This slow movie was Made by Deren with her husband, cinematographer Alexander Hammid, Meshes of the Afternoon established the independent avant-garde movement in film in the United States, which is known as the New American Cinema. It directly inspired early works by Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, and other major experimental filmmakers. Beautifully shot by Hammid, a leading documentary filmmaker and cameraman in Europe (where he used the surname Hackenschmied) before he moved to New York, the film makes new and startling use of such standard cinematic devices as montage editing and matte shots.

Technical visual conceptual:

This short film was a non narrative piece and an exmaple of ‘trance film’ towards the end of the film there were continuous jump cuts with a birds eye view presenting a power over the protagonist women herself,furthermore theses cuts created a repetition in order to from the narrative moving from the end and back to the beginning of the narrative.in which a protagonist appears in a dreamlike state, and where the camera conveys his or her subjective focus.This was done in order to connote a sense of death and fear within the women symbolized through the black figure.The figure itself has an  interesting concept to it as it had a strong resemblance to that of a symbolic figure of death or the grim reaper which is attuned to her unconscious mind and caught in a web of dream events that spill over into reality.Additionally the mirror portrays a loss of identity and also a reflection of the women’s biggest fear being seen within herself,this also successful combines secrets codes and conventions as it reflects an act of behavior and a conventional secret she is hiding from herself and perhaps.Furthermore you can see the womens struggle and an atmophere of danger when she was coming up the stairs due ot the cameras wuick turning and editing in order to express an abrupt movement .Historically this film was made in the early 1940’s so at the time was innovative and a ispired many film makers with the advancement of editing and special effects,

There are also continuous  themes of surrealism which is an avant grade movement in art and literature and was created from the potential of unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images. surrealistic cinema is a modernist approach and criticism,