JM
Photo of Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas

Director, Editor, Writer, Producer, Actor, Additional Credits
Died January 23, 2019 (96 years)
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
  • As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
  • Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
  • Diaries Notes and Sketches
  • Lost, Lost, Lost
  • Guns of the Trees
  • Song of Avignon
  • Notes on the Circus
  • The Brig
  • Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
  • Cassis
  • Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)
  • This Side of Paradise
  • Step Across the Border
  • Report from Millbrook
  • Elvis
  • Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground
  • Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit

Filmography

2023
Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV · as Self (archive Footage)
2022
Fragments of Paradise · as Self (archive Footage)
2021
2021
2020
2020
2019
Satori Sur · as Self
2018
George · as Self
2018
2017
Beyond the Bolex · as Self
2016
Exprmntl · as Himself
2013
2013
What Is Cinema? · as Self
2013
2012
2012
Maya Deren, Take 0 · as Himself
2011
2011
2010
Guest · as Self
2009
It Came from Kuchar · as Self (archive Footage)
2008
2006
Anger Me · as Himself
2006
2006
Notes on Marie Menken · as Himself
2006
2001
2000
1999
1999
1998
Song of Avignon · as Self
1998
Divine Trash · as Self
1997
1995
Nico Icon · as Himself
1994
1993
1990
1989
Cinéma, de notre temps (TV Series) · as Self
1988
1986
1985
American Masters (TV Series) · as Self - Filmmaker
1980
1979
Org · as Self (archive Footage)
1978
Notes for Jerome · as Self
1976
Lost, Lost, Lost · as Self
1972
Imagine · as Self
1972
Going Home · as Himself
1972
1969
Filmmakers · as Himself
1968
1968
Jonas · as Himself
1964
Empire · as Self (uncredited)

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