BEHIND THESE PRETTY THINGS - 2025

This is a film about a woman who comes to terms with her inner struggles. Longing for the days where she frees herself from using what she displays on the exterior to shield who she really is. She uses luxury items as a symbol of status and aligns that with her identity.Through dance, movements in this film represent the inner battle she endures. This film is not only inspired by personal experiences, but I felt that it can relay to society in regards to consumerism. The way we live to spend and spend to live, over consumption of goods is constantly forced upon us. I truly feel that excessive materialisms stems from a lack of emotional awareness and serves as a copping mechanism for confronting internal issues we cannot or refuse to address.

Written, Directed & Filmed by Maya Bentley

Featuring, Choreographed & Narrated by Morgan McDaniel

Awakening - 2023( filmed on super 8)Movements that represent a sense of becoming new. A depiction of a spiritual awakening, shedding of layers, and rising into a higher dimension of self. All that I personally felt while conceptualizing this project. To give my feelings a physical form, and use a body other than my own to translate those experiences and emotions truly filled me with insight and gratitude. This project taught me that the body is the subject matter and means to producing art. Studying various performance art pieces and the concepts behind them inspired me to direct and film a version of my own.

“The movement of bodies can embody the most abstract ideas”- (Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker)

-Filmed + Directed by Maya Bentley

Custom rope garment designed by Maya Bentley