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Jonas Mekas
Directing
Biography
Jonas Mekas (24 December 1922 - 23 January 2019) was born 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 s…
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Jonas Mekas (24 December 1922 - 23 January 2019) was born 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.
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BODY OF WORK
Jonas Mekas's Filmography
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A Mixtape for Stom
Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
as Self (archive footage)
No Poster
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
Jonas Mekas Anthology
as Jonas Mekas
Fragments of Paradise
as Self (archive footage)
Film: The Living Record of Our Memory
as Self
Vertigo
Notes for a Déjà vu
Back from New York
as Himself
The Velvet Underground
as Self
9/11: Life Under Attack
as Self
The Invisible Father
as Self (archive footage)
Tapes
Tiny Tim: King for a Day
as Himself
Elegy for J.M.
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
Cinema and Sanctuary
as Self
Self Discovery for Social Survival
as Narrator (voice)
Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film
as Self
Makeshift (for Mekas)
No Poster
Last Interview Film of Jonas Mekas/version 1
as Self
Keep singing: a tribute to Jonas Mekas
No Poster
3 Friends Singing (...in the Desert)
No Poster
Jonas Towards Broadway
Beyond the Bolex
as Self
Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground
George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus
as Self
Nitsch
I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance
as Self
On the Holy Spirit
Memories of Jerome Hiler
EXPRMNTL
as himself
I Had Nowhere to Go
as Himself
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
as Self
Últimas correspondencias
as Self
Filmstudio, mon amour
as Sé stesso
A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol
as Self
Reconnecting with an Old Friend
Behind the Artist: Andy Warhol, an American Prophet
A Report from Venice
All About Bolex
My Birthday
River of Fundament
as Wake Guest
Have A Good Day!
as Self
My Conversations on Film
as Himself
No Poster
Jonas in the Jungle
as Self
What Is Cinema?
as Self
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
as Jonas Mekas
No Poster
Maya Deren, Take Zero
as Himself
Reminiscences from Germany
as Self
My Paris Movie
My Mars Bar Movie
as himself
3.11 A Sense of Home Films
as Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux")
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
as Himself
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
as Himself
Guest
as Self
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
Re: Maciunas and Fluxus
No Poster
Portrait Serie - Jonas Mekas
as himself
New York Conversations
Lavender
as Self
Visionaries
as Himself
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
as Himself
It Came from Kuchar
as Self (archive footage)
No Poster
The Perfect Team: The Making of 'On the Bowery'
as Self
The Signing
Doc
as Himself
Notes on an American Film Director at Work
as Self
Andy Warhol's Factory People... Inside the Sixties Silver Factory
Question a Day
365 Day Project
as Self
Sunday December 30, 2007
as Self
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
as Self
Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
as Self
The Song of Central Park
as Himself (voice)
Jonas' Independence Speech at the Anniversary of the Filmmaker's Cooperative
Salvador Dalí at Work
as Self
Graffiti Museum Bronx, NYC
No Poster
Imperfect Film
Taping for As I was Moving Ahead…
Kreutzer Sonata
End of the Millennium Espresso
Anger Me
as Himself
No Poster
Notes on Marie Menken
as Self
Who Gets to Call It Art?
as Self
No Poster
Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master
as Self
Meet The Kuchar Brothers
The Definition of Insanity
Vies et morts d'Andy Warhol
Excavating Taylor Mead
as Self
Notes on Utopia
as Self
No Poster
A Letter from Greenpoint
as Mekas
No Poster
Not in Our Name
as himself
Axiom of Choice
as Self
Jonas Keeps Shooting Around
as Himself
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
as Himself
Notes in Lifestyle Margins
A Letter to Penny Arcade
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
as Narrator (voice)
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
as Himself
This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography
as Self
Letter to John from Jonas
Laboratorium Anthology
as Himself
Jonas Mekas in Paris 10/97
Song of Avignon
as Self
No Poster
My Country is Cinema
as Self
Birth of a Nation
as Self
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
as Self
A Poet from the Lower East Side
as Self
Jonas Mekas, Friday 13th October
as Himself
Michael Snow Up Close
as Himself
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
as Himself
Nico Icon
as Self
Jonas in the Desert
as Self
Jonas Mekas in Budapest
as Himself
No Poster
The Misfits - 30 Years of Fluxus
as Self
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)
Cinématon n°1590 : Jonas Mekas
Award
as Himself
No Poster
Just Visiting This Planet
Quartet Number One
No Poster
Interview and Reading: Jonas Mekas
as Himself
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
as Self
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships and Intersections
as Self
Step Across the Border
as Butterfly Wing
Belladonna
Warhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties
as Self
Invocation: Maya Deren
as Himself
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
as Self (archive footage)
Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank
as Self
Home Movies 1971-81
Persistence of Vision
as Self
Strong Medicine
The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man
Travel Songs
as Self (uncredited)
No Poster
No. 18: Mahagonny
as Self
Self-Portrait
as Himself
J. Mekas
as Self
ORG
as Self (archive footage)
No Poster
Paradise Not Yet Lost
as Himself
Cinématon
as N°1590
Four Shadows
Notes for Jerome
as Self
Lost, Lost, Lost
as Self
Postcard from America
‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
Imagine
as Self
Going Home
as Himself
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
as Self
Up Your Legs Forever
as Self - Legs
No Poster
Ricky Leacock Visit, April 15, 1971
as Self
Journey to Lithuania
as Himself
Occhio privato sul nuovo mondo
Filmmakers
as Himself
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
as Self
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
as self
A Matter of Baobab
No Poster
Jonas
as Himself
Underground New York
as Self
The Song of Avila
as Narrator
Poem Posters
as Self
![Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/5yEUYxLQWc71aL7OGrhSnpslsQO.jpg)
Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas
as himself
Galaxie
as Self
Shooting Guns
The Love Merchant
as Lounge Patron
Andy Warhol Screen Tests
as Self
No Poster
Dirt
Jonas in the Brig
as Himself
Empire
as Self (uncredited)
No Poster
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
as Self
No Poster
Diane the Zebra Woman
No Poster
The Sin of Jesus
Viva Jonas!
as Himself
No Poster
The Lamb
as Self
No Poster