Image of Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas was born in 1922 in the farming village of Semeniškiai, Lithuania. He currently lives and works in New York City. 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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Born:
Dec 24, 1922 In Semeniškiai, Lithuania
Movie/TV Credits:
30
First Appeared:
In the movie Empire 1965-03-06
Latest Project:
Movie River of Fundament 2014-02-12
Known For
Filmography
Movie River of Fundament Wake Guest 2014-02-12
Movie What Is Cinema? Self 2013-09-06
Movie My Conversations on Film Himself 2013-10-13
Movie Guest Self 2011-03-25
Movie 3.11 A Sense of Home Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux") 2011-11-04
Movie Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film Himself 2011-07-24
Movie It Came from Kuchar Self (archive footage) 2009-09-22
Movie Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis Self 2007-04-11
Movie Anger Me Himself 2006-10-23
Movie Notes on Marie Menken Himself 2006-04-20
Movie Salvador Dalí at Work Self 2006-11-11
Movie In the Mirror of Maya Deren Himself 2002-03-15
Movie As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty Self / Narrator 2000-11-05
Movie Nico Icon Himself 1995-02-18
Movie Jonas in the Desert Self 1994-01-01
Movie Just Visiting This Planet 1991-09-05
Movie Belladonna 1989-05-22
Movie He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life Self (archive footage) 1986-02-22
Movie The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man 1981-08-01
Movie ORG Self (archive footage) 1979-08-31
Movie Cinématon N°1590 1978-12-20
Movie Lost, Lost, Lost Self 1976-09-14
Movie ‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen 1974-11-05
Movie Going Home Himself 1972-10-04
Movie Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania Self 1972-08-02
Movie Diaries, Notes, and Sketches Self 1968-03-01
Movie The Love Merchant Lounge Patron 1966-01-01
Movie Galaxie Himself 1966-09-03
Movie Empire Self (uncredited) 1965-03-06
Movie Dirt 1965-09-25
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