VEVER (FOR BARBARA), BY DEBORAH STRATMAN

Synopsis
A cross generational binding of three filmmakers seeking alternative possibilities to power structures they’re inherently part of.

The film grew out of 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 passed through with Deren’s reflections of failure, encounter and initiation in 1950s Haiti.

A vever is a symbolic drawing used in Haitian Voodoo to invoke a Loa, or god.

Calling something ‘political’ and thinking of it as separate is just an excuse for not thinking about it at all.
Vicki Aspinall, The Raincoats

Credits
Camera, Voice: Barbara Hammer
Texts, Field Recording: Maya Deren
Director, Edit, Sound Design: Deborah Stratman
Vever Drawings: Teiji Ito
Music: Katherina Bornefeld, George Hadow, Teiji Ito

European Premiere: Berlinale, 2019
US Premiere: T/F Festival & Cosmic Rays, 2019

Distributed by the Video Data Bank.