Maya Deren - Mediation On Violence.

I didn't know what to make of this video at first. I saw it to just be some crazy martial artist meditating in the form of martial arts. It came across as a very bland piece of work by Maya Deren but in actually fact when you break it down into individual segments in terms of appearance & sound it's something different. When you think about what you can hear and see more logically it starts to make sense, you're knowledge and appreciation of the video starts to rise incredibly. Especially when you take into fact of the era it was made (Late 1940's). The first ideological sign you start to pick up on is the pace or how the character moves. He starts of doing manoeuvres that play with the flutes smooth feel, swaying from side to side, upwards and downwards, forming many shadows that portray of him. The idea of this video was to create a meaning and show the difference between violence and beauty according to Maya. Around the 4 and a half minute mark of the video you start to hear this drum beat being introduced into the video. The drum beat is more of a faster pace in comparison to how the flute is slow and smooth. The characters actions start to gain bait more spend and momentum, thus creating a more intense feeling that grips you into the video more as to see if anything happens. Of course the martial artists pace increases releasing this fast flowing rhythm of moves. Around about the 6 minute and 45 second mark you loose all sense of the flute as it dies out and is now 100% drum beat, this also creating a different atmosphere as to what you can also see. The martial artists jumps to our right (his left) and has a different change in clothing appearence! He is now dressed in some mortal combat clothing with a bandana and sword. He starts performing combat moves with the sword shown at a fast pace, (drum beat 100%). This scene is what I would class as the violence half of the video, stating the obvious with the matter that he has a SWORD in his hands, but also at the pace he is moving and the flair that is on show. He moves at such pace to potentially battle of his opponents. Saying this without the drum beat I would personally think that the scenes would not have half the impact as intended. The beat makes the whole concept more intense but you could relate the point of meaning that when you drum beat is going the character is going to be moving at a higher tempo and rhythm than compared to the flute. For example in a battlefield scenario you are moving fast when in combat, the character is in combat therefore must be moving fast which links together with the drum beat.
The flute is then introduced back into the video which then he starts to slow down and jumps back into the original space to where he does his slow meditation. HE returns back to his normal original state as to where he slowly does his meditation at a slow pace. This relating back to the beauty that Maya Deren intended to show. The shadows are casted on the white backboard in the studio of the shots. The shadows in my eyes are like the sheep and the shadow kick boxer is the shepherd. Almost like he is doing a class, as the shadows are the less dominant figure in the picture like you would see at a class, the instructor knowing all the moves and the learners following. The shadows are the less dominant and the human the dominant.