During the late 1930s he collaborated with the American filmmaker Herbert Kline on the feature-length documentary "Crisis" (1939) and moved to the USA where he met and married Eleanora Deren, he later on named her "Maya". "Meshes of the Afternoon" (1943) was a home movie made by the filmmaker Hammid and his wife Maya who until that point had no experience in filmmaking. He also directed the documentaries "The Forgotten Village" (1941), "The Valley of the Tennessee" (1944), and "A Better Tomorrow" (1945). Hammid also made the 22-minute short "The Private Life of a Cat" (1947). This short film was part narrative, part documentary about cats and their daily lives. The film starts off with two cats, a male and a female. The female is eventually impregnated by the male cat, and begins to search for shelter for when she gives birth to her kittens. The film shows her giving birth to five kittens in graphic detail.