"Imagery and dialogue stimulated by Finnegan's Wake. It is a satire with undertones of the cosmic spirit." - Sara Kathryn Arledge

"WHAT IS A MAN? propels Sara Kathryn Arledge from the realm of formal experimentation to social satire. Made with a remarkably sharp wit and a trenchant, mocking view of gender conventions, Arledge gives us a work far ahead of its time. Begun in 1951, Arledge received the first Creative Film Foundation award (established by Maya Deren) for script development in 1956 and completed the film in 1958. It was not until Nelly Kaplan's also neglected feature A Very Curious Girl (La Fianc?e Du Pirate, 1969) that women's cinema would once again celebrate such a spirited, subversive artist." - Bill Nichols, from his program notes for the film series "Maya Deren: Her Radical Aspirations and Influences in the Film Avant-Garde," San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, April-May 1996
[Source: Canyon Cinema catalog, 2000]