Jonas Mekas
Biography
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.
Acting (120 movies)
The Velvet Underground
2021
Film: The Living Record of Our Memory
2022
Notes for a Déjà vu
2022
Cinema and Sanctuary
2019
Strong Medicine
1981
Persistence of Vision
1984
All About Bolex
2015
A Report from Venice
2015
Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
2023
Back from New York
2021
Michael Snow Up Close
1996
The Signing
2009
Anger Me
2006
Lavender
2010
My Birthday
2014
Home Movies 1971-81
1985
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
2012
A Poet from the Lower East Side
1997
Jonas Keeps Shooting Around
2002
River of Fundament
2014
Vertigo
2022
Galaxie
1966
Jonas Mekas Anthology
2022
Fragments of Paradise
2022
Notes for Jerome
1978
J. Mekas
1980
Occhio privato sul nuovo mondo
1970
Guest
2011
Doc
2008
Four Shadows
1978
On the Holy Spirit
2016
I Had Nowhere to Go
2016
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
2002
Reminiscences from Germany
2012
The Song of Avila
1967
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1986
Step Across the Border
1990
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
1997
The Definition of Insanity
2005
I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance
2017
The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man
1981
Going Home
1972
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
1996
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007
Salvador Dalí at Work
2006
Jonas in the Brig
1965
Underground New York
1968
ORG
1979
Self-Portrait
1980
Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
2007
My Conversations on Film
2013
Meet The Kuchar Brothers
2006
Jonas in the Desert
1994
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
2011
‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
1974
Filmmakers
1969
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
1996
Journey to Lithuania
1971
Invocation: Maya Deren
1986
It Came from Kuchar
2009
Visionaries
2010
New York Conversations
2010
George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus
2018
Warhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties
1989
What Is Cinema?
2013
Question a Day
2008
Keep singing: a tribute to Jonas Mekas
2019
Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground
2018
Poem Posters
1967
Excavating Taylor Mead
2005
Makeshift (for Mekas)
2019
A Matter of Baobab
1970
TO NEW YORK WITH LOVE - A Letter to Penny Arcade June 25, 2001
2001
Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film
2019
Self Discovery for Social Survival
2019
Nitsch
2018
A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol
2015
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
2009
Award
1992
Andy Warhol Screen Tests
1965
Nico Icon
1995
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
1990
Who Gets to Call It Art?
2006
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
2019
My Mars Bar Movie
2011
Imagine
1972
Cinématon
1978
Andy Warhol's Factory People... Inside the Sixties Silver Factory
2008
Beyond the Bolex
2018
365 Day Project
2007
Empire
1965
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968
Lost, Lost, Lost
1976
Re: Maciunas and Fluxus
2011
Quartet Number One
1991
Song of Avignon
1998
Jonas Mekas, Friday 13th October
1996
![Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w200/5yEUYxLQWc71aL7OGrhSnpslsQO.jpg)
Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas
1966
Notes on an American Film Director at Work
2008
Directing (133 movies)
Friday March 16, 2007
2007
A Visit to Stan Brakhage
2006
My Birthday
2014
Destruction of the Berlin Wall
2014
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)
1992
Lost, Lost, Lost
1976
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
1996
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1986
WTC Haikus
2010
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
2011
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
2012
Guns of the Trees
1961
The Brig
1964
Cassis
1966
Notes on the Circus
1967
Sleepless Nights Stories
2011
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships & Intersections
1990
This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography
1999
Happy Birthday to John
1997
Silence, Please
2000
My Bolexes
2015
Autobiography of a Man Who Carried his Memory in his Eyes
2000
Velvet Underground's First Public Appearance
2006
Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR
2009
The Sixties Quartet
2013
Paradise Not Yet Lost
1979
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
1997
Three Friends
2002
Report from Millbrook
1966
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
1965
Hare Krishna
1967
To Barbara Rubin with Love
2006
A Visit to Stan Brakhage
2006
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
2003
Dedication to Matsuo Basho
2006
Travel Songs
1981
Quartet Number One
1991
Time & Fortune Vietnam Newsreel
1969
In Between
1978
Notes for Jerome
1978
Imperfect Three-Image Films
1995
Song of Avignon
1998
A Visit to Timothy Leary
2006
John & Yoko Bed-In
2006
A Letter from Greenpoint
2004
Carl G. Jung by Jerome Hill or Lapis Philosophorum
1991
Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
2007
Celebrate Cinema 101
1996
Bibi Hansen
2006
All About Bolex
2015
A Report from Venice
2015
First Class Flight
2011
Carl Dreyer
2006
Monday Jan. 1, 2007
2007
Scenes from the Life of Raimund Abraham
2015
Thursday Jan. 4, 2007: Pedro (São Paulo) or The Right Way To Make Capirinha
2007
A Walk
1990
3.11 A Sense of Home Films
2011
Notes on an American Film Director at Work
2008
Self-Portrait
1980
Reminiscences from Germany
2012
Nam June Paik's Piano Piece
1997
Poets at the Living Theater
2006
Patti Smith at Anthology Film Archives Febr. 19, 1998
1998
Andy at Work
2006
Warhol and Maciunas
2006
Birth of a Nation
1997
Cup/Saucer/Two Dancers/Radio
1983
Film Magazine of the Arts
1965
Robert Frank Films
2006
20 Little Films
2012
The Italian Notebook
1967
The Song of Moscow
1971
The Song of Avila
1967
Street Songs
1983
Mob of Angels: Baptism
1990
Salvador Dalí at Work
2006
Robert Haller's Wedding
1980
I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance
2017
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
1996
Erick Hawkins: Excerpts from "Here and Now with Watchers"
1983
Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten
2001
The Song of Italy
1967
The Song of Stockholm
1981
The Song of Assisi
1967
Cinémathèque Française
2006
For Life, Against the War
1967
42 One Dream Rush
2010
Laboratorium Anthology
1999
Lavender
2010
On the Holy Spirit
2016
Brakhage Crosses Central Park
2006
365 Day Project
2007
I Leave Chelsea Hotel
2009
Letter to John from Jonas
1999
From the Notebooks of a Cinema Maniac
2017
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
2000
The Destruction Quartet
2006
| Title | Year | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Guns of the Trees | 1961 | Writer |
| Senseless | 1962 | Writer |
| Diaries, Notes, and Sketches | 1968 | Writer |
| Elvis Live at Madison Square Garden | 1972 | Writer |
| Lost, Lost, Lost | 1976 | Writer |
| He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life | 1986 | Writer |
| Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania | 1996 | Writer |
| Birth of a Nation | 1997 | Writer |
| Letters from Nowhere | 1997 | Writer |
| Song of Avignon | 1998 | Writer |
| This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography | 1999 | Producer |
| This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography | 1999 | Writer |
| As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty | 2000 | Writer |
| A Letter from Greenpoint | 2004 | Writer |
| Brakhage Crosses Central Park | 2006 | Writer |
| Salvador Dalí at Work | 2006 | Writer |
| WTC Haikus | 2010 | Producer |
| Self Discovery for Social Survival | 2019 | Writer |