SPEC.RARE.2015.0029: Purchased, 2015 April
[identification of item], Creative Film Foundation Records, SPEC.RARE.MMS.0340, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Beth Crowner, 2019 May; Finding aid written by: Beth Crowner, 2019 May
The Creative Film Foundation was a New York City based organization founded by Maya Deren to provide financial assistance to struggling independent, particularly experimental, film makers. Some of the artists who received grants from the Foundation include Stan Brakhage, Robert Breer, Shirley Clarke, Stan Vanderbeek, and Carmen D’Avino. Tennessee Williams and John Cage were some of the more notable members of the advisory board, and the Foundation’s directors included Barney Rosset, James J. Sweeney, Joseph Campbell, Parker Tyler, Arthur Knight, James Merrill, Kurt Seligman, and Meyer Shapiro. The first Creative Film Awards were presented in 1956 by Tennessee Williams.
Maya Deren (1917-1961), originally known as Eleonora Derenkowsky, was an American choreographer, poet, photographer, lecturer, and film theorist. In 1943, she produced her first film,
The Creative Film Foundation Records contain a series of mimeographed documents and attached slips produced by the Creative Film Foundation. The materials include meeting minutes, a treasurer's report, memos to members, and documents related to the granting of the Creative Film Awards and financial assistance to filmmakers, dated 1956-1957. Memos to members are written by Maya Deren, an avant-garde filmmaker who was serving as secretary of the foundation at that time.