12 min.
A cross-generational binding of three filmmakers seeking alternative possibilities to the power structures they are inherently part of. Each woman extends her gaze like an offered hand to a subject she is outside of. Vever (for Barbara) grew out of the abandoned film projects of Maya Deren and Barbara Hammer. Shot at the furthest point of a motorcycle trip Hammer took to Guatemala in 1975, and laced through with Deren’s reflections on failure, encounter, and initiation in 1950s Haiti.
A vever is a symbolic drawing used in Haitian Voodoo to invoke a Loa, or god.
Deborah Stratman, born in 1967 in Washington D.C., USA, is a Chicago-based artist and filmmaker. She has exhibited internationally at major biennials, art institutions, and film festivals. Stratman is the recipient of several awards, fellowships, and grants. She teaches at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Production Deborah Stratman. Production company Pythagoras Film (Chicago, USA). Director Deborah Stratman. Cinematography Barbara Hammer. Editing Deborah Stratman. Music Katherina Bornefeld, George Hadow, Teiji Ito. Sound design Deborah Stratman. Texts Maya Deren. With the voice of Barbara Hammer. Painter Teiji Ito.
Films
1990: My Alchemy (7 min.). 1991: Upon a Time (10 min.). 1992: A Letter (7 min.), Possibilities, Dilemmas (10 min.), the train from la to la (8 min.). 1993: In Flight: Day No. 2,128 (2 min.), Palimpsest (3 min.). 1994: Waking (7 min.). 1995: Iolanthe (5 min.), On the Various Nature of Things (25 min.). 1997: From Hetty to Nancy (44 min.). 1999: the BLVD (64 min.). 2001: Untied (3 min.). 2002: In Order Not to Be Here (33 min.). 2003: Energy Country (15 min.). 2004: Kings of the Sky (68 min.). 2005: How Among the Frozen Words (1 min.). 2006: It Will Die Out in the Mind (4 min.). 2007: The Magician’s House (6 min.). 2008: Butter and Tomatoes (4 min.), The Memory (2 min.). 2009: O’er the Land (52 min.). 2010: Kuyenda N’Kubvina (40 min.), FF (3 min.), Shrimp Chicken Fish (5 min.), Ray’s Birds (7 min.). 2011: …These Blazeing Starrs! (14 min.), A Throb (1 min.). 2012: Village, silenced (7 min.), The Name is not the Thing named (11 min.). 2013: Musical Insects (7 min.), Immortal, Suspended (6 min.). 2014: Hacked Circuit (15 min.), Second Sighted (5 min.). 2016: The Illinois Parables (60 min., Forum Expanded 2016), Xenoi (15 min.). 2017: Siege (7 min.). 2018: Optimism (15 min., Forum Expanded 2018). 2019: Vever (for Barbara).
Photo: © Deborah Stratman
