Jonas Mekas
Born
December 24, 1922
Died
January 23, 2019 (96 years old)
Known For
Directing
Place of Birth
Semeniškiai, Lithuania
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.
Known For
Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
Self (archive footage)
2023
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022
Jonas Mekas Anthology
Jonas Mekas
2022
Fragments of Paradise
Self (archive footage)
2022
Film: The Living Record of Our Memory
Self
2022
Vertigo
2022
Notes for a Déjà vu
2022
Back from New York
Himself
2021
The Velvet Underground
Self
2021
The Invisible Father
Self (archive footage)
2021
Tapes
2020
Tiny Tim: King for a Day
Himself
2020
Elegy for J.M.
2019
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
2019
Cinema and Sanctuary
Self
2019
Self Discovery for Social Survival
Narrator (voice)
2019
Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film
Self
2019
Makeshift (for Mekas)
2019
Last Interview Film of Jonas Mekas/version 1
Self
2019
Keep singing: a tribute to Jonas Mekas
2019
3 Friends Singing (...in the Desert)
2019
Jonas Towards Broadway
2019
Beyond the Bolex
Self
2018
Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground
2018
George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus
Self
2018
Nitsch
2018
EXPRMNTL
himself
2016
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
Self
2016
A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol
Self
2015
A Report from Venice
2015
All About Bolex
2015
My Birthday
2014
River of Fundament
Wake Guest
2014
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Self
2013
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
self
2013
What Is Cinema?
Self
2013
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
Jonas Mekas
2012
My Mars Bar Movie
himself
2011
3.11 A Sense of Home Films
Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux")
2011
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
Himself
2011
Guest
Self
2011
Re: Maciunas and Fluxus
2011
Portrait Serie - Jonas Mekas
himself
2010
New York Conversations
2010
Lavender
Self
2010
Visionaries
Himself
2010
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
Himself
2009
It Came from Kuchar
Self (archive footage)
2009
The Signing
2009
Question a Day
2008
Andy Warhol's Factory People... Inside the Sixties Silver Factory
2008
Notes on an American Film Director at Work
Self
2008
365 Day Project
Self
2007
Sunday December 30, 2007
Self
2007
The Song of Central Park
Himself (voice)
2006
Anger Me
Himself
2006
Who Gets to Call It Art?
Self
2006
Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master
Self
2006
Vies et morts d'Andy Warhol
2005
Excavating Taylor Mead
Self
2005
Kulturplatz
Self · (1 episode)
2004
A Letter from Greenpoint
Mekas
2004
Not in Our Name
himself
2003
Axiom of Choice
Self
2003
Jonas Keeps Shooting Around
Himself
2002
Notes in Lifestyle Margins
2002
TO NEW YORK WITH LOVE - A Letter to Penny Arcade June 25, 2001
2001
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Narrator (voice)
2000
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
Himself
2000
Letter to John from Jonas
1999
Laboratorium Anthology
Himself
1999
Song of Avignon
Self
1998
My Country is Cinema
Self
1998
A Poet from the Lower East Side
Self
1997
Jonas Mekas, Friday 13th October
Himself
1996
Michael Snow Up Close
Himself
1996
Nico Icon
Himself
1995
Jonas Mekas in Budapest
Himself
1993
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)
1992
Award
Himself
1992
Quartet Number One
1991
Interview and Reading: Jonas Mekas
Himself
1991
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
Self
1990
Belladonna
1989
Warhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties
Self
1989
Invocation: Maya Deren
Himself
1986
Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank
Self
1986
Home Movies 1971-81
1985
Persistence of Vision
Self
1984
Strong Medicine
1981
J. Mekas
Self
1980
Paradise Not Yet Lost
Himself
1979
Cinématon
N°1590
1978
Notes for Jerome
Self
1978
Lost, Lost, Lost
Self
1976
Postcard from America
1975
Imagine
Self
1972
Journey to Lithuania
Himself
1971
Occhio privato sul nuovo mondo
1970
A Matter of Baobab
1970
Poem Posters
Self
1967
![Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w154/5yEUYxLQWc71aL7OGrhSnpslsQO.jpg){kind=small}
Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas
himself
1966
Galaxie
Self
1966
The Lamb
Self
Viva Jonas!
Himself
I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance
Self
2017
On the Holy Spirit
2016
I Had Nowhere to Go
Himself
2016
My Conversations on Film
Himself
2013
Maya Deren, Take Zero
Himself
2012
Reminiscences from Germany
Himself
2012
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
Himself
2011
The Perfect Team: The Making of 'On the Bowery'
Self
2009
Doc
Himself
2008
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Self
2007
Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
Self
2007
Salvador Dalí at Work
Self
2006
Notes on Marie Menken
Self
2006
Meet The Kuchar Brothers
2006
The Definition of Insanity
2005
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
Himself
2002
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
Self
1997
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Self
1996
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
Himself
1996
Jonas in the Desert
Self
1994
Just Visiting This Planet
1991
Step Across the Border
Butterfly Wing
1990
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Self (archive footage)
1986
The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man
1981
No. 18: Mahagonny
Self
1980
Self-Portrait
Himself
1980
ORG
Self (archive footage)
1979
Four Shadows
1978
‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
1974
Going Home
Himself
1972
Filmmakers
Himself
1969
Jonas
Himself
1968
Underground New York
Self
1968
The Song of Avila
Narrator
1967
The Love Merchant
Lounge Patron
1966
Andy Warhol Screen Tests
Self
1965
Dirt
1965
Jonas in the Brig
Himself
1965
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
Self
1965
Empire
Self (uncredited)
1965
Diane the Zebra Woman
1962
Cinématon n°1590 : Jonas Mekas
The Sin of Jesus
1961