himself once again to experimental filmmaking. It is of note too that after their separation, Hammid pursued his career through a range of roles in independent and mainstream film projects rather than establishing himself as an avant-garde filmmaker.…”

“…Haslem comments that the film Meditation on Violence (1948) "is marked by a lack of dynamism and mobility that we have come to expect from Deren's camera, " 34 while Rhodes notes that by comparison her subsequent films "flirt with a kind of formlessness. " 35 The interest in collaborative strategies has become well established in contemporary art in the past two decades. We now have the opportunity to place Meshes within a more extensive critical debate.…”