Alexandr Hackenschmied (17 December 1907, Linz – 26 July 2004, New York City) was a leading avant-garde photographer and filmmaker in Czechoslovakia between the two world wars. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1938 and became involved in American avant-garde cinema. His film, Meshes of the Afternoon, which he made with filmmaker Maya Deren, (to whom he was married from 1942 to 1947), has become an icon of avant-garde cinema in the U.S.

He changed his name to Alexander Hammid when he became a citizen of the United States in 1942. He is best-known for his work in documentary film, both as a director, cameraman and editor.

According to Jaroslav Andel’s biography, Alexandr Hackenschmied, in 1930, Hackenschmied created his first film Bezucelna prochazka (Aimless Walk) which inaugurated the movement of avant-garde film in Czecholovakia. The same year he also organized the Exhibition of New Czech Photography in the Aventinska Mansarda — a showcase for artists of the Aventinum publishing house in Prague — and the first show of European avant-garde film in the Kotva Cinema, also in Prague. He also published a number of articles on photography and film, in which he formulated the new aesthetics of both fields. (Wikipedia: Alexandr Hackenschmied)