In effect, it amounts to an exhaustive presentation of actual research into Deren's life and work, documenting step by step her many guises and transitions. It is being presented in three volumes, the first of which has been published in two separately bound parts, so enumerated. The second volume is in production, and is expected to appear in 1997. The third volume is completed but not yet in production. Each of the four books comprising the work contains extensive commentary and annotation by the compilers, along with facsimile reproductions of many documents and transcriptions of others.
Interviews are usually interwoven rather than presented whole.
Many of Deren's theoretical and fugitive writings are presented as well. This part includes Maya Deren's schoolgirl letters, articles she wrote for socialist youth journals in the 1930s, as well as her correspondence, poetry, fiction, and essays from that period. In addition, her life history is further documented by interviews with friends and family, photographs, and other visual material. This part documents Deren's development as a filmmaker and contains film scripts, articles she wrote on filmmaking, her earliest publicity, reviews, and a facsimile reproduction of An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film. Also included are correspondence, excerpts from production ledgers, many photographs by Deren herself, and interviews with friends and critics.