Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas was born in 1922 in the farming village of Semeniškiai, Lithuania. In 1944, he and his brother Adolfas were taken by the Nazis to a forced labor camp in Elmshorn, Germany. After the War he studied philosophy at the University of Mainz. At the end of 1949 the UN Refugee Organization brought both brothers to New York City, where they settled down in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Two months after his arrival in New York he borrowed money to buy his first Bolex camera and began to record brief moments of his life. He soon got deeply involved in the American Avant-Garde film movement. In 1954, together with his brother, he started Film Culture magazine, which soon became the most important film publication in the US. In 1958 he began his legendary Movie Journal column in the Village Voice. In 1962 he founded the Film-Makers' Cooperative, and in 1964 the Film-Makers' Cinematheque, which eventually grew into Anthology Film Archives, one of the world's largest and most important repositories of avant-garde cinema, and a screening venue. During all this time he continued writing poetry and making films. To this date he has published more than 20 books of prose and poetry, which have been translated into over a dozen languages. His Lithuanian poetry is now part of Lithuanian classic literature and his films can be found in leading museums around the world. He is largely credited for developing the diaristic forms of cinema. Mekas has also been active as an academic, teaching at the New School for Social Research, the International Center for Photography, Cooper Union, New York University, and MIT. Mekas' film The Brig was awarded the Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1963. Other films include Walden (1969), Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972), Lost Lost Lost (1975), Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol (1990), Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (1992), As I was Moving Ahead I saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000), Letter from Greenpoint (2005), Sleepless Nights Stories (2011) and Out-takes from the Life of a Happy Man. In 2007, he completed a series of 365 short films released on the internet -- one film every day -- and since then has continued to share new work on his website. Since 2000, Mekas has expanded his work into the area of film installations, exhibiting at the Serpentine Gallery, the Centre Pompidou, Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Moderna Museet (Stockholm), PS1 Contemporary Art Center MoMA, Documenta of Kassel, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and the Venice Biennale.

Cast

My Country is Cinema

Last Interview Film of Jonas Mekas/version 1

The Velvet Underground

Film: The Living Record of Our Memory

Notes for a Déjà vu

Cinema and Sanctuary

Strong Medicine

Persistence of Vision

All About Bolex

A Report from Venice

Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV

Self (archive footage)

Back from New York

Michael Snow Up Close

Home Movies 1971-81

Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

Narrator (voice)

Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man

A Poet from the Lower East Side

Jonas Keeps Shooting Around

River of Fundament

Interview and Reading: Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas Anthology

Fragments of Paradise

Self (archive footage)

Notes for Jerome

Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages

Occhio privato sul nuovo mondo

Just Visiting This Planet

Maya Deren, Take Zero

The Perfect Team: The Making of 'On the Bowery'

Diane the Zebra Woman

On the Holy Spirit

I Had Nowhere to Go

In the Mirror of Maya Deren

Reminiscences from Germany

The Song of Avila

He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life

Self (archive footage)

Step Across the Border

Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit

The Definition of Insanity

I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance

The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man

The Love Merchant

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

Notes on Marie Menken

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

Salvador Dalí at Work

No. 18: Mahagonny

Jonas in the Brig

Underground New York

Self (archive footage)

Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007

My Conversations on Film

Meet The Kuchar Brothers

Jonas in the Desert

Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film

‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen

Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old

Journey to Lithuania

Laboratorium Anthology

Invocation: Maya Deren

It Came from Kuchar

Self (archive footage)

Award Presentation to Andy Warhol

New York Conversations

George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus

Warhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties

What Is Cinema?

Letter to John from Jonas

Requiem for a Manual Typewriter

Portrait Serie - Jonas Mekas

Keep singing: a tribute to Jonas Mekas

Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground

Excavating Taylor Mead

A Letter from Greenpoint

Makeshift (for Mekas)

A Matter of Baobab

TO NEW YORK WITH LOVE - A Letter to Penny Arcade June 25, 2001

Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film

Self Discovery for Social Survival

Narrator (voice)

A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol

Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days

Andy Warhol Screen Tests

Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol

Who Gets to Call It Art?

Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party

My Mars Bar Movie

Andy Warhol's Factory People... Inside the Sixties Silver Factory

Paradise Not Yet Lost

Beyond the Bolex

365 Day Project

Self (uncredited)

Lost, Lost, Lost

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

Re: Maciunas and Fluxus

Quartet Number One

Song of Avignon

Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas, Friday 13th October

Not in Our Name

Notes on an American Film Director at Work

The Song of Central Park

Himself (voice)

Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin

Postcard from America

3.11 A Sense of Home Films

Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux")

3 Friends Singing (...in the Desert)

Jonas Towards Broadway

Axiom of Choice

Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas

Tiny Tim: King for a Day

Cinématon n°1590 : Jonas Mekas

Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank

The Sin of Jesus

The Invisible Father

Self (archive footage)

Sunday December 30, 2007

Notes in Lifestyle Margins

Jonas Mekas in Budapest

Vies et morts d'Andy Warhol

Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master

Behind the Artist: Andy Warhol, an American Prophet

The Misfits - 30 Years of Fluxus

Ricky Leacock Visit, April 15, 1971

Jonas Mekas in Paris 10/97

A Mixtape for Stom

Filmstudio, mon amour

Crew

Friday March 16, 2007

Editor, Director of Photography, Director

A Visit to Stan Brakhage

Destruction of the Berlin Wall

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

Director, Cinematography, Writer, Editor

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

Director, Writer, Cinematography, Editor

Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)

Lost, Lost, Lost

Director, Writer, Editor, Cinematography

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

Director, Cinematography, Writer, Editor

He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life

Director, Writer, Cinematography, Editor

Director, Producer, Director of Photography, Editor

Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin

Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man

Director, Cinematography, Director of Photography

Guns of the Trees

Writer, Director, Cinematography, Editor

Notes on the Circus

Director, Cinematography, Editor

Sleepless Nights Stories

This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography

Director, Editor, Producer, Writer

Happy Birthday to John

Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships & Intersections

Director, Editor, Cinematography

Silence, Please

Director, Cinematography

Cinematography, Director

Autobiography of a Man Who Carried his Memory in his Eyes

Velvet Underground's First Public Appearance

Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR

John & Yoko Bed-In

To Barbara Rubin with Love

The Sixties Quartet

Paradise Not Yet Lost

Award Presentation to Andy Warhol

Director, Director of Photography, Editor

Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit

Director, Editor, Cinematography

Notes for Jerome

Director, Cinematography

A Visit to Stan Brakhage

A Visit to Timothy Leary

Time & Fortune Vietnam Newsreel

Director, Cinematography

Dedication to Matsuo Basho

Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Quartet Number One

Song of Avignon

Director, Writer

Imperfect Three-Image Films

Report from Millbrook

A Letter from Greenpoint

Director, Writer, Creator

Carl G. Jung by Jerome Hill or Lapis Philosophorum

Director, Editor

Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007

Celebrate Cinema 101

All About Bolex

Camera Operator, Director

A Report from Venice

First Class Flight

Monday Jan. 1, 2007

Scenes from the Life of Raimund Abraham

Thursday Jan. 4, 2007: Pedro (São Paulo) or The Right Way To Make Capirinha

Director, Camera Operator

3.11 A Sense of Home Films

Notes on an American Film Director at Work

Director, Director of Photography

Reminiscences from Germany

Nam June Paik's Piano Piece

Poets at the Living Theater

Warhol and Maciunas

Bed-In: John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Patti Smith at Anthology Film Archives Febr. 19, 1998

Film Magazine of the Arts

Director, Editor, Cinematography

Birth of a Nation

Director, Cinematography, Editor, Writer

Cup/Saucer/Two Dancers/Radio

Robert Frank Films

20 Little Films

The Italian Notebook

The Song of Moscow

The Song of Avila

Mob of Angels: Baptism

Salvador Dalí at Work

Director, Writer, Cinematography

Robert Haller's Wedding

I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance

Hallelujah the Hills

Assistant Director

Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old

Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten

Erick Hawkins: Excerpts from "Here and Now with Watchers"

The Song of Assisi

The Song of Stockholm

The Song of Italy

Cinémathèque Française

For Life, Against the War

42 One Dream Rush

Laboratorium Anthology

Director, Director of Photography

On the Holy Spirit

Brakhage Crosses Central Park

Editor, Writer, Cinematography, Director

365 Day Project

The Velvet Underground: Psychiatrist's Convention, NYC, 1966

Camera Operator

I Leave Chelsea Hotel

From the Notebooks of a Cinema Maniac

Letter to John from Jonas

The Destruction Quartet

Requiem for a Manual Typewriter

Peter Kubelka at the Library of Congress

TO NEW YORK WITH LOVE - A Letter to Penny Arcade June 25, 2001

Marcel Hanoun wedding

A Visit To Hans Richter

Director, Editor

Scenes from the Life of Hermann Nitsch

Director, Editor

Monks of Cinema

Notes on Utopia

On My Way to Fujiyama I met..

Director of Photography, Director

The Education of Sebastian or Egypt Regained

My Mars Bar Movie

Self Discovery for Social Survival

From the diaries of a cinema maniac

Memories of Frankenstein

Yoko Ono Lennon's Courage Awards 2016: Laurie Anderson, Mohammad el Gharani, Eileen Boxer, RoseLee Goldberg, LoftOpera

Re: Maciunas and Fluxus

A Few Notes on Andy's Factory

Song of The Salamander

Moires with Prof. Oster and Salvador Dalí

European Diaries

Happy Easter Ride

Letters from Nowhere

Writer, Editor, Director

The Song of Central Park

Elvis Live at Madison Square Garden

Director, Camera Operator, Writer

Monday April 16, 2007

Friday May 4, 2007: John Zorn – Cobra Part Two

Sunday December 30, 2007

To John With Love

John & Yoko Bed-In