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Jonas Mekas

Born · December 24, 1922

Died · January 23, 2019 (96 years old)

Known For: Directing

Place of Birth: Semeniškiai, Lithuania

Bio

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

The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground

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

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

Empire

Empire

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

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

Jonas Towards Broadway

2019

3 Friends Singing (...in the Desert)

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

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

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

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