Jonas Mekas
Birth:
Dec. 24, 1922 (Semeniskiai, Lithuania)
Official Website:
JonasMekasFilms.com
Major Works:
Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR (2009)
Letter from Greenpoint (2004)
Notes on Utopia (2004)
Dedication to Leger (2003)
Travel Songs (1967–1981)
Mozart & Wein and Elvis (2000)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn (1950–2003)
Diary Entry: Father and Daughter (2001)
Ein Maerchen (2001)
A Letter to Penny Arcade (2001)
Remedy for Melancholy (2000)
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)
Mysteries (1966–2001)
Notes on the Factory (1999)
This Side of Paradise: Fragments of an Unfinished Biography (1999)
Autobiography of a Man Who Carried His Memory in His Eyes (2000)
Laboratorium (1999)
Song of Avignon (1998)
Symphony of Joy (1997)
Letter from Nowhere – Laiskas is Niekur N.1 (1997)
Letters to Friends #1 (1997)
Scenes from Allen’s Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit (1997)
Birth of a Nation (1997)
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old (1996)
Memories of Frankenstein (1996)
Happy Birthday to John (1996)
On My Way to Fujiyama I Met… (1995)
Imperfect 3-Image Films (1995)
Quartet #1 (1995)
He Travels. In Search of… (1994)
The Education of Sebastian or Egypt Regained (1992)
Zefiro Torna or Scenes From the Life of Scenes From the Life of George Maciumas (1992)
Mob of Angels at St. Ann (1992)
Quartet Number One (1991)
Dr. Carl G. Jung or Lapis Philosophorum (1991)
Mob of Angels: Baptism (1991)
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life (1985)
Erik Hawkins: Excerpts from “Here and Now With Watchers”/Lucia Dlugoszewski Performs (1983)
Cup/Saucer/Two Dancers/Radio (1983)
Street Songs (1983)
Scenes of the Life Of Andy Warhol (1982)
Paradise Not Yet Lost (a/k/a Oona’s Third Year) (1979)
Notes for Jerome (1978)
In Between: 1964–8 (1978)
Lost, Lost, Lost (1976)
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972)
Walden (1969)
Time and Fortune Vietnam Newsreel (1968)
The Italian Notebook (1967)
Cassis (1966)
Hare Krishna (1966)
Notes on the Circus (1966)
Report From Millbrook (1966)
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol (1964)
The Brig (1964)
Film Magazine of the Arts (1963)
Guns of the Trees (1962)
Years Working:
1953 — 1955
1960 — 1963
Films Appear On:
Walden: Diaries, Notes & Sketches (25 Aug 2009; Microcinema)
Treasures IV: American Avant-Garde Film, 1947-1986 (3 Mar 2009; Image Entertainment)
Notes: Excerpted from official bio:
[Jonas Mekas] has been one of the leading figures of American avant-garde filmmaking or the “New American Cinema,” as he dubbed it in the late ’50s, playing various roles: in 1954, he became editor and chief of Film Culture; in 1958 he began writing his “Movie Journal” column for the Village Voice; in 1962 he co-founded the Film- Makers’ Cooperative (FMC) and the Filmmakers’ Cinematheque in 1964, which eventually grew into Anthology Film Archives, one of the world’s largest and most important repositories of avant-garde films. His own output ranging from narrative films (Guns of the Trees, 1961) to documentaries (the Brig, 1963) and to “diaries” such as Walden (1969); Lost, Lost, Lost, (1975); Reminiscences of a Voyage to Lithuania, (1972); Zefiro torna, (1992) and As I was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2001) have been screened extensively at festivals and museums around the world.
Most recently, the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center was established in Vilnius, Lithuania and exhibitions will focus on art and film collections by Mekas and his friend and artistic collaborator George Maciunas, founder of the Fluxus art movement. Opening in late 2007, the Center will house an extensive avant-garde film archive and library and has plans to build a Fluxus Research Institute.
Online Resources:
IMDB: Profile
Wikipedia: Profile (Added: 2 Apr 2004; var. authors)
Bad Lit: Posts (Var. pub. dates; Mike Everleth)
One+One: Distillation of Life: The Work of Jonas Mekas (April 2010; Dan Childs)
Landscape Suicide: Screengrabs from Walden #1 (12 Mar 2010; Matthew Flanagan); Screengrabs from Walden #2 (20 Mar 2010; Matthew Flanagan); Screengrabs from Walden #3 (20 Mar 2010; Matthew Flanagan); Screengrabs from Walden #4 (27 Mar 2010; Matthew Flanagan)
Film Reference: Profile (pub. date and author unknown)
Bright Lights Film Journal: Interview (Nov 2009; Jon Lanthier)
Aspiring Sellout: Interview audio snippit (10 Nov 2009; Jon Lanthier)
Making Light of It: Profile (6 Nov 2009; Jacob W.)
Reverse Shot: Review of A Letter From Greenpoint (2008 — unverified; Eric Kohn)
Style Park: Profile (4 Dec 2008; Thomas Wagner)
Rouge: Interview (Oct 2008; Stefan Grissemann)
Camouflage Lenses: Appreciation (27 Aug 2008; Alessandro Cima)
More Milk Yvette: Retrospective Review (10 Aug 2008; David Berridge)
The Onion: Spoof article (2 Jun 2008; author unknown)
Rhizome: Commentary (23 Apr 2008; Ed Halter)
P.S. 1: Gallery show announcement (2007; author unknown)
Brooklyn Rail: On opening of Jonas Mekas Center for the Visual Arts (2007 — unverified; Robert A. Haller)
Megan and Murray: Review of gallery show (20 Feb 2007; Megan McMillan)
Termite Art: Notes on current work (17 Feb 2007; R. Emmet Sweeney)
Time Out New York: Interview (2006 — unverified; Joshua Rothkopf)
Wired: Interview (19 Dec 2006; Jason Silverman)
if:book: Review of gallery show (17 Nov 2006; Dan Visel)
Cinema Scope: Review of retrospective (2005 — unverified; Jon Davies)
3:AM Magazine: Interview (2005; interviewer unknown)
OffOffOff: Gallery show review (4 May 2005; Deborah Garwood)
The Villager: Interview (30 Mar 2005; Jerry Tallmer)
FilmJourney.org: Review of Movie Journal (13 Jun 2004; Doug Cummings)
Logos: Conversation with Stan Brakhage (transcript) (Spring 2003; Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage)
Brooklyn Rail: Letter (3 Jan 2003; Jonas Mekas)
Ways of Seeing: Review of The Brig (3 Dec 2002; Yoel Meranda)
Mr. Beller’s Neighborhood: Review of screening of As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2 Feb 2002; Paul Felten)
Senses of Cinema: Review of This Side of Paradise (Oct 2001; Aaron Scott); Profile (Jan 2005; Genevieve Yue); Interview (Jul 2007; Brian L. Frye)
The Vilinius: Interview (Feb 2000; Jérome Sans)
ArtNet: Gallery review (1996 — not verified; Roza Michael Kryzhanovska)
Lituanus: Review of book I Had Nowhere to Go (Fall 1996; Antanas Klimas)
INCITE!: Anti-100 Years of Cinema Manifesto (11 Feb 1996; Jonas Mekas)
Chicago Reader: Interview (17 Jan 1986; Fred Camper; reprinted on Senses of Cinema)
Writings by Jonas Mekas Online:
Time Out New York: NYC in Pictures (3 Sep 2009)
Tate Etc.: Musings on Salvador Dali (Summer 2007)
The Brooklyn Rail: Ken Jacobs-Star Spangled to Death (Jul 2004)
The Village Voice: Film Critics Choose Their Favorites for 1965 (13 Jan 1966)
New Yorker Film Society: Review of Shors, dir. Alexander Dovzhenko; and The Massacre, dir. D.W. Griffith (1960)
Film Books by Jonas Mekas:
Movie Journal: The Rise of the New American Cinema (1972)
Jonas Mekas: Just Like a Shadow (2000)
Film Culture Reader (reprints select articles by Mekas) (1970)
Film Books About Jonas Mekas:
Eyes Upside Down: Visionary Filmmakers and the Heritage of Emerson by P. Adams Sitney (two chapters devoted to Mekas) (2008)
Canyon Cinema by Scott MacDonald (several mentions of and articles by Mekas) (2008)
To Free the Cinema edited by David E. James (1992)
The Life and Death of Andy Warhol by Victor Bockris (several mentions of Mekas, including filming of Warhol’s Empire) (1989)
An Introduction to the American Underground Film by Sheldon Renan (E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc., New York, 1967) (Published simultaneously in Canada by Clarke, Irwin and Company, Limited, Toronto and Vancouver) (pp. 167-169.)
Video: YouTube playlist
[...] The Guide’s only been live for a few days now and there’s still not that much content on there yet, but I’m excited to be working on it, so I wanted to announce it sooner than later. Right now, I’m focusing on entering “the classics” alternating with more modern fare. (Although, the most “modern” films are from 1999.) Also, it didn’t seem right to start another underground film site without beginning it with Jonas Mekas, so he was my first entry. [...]
[...] retrospectives of the “Beat Cinema” movement of the ’60s, which includes films by Jonas Mekas, Ron Rice, Robert Frank, John Cassavetes, William S. Burroughs and more; and a two-night program of [...]
[...] also, I remember a couple years ago I was reading the transcript of an old discussion between Jonas Mekas and Stan Brakhage where they were hopeful about a future world where every home had an 8mm [...]
[...] other underground film on the list is Lost Lost Lost by Jonas Mekas. Although this collage diary film was completed just a year earlier than Eraserhead in 1976, it [...]
[...] screened, there will be a live discussion with Cameron, plus filmmaker and friend of Clarke’s Jonas Mekas; and film critic-programmer Cullen [...]
fyi, looks like mekas’ official site has moved to jonasmekasfilms.com.
tomas
Tomas: Thanks! I’ve updated the page.
[...] in case you missed it, I’ve made the Jonas Mekas entry on my own Underground Film Guide much more detailed with tons of links, book and DVD references and a YouTube video player with lots [...]
[...] Jonas Mekas Born: 1922, Semeniskiai, Lithuania (pp. 167-169.) [...]
[...] on websites like these don’t include links to references on its subjects — e.g. Mekas, Anthology, Anger, et. al. — so uninformed readers can learn more. C’est la vie. But [...]
[...] when discussing Gummo‘s free association screenplay structure, Murphy recalls Jonas Mekas‘ championing “the idea of a plotless cinema as an antidote to what he perceived to be [...]