List of avant-garde films of the 1940s

A list of avant-garde and experimental films released in the 1940s.

Title	Director	Cast	Country	Subgenre/Notes
1941
Who Has Been Rocking My Dream Boat	Kenneth Anger			Lost film.[1]
Moods of the Sea	Slavko Vorkapić, John Hoffman			Black & white, sound (Felix Mendelssohn: The Hebrides (overture)[2]
1942
Lambeth Walk - Nazi Style	Charles A. Ridley			British propaganda short, which "remixes" marching Nazis to a pop song.[3]
Tinsel Tree	Kenneth Anger			Lost film[4]
1943
The Geography of the Body	Willard Maas	Willard Maas, Marie Menken		Film poem, text written and read by George Barker (poet)[5][6]
Meshes of the Afternoon	Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid	Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid		Black & white; sound by composer Teiji Ito added in 1959. Established the movement known as "New American Cinema."[7][8]
The Witch's Cradle	Maya Deren, Marcel Duchamp	Marcel Duchamp, Pajarito Matta		Black & white; silent. Never finished; survives as workprint or gathering of trims.[9][10]
1944
At Land	Maya Deren	Maya Deren, Alexander Hammid, Parker Tyler, John Cage		[11]
1945
A Study in Choreography for Camera	Maya Deren	Talley Beatty		[12]
Visual Variations on Noguchi	Marie Menken			[13]
Out-Takes From a Study in Choreography for Camera	Maya Deren	Talley Beatty		[14]
1946
Ritual in Transfigured Time	Maya Deren	Maya Deren, Rita Christiani, Frank Westbrook, Anaïs Nin		[15]
The Potted Psalm	Sidney Peterson, James Broughton	Beatrix Perry, Harry Honig		Live action surrealist short.[16]
1947
Dreams That Money Can Buy	Hans Richter	Max Ernst		[17]
Forest Murmurs	Slavko Vorkapić, John Hoffman			Black & white, sound; made for MGM, but withheld from release. Jacobs dates it to 1941; most other sources give 1947.[18]
The Cage	Sidney Peterson
Fireworks	Kenneth Anger	Kenneth Anger, Bill Seltzer, Gordon Gray		[19]
Lady in the Lake	Robert Montgomery	Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter		[20]
Motion Painting No. 1	Oskar Fischinger			[21]
Transmutation	Jordan Belson			Belson's first film, shown at Art in Cinema screenings in San Francisco in the early '50s; lost film.[22]
1948
Meditation on Violence	Maya Deren	Chao Li Chi		[23]
The Petrified Dog	Sidney Peterson	Gail Randall, Marie Hirsh, Jo Landor		[24][25]
Weegee's New York	Weegee			[26][27]
1949
The Lead Shoes	Sidney Peterson
Christmas, U.S.A.	Gregory Markopoulos
Pacific 231	Jean Mitry			[28]
Medusa	Maya Deren			[29]
Puce Moment	Kenneth Anger			[30]

Notes

1. Sitney, P. Adams (2002). Visionary Film: The American Avant Garde 1943-2000 third edition. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 84. ISBN 0-19-514885-1.
2. Horak, Jan Christopher (1995). Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-Garde, 1919-1945. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 38. ISBN 0-299-14680-4.
3. Public Domain Review, "Lambeth Walk - Nazi Style"
4. Lewis, David. "Tinsel Tree". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
5. P. Adams Sitney, "Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde 1943–2000. Oxford University Press, 2002 pg. 75
6. Lewis, David. "Geography of the Body". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
7. MOMA Object Page
8. Lux Entry
9. Dangerous Minds: ‘The Witch’s Cradle’: Watch Maya Deren and Marcel Duchamp’s stunning occult short
10. Charney, Leo. "Meshes of the Afternoon". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
11. Lewis, David. "At Land". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
12. Lewis, David. "A Study in Choreography for Camera". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
13. Lewis, David. "Visual Variations on Noguchi". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
14. Lewis, David. "A Study in Choreography for Camera". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
15. Lewis, David. "Ritual in Transfigured Time". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
16. MUBI entry
17. Erickson, Hal. "Dreams That Money Can Buy". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
18. Lewis Jacobs, "Experimental Cinema in America II," Hollywood Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 3, Spring 1948, reprinted in Smoodin, Eric Loren; Martin, Ann (2002). Hollywood Quarterly: Film Culture in Postwar America, 1945-1957. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 43. ISBN 0-520-23274-7.
19. Crow, Jonathan. "Fireworks". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
20. Jake Hinkson -- Through the Camera's Eye: Experiments with Subjective Camera in Film Noir
21. "Motion Painting No. 1". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
22. Experimental Cinema -- Jordan Belson
23. "Meditation on Violence". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
24. The Worldwide Celluloid Massacre review
25. The Sound of Eye: The Petrified Dog
26. Visionary Film: Weegee
27. ICP: Weegee's New York
28. "Pacific 231". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
29. Lewis, David. "Medusa". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
30. Lewis, David. "Puce Moment". Allmovie. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved December 18, 2013.