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Miriam Arsham

Professor Emerita of Film

Born in 1920 in New York, Miriam Arsham worked as a film editor (IATSE) with many directors in the U.S. and Europe on documentaries and was a close friend of and assistant to Maya Deren in the 1940s and 1950s. Arsham taught film at Purchase College, the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and Brooklyn College until she retired in 1996.

Her filmography includes In the Mirror of Maya Deren (as herself), directed by Martina Kudlácek (2002); Martha Graham: Dance on Film; the Academy Award–winning The Eleanor Roosevelt Story, directed by Richard Kaplan (1965); The Guns of August (1964) and Jascha Heifetz Master Classes, directed by Nathan Kroll (1962); and Night Journey, the film of Martha Graham’s ballet, directed by Alexander Hammid (1960).