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Jonas Mekas

Birthday: 1922-12-24
Died: 2019-01-23
Birthplace: Semeniškiai, Lithuania
Home Page: http://jonasmekas.com


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.

Filmography

My Country is Cinema
Character: Self
The Velvet Underground
Character: Self

Cinema and Sanctuary
Character: Self

Persistence of Vision
Character: Self

Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
Character: Self (archive footage)
Back from New York
Character: Himself

Michael Snow Up Close
Character: Himself
Anger Me
Character: Himself

Lavender
Character: Self


Jonas Keeps Shooting Around
Character: Himself

River of Fundament
Character: Wake Guest
Galaxie
Character: Self

Jonas Mekas Anthology
Character: Jonas Mekas
Fragments of Paradise
Character: Self (archive footage)

Notes for Jerome
Character: Self
The Lamb
Character: Self

J. Mekas
Character: Self
Guest
Character: Self

Viva Jonas!
Character: Himself
Doc
Character: Himself
Doc

Jonas
Character: Himself
Maya Deren, Take Zero
Character: Himself


I Had Nowhere to Go
Character: Himself
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
Character: Himself
Reminiscences from Germany
Character: Himself

The Song of Avila
Character: Narrator
Step Across the Border
Character: Butterfly Wing


The Love Merchant
Character: Lounge Patron
Going Home
Character: Himself

Notes on Marie Menken
Character: Self

Salvador Dalí at Work
Character: Self
No. 18: Mahagonny
Character: Self
Jonas in the Brig
Character: Himself

Underground New York
Character: Self
ORG
Character: Self (archive footage)
ORG
Self-Portrait
Character: Himself

Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
Character: Self
My Conversations on Film
Character: Himself

Jonas in the Desert
Character: Self

Filmmakers
Character: Himself
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
Character: Himself
Journey to Lithuania
Character: Himself

Laboratorium Anthology
Character: Himself
Invocation: Maya Deren
Character: Himself
It Came from Kuchar
Character: Self (archive footage)

Visionaries
Character: Himself

What Is Cinema?
Character: Self


Portrait Serie - Jonas Mekas
Character: himself

Poem Posters
Character: Self
Excavating Taylor Mead
Character: Self
A Letter from Greenpoint
Character: Mekas


Self Discovery for Social Survival
Character: Narrator (voice)

Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
Character: Himself

Award
Character: Himself
Andy Warhol Screen Tests
Character: Self
Nico Icon
Character: Himself

Who Gets to Call It Art?
Character: Self

My Mars Bar Movie
Character: himself
Imagine
Character: Self
Cinématon
Character: N°1590

Paradise Not Yet Lost
Character: Himself
Beyond the Bolex
Character: Self

365 Day Project
Character: Self
Empire
Character: Self (uncredited)

Lost, Lost, Lost
Character: Self

Song of Avignon
Character: Self

Not in Our Name
Character: himself
The Song of Central Park
Character: Himself (voice)


3.11 A Sense of Home
Character: Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux")

Axiom of Choice
Character: Self

Tiny Tim: King for a Day
Character: Himself

EXPRMNTL
Character: himself

The Invisible Father
Character: Self (archive footage)
Sunday December 30, 2007
Character: Self