Jonas Mekas
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- December 24, 1922
- Died
- January 23, 2019 (aged 96)
- Birthplace
- Semeniškiai, Lithuania
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 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
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Empire
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Imagine
Song of Avignon
What Is Cinema?
Lost, Lost, Lost
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships and Intersections
River of Fundament
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
Photos
Filmography
When
Movie · Director
Tapes
Movie · Director
Requiem
Movie · Director
I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance
Movie · Director
From the Notebooks of a Cinema Maniac
Movie · Director
From the diaries of a cinema maniac
Movie · Director
Crickets
Movie · Director
On the Holy Spirit
Movie · Director
Yoko Ono Lennon's Courage Awards 2016: Laurie Anderson, Mohammad el Gharani, Eileen Boxer, RoseLee Goldberg, LoftOpera
Movie · Director
Últimas correspondencias
Movie · Director
Hollywood Party
Movie · Director
Memories of Jerome Hiler
Movie · Director
My Bolexes
Movie · Director
All About Bolex
Movie · Director
A Report from Venice
Movie · Director
Scenes from the Life of Raimund Abraham
Movie · Director
New Seasons Movement IV
Movie · Director
Reconnecting with an Old Friend
Movie · Director
My Birthday
Movie · Director
Halloween 1990
Movie · Director
A Cardinal
Movie · Director
Flowers
Movie · Director
Have A Good Day!
Movie · Director
The Sixties Quartet
Movie · Director
I Leave Chelsea Hotel
Movie · Director
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
Movie · Director
Reminiscences from Germany
Movie · Director
20 Little Films
Movie · Director
Happy Easter Ride
Movie · Director
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
Movie · Director
Sleepless Nights Stories
Movie · Director
First Class Flight
Movie · Director
3.11 A Sense of Home Films
Movie · Director
Mont Ventoux
Movie · Director
My Mars Bar Movie
Movie · Director
Keep Singing
Movie · Director
Re: Maciunas and Fluxus
Movie · Director
My Paris Movie
Movie · Director
WTC Haikus
Movie · Director
42 One Dream Rush
Movie · Director
Lavender
Movie · Director
Orchard Street
Movie · Director
Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR
Movie · Director
Notes on an American Film Director at Work
Movie · Director
Friday March 16, 2007
Movie · Director
Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
Movie · Director
Monday Jan. 1, 2007
Movie · Director
Thursday Jan. 4, 2007: Pedro (São Paulo) or The Right Way To Make Capirinha
Movie · Director
365 Day Project
Movie · Director
Monday April 16, 2007
Movie · Director
Friday May 4, 2007: John Zorn – Cobra Part Two
Movie · Director
Sunday December 30, 2007
Movie · Director
Saturday Jan. 6
Movie · Director
Friday Feb. 23, 2007
Movie · Director
A Visit to Stan Brakhage
Movie · Director
Destruction of the Berlin Wall
Movie · Director
Velvet Underground's First Public Appearance
Movie · Director
To Barbara Rubin with Love
Movie · Director
A Visit to Stan Brakhage
Movie · Director
Dedication to Matsuo Basho
Movie · Director
A Visit to Timothy Leary
Movie · Director
John & Yoko Bed-In
Movie · Director
Bibi Hansen
Movie · Director
Carl Dreyer
Movie · Director
Nam June Paik's Piano Piece
Movie · Director
Poets at the Living Theater
Movie · Director
Patti Smith at Anthology Film Archives Febr. 19, 1998
Movie · Director
Andy at Work
Movie · Director
Warhol and Maciunas
Movie · Director
Robert Frank Films
Movie · Director
Salvador Dalí at Work
Movie · Director
Cinémathèque Française
Movie · Director
Brakhage Crosses Central Park
Movie · Director
The Destruction Quartet
Movie · Director
Monks of Cinema
Movie · Director
Moires with Prof. Oster and Salvador Dalí
Movie · Director
The Song of Central Park
Movie · Director
To John With Love
Movie · Director
John & Yoko Bed-In
Movie · Director
The Monks of Cinema
Movie · Director
A Visit to Timothy Leary
Movie · Director
I Am Searching for Nothing
Movie · Director
Fluxus on the Hudson
Movie · Director
Elia Kazan
Movie · Director
Jonas' Independence Speech at the Anniversary of the Filmmaker's Cooperative
Movie · Director
Phil Glass Plays for Ralph Steiner's Mechanical Principles
Movie · Director
Graffiti Museum Bronx, NYC
Movie · Director
End of the Millennium Espresso
Movie · Director
Imperfect Film
Movie · Director
Taping for As I was Moving Ahead…
Movie · Director
Allen Ginsberg Sings Blues
Movie · Director
Kreutzer Sonata
Movie · Director
Jackie & Lee Fragments of an Unfinished Biography
Movie · Director
Scenes from the Life of Hermann Nitsch
Movie · Director
Notes on Utopia
Movie · Director
A Letter from Greenpoint
Movie · Director
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Movie · Director
A Visit To Hans Richter
Movie · Director
Three Friends
Movie · Director
Mysteries
Movie · Director
Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten
Movie · Director
A Letter to Penny Arcade
Movie · Director
Diary Entry: Father and Daughter
Movie · Director
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Movie · Director
Silence, Please
Movie · Director
Autobiography of a Man Who Carried his Memory in his Eyes
Movie · Director
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
Movie · Director
Mozart & Elvis
Movie · Director
This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography
Movie · Director
Laboratorium Anthology
Movie · Director
Letter to John from Jonas
Movie · Director
A Few Notes on Andy's Factory
Movie · Director
Song of Avignon
Movie · Director
Happy Birthday to John
Movie · Director
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
Movie · Director
Birth of a Nation
Movie · Director
Letters from Nowhere
Movie · Director
Celebrate Cinema 101
Movie · Director
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
Movie · Director
Song of The Salamander
Movie · Director
Imperfect Three-Image Films
Movie · Director
On My Way to Fujiyama I met..
Movie · Director
Memories of Frankenstein
Movie · Director
Peter Kubelka at the Library of Congress
Movie · Director
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)
Movie · Director
The Education of Sebastian or Egypt Regained
Movie · Director
Quartet Number One
Movie · Director
Carl G. Jung by Jerome Hill or Lapis Philosophorum
Movie · Director
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships and Intersections
Movie · Director
A Walk
Movie · Director
Mob of Angels: Baptism
Movie · Director
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Movie · Director
Cup/Saucer/Two Dancers/Radio
Movie · Director
Street Songs
Movie · Director
Erick Hawkins: Excerpts from "Here and Now with Watchers"
Movie · Director
Travel Songs
Movie · Director
The Song of Stockholm
Movie · Director
Self-Portrait
Movie · Director
Robert Haller's Wedding
Movie · Director
Paradise Not Yet Lost
Movie · Director
In Between
Movie · Director
Notes for Jerome
Movie · Director
Lost, Lost, Lost
Movie · Director
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Movie · Director
The Song of Moscow
Movie · Director
Marcel Hanoun wedding
Movie · Director
Time & Fortune Vietnam Newsreel
Movie · Director
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Movie · Director
Notes on the Circus
Movie · Director
Hare Krishna
Movie · Director
The Italian Notebook
Movie · Director
The Song of Avila
Movie · Director
The Song of Italy
Movie · Director
The Song of Assisi
Movie · Director
For Life, Against the War
Movie · Director
Cassis
Movie · Director
Report from Millbrook
Movie · Director
Film Magazine of the Arts
Movie · Director
The Brig
Movie · Director
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
Movie · Director
Hallelujah the Hills
Movie · Assistant Director
Guns of the Trees
Movie · Director