Maya Derren

Born Elenora Derenkowsky in 1917, she lived in Kiev, Ukraine until college. She attended Syracuse and was involved with the underground socialist party. It seems that all her life, she had been part of the underground. At the time, experimental cinema was very underground, it was broadcasted towards a niche audience.
Deren also starred, DP'd, edited and directed all of her films.
Most of her films were silent, until she met Tiji Ito, a Japanese composer. Ito scored some of her older works and they collaborated on new stuff at the time.
She died in 1961.