Von Deren Films is both a platform for the film work of founder Susanna Locascio and the center of an evolving collective of creative folks. Inspired by renegade visionaries of all stripes, our films explore the psychological function of narrative, how the stories we tell shape our identity and our world. We prefer to inhabit the space of possibility, to use the narrative power of film to reintroduce dreams, myths, and intuitions into mundane reality. The lo-fi, shamanic feminist aesthetic that characterizes our work is a cinematic expression of our guiding principles.
In her current incarnation Susanna is the creative driving force behind Von Deren Films. Both the District of Columbia and Portland have left their mark, though it was on the streets of New York that she first hefted an Arriflex camera. She soon fell in love with the rhythms of the film aesthetic. Other loves include badminton, mixing cocktails, Civil War history, floral arrangements, and live music. The daughter of Sicilian and German immigrants, Susanna considers herself a native of the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and draws inspiration from both her European and Piscean origins.
Maude Von Deren is the matriarch of Von Deren Films. Sensing the boredom and frustration created by modernity’s cultural climate, Maude arose from the cigarette ashes to remedy the situation. From a royal family fallen on hard times, Maude recommends snark and whiskey to keep on keeping on. Though she is the reigning lady of the Von Deren Gallery of Beauties, on matters of style she generously defers to her muses.