Vever (for Barbara)

Deborah Stratman, 12 min. (2019)

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.