It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

... lists like the IMDB users' top 250 mean nothing to me and why I don't rate movies. Maya Deren was one of the pioneers of the experimental cinema movement and this documentary sheds light on her life, her relationship with the people she worked with, her 2 last husbands, her trip to Haiti and the sacrifices she has to go through in order to continue making movies. In the mirror of Maya Deren is a fine introduction to Maya Deren's work but I would recommend her own films to anyone who wants to see something really different.

wonderful soundtrack by john zornmeetings/interviews with stan brakhage, jonas mekas, ... (every time a great pleasure to see them)[besides: we need all brakhage films out on dvd!]a lot of original film clips of maya's movies (this is the best part, especially worth mentioning is the footage from the haitian voodoo documentary, since i had never seen it before - i love it, it is accompanied with original music from maya's magnetic tapes recorded at the time of shooting in haiti. a lot of vitality, a lot of energy - you can almost feel it !there are also a lot of original soundclips of maya's voice used in this picture (very good sound quality, it really brings her to life for all of us)a definite must see[so release it on dvd for repeated viewings include all of maya's movies in an uncut version on an extra disc, PLEASE !!!]