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Jonas Mekas
Director

Jonas Mekas

24 Dec 1922Born
23 Jan 2019Died
96Age at death
204Credits

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.

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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

Filmography

The 80 most recent of 204 credits.

  1. TBAWhenFilm: Director
  2. TBAMarcel Hanoun weddingFilm: Director
  3. 2025A Mixtape for StomFilm
  4. 2022Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the AgesFilm
  5. 2022Jonas Mekas AnthologyFilm: Jonas Mekas
  6. 2022VertigoFilm
  7. 2022Notes for a Déjà vuFilm
  8. 2020TapesFilm: Director
  9. 2019Elegy for J.M.Film
  10. 2019Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the PartyFilm
  11. 2019RequiemFilm: Director
  12. 2019Self Discovery for Social SurvivalFilm: Narrator (voice), Writer
  13. 2019Makeshift (for Mekas)Film
  14. 2019Keep singing: a tribute to Jonas MekasFilm
  15. 2019Jonas Towards BroadwayFilm
  16. 20193 Friends Singing (...in the Desert)Film
  17. 2018Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY UndergroundFilm
  18. 2018NitschFilm
  19. 2017From the Notebooks of a Cinema ManiacFilm: Director
  20. 2017I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that FragranceFilm: Director
  21. 2017From the diaries of a cinema maniacFilm: Director
  22. 2017CricketsFilm: Director
  23. 2016On the Holy SpiritFilm: Director
  24. 2016Yoko Ono Lennon's Courage Awards 2016: Laurie Anderson, Mohammad el Gharani, Eileen Boxer, RoseLee Goldberg, LoftOperaFilm: Director
  25. 2016Últimas correspondenciasFilm: Director
  26. 2015Filmstudio, mon amourFilm: Sé stesso
  27. 2015Behind the Artist: Andy Warhol, an American ProphetFilm
  28. 2015A Report from VeniceFilm: Director
  29. 2015Scenes from the Life of Raimund AbrahamFilm: Director
  30. 2015All About BolexFilm: Director
  31. 2015My BolexesFilm: Director
  32. 2015New Seasons Movement IVFilm: Director
  33. 2014My BirthdayFilm: Director
  34. 2014River of FundamentFilm: Wake Guest
  35. 2014Halloween 1990Film: Director
  36. 2014A CardinalFilm: Director
  37. 2014FlowersFilm: Director
  38. 2013I Leave Chelsea HotelFilm: Director
  39. 2013The Sixties QuartetFilm: Director
  40. 2012Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy ManFilm: Jonas Mekas, Director
  41. 2012Happy Easter RideFilm: Director
  42. 201220 Little FilmsFilm: Director
  43. 2012Reminiscences from GermanyFilm: Director
  44. 2011Mt. VentouxFilm: Director
  45. 2011My Paris MovieFilm: Director
  46. 2011Sleepless Nights StoriesFilm: Director
  47. 2011My Mars Bar MovieFilm: Director
  48. 20113.11 A Sense of Home FilmsFilm: Director
  49. 2011Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. GuerinFilm: Director
  50. 2011Re: Maciunas and FluxusFilm: Director
  51. 2011Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful WomanFilm
  52. 2011First Class FlightFilm: Director
  53. 2011Keep SingingFilm: Director
  54. 2010Orchard StreetFilm: Director
  55. 2010New York ConversationsFilm
  56. 201042 One Dream RushFilm: Director
  57. 2010LavenderFilm: Director
  58. 2010WTC HaikusFilm: Director
  59. 2009Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSRFilm: Director
  60. 2009The SigningFilm
  61. 2008Question a DayFilm
  62. 2008Andy Warhol's Factory People... Inside the Sixties Silver FactoryFilm
  63. 2008Notes on an American Film Director at WorkFilm: Director
  64. 2007365 Day ProjectFilm: Director
  65. 2007Sunday December 30, 2007Film: Director
  66. 2007Friday May 4, 2007: John Zorn – Cobra Part TwoFilm: Director
  67. 2007Monday April 16, 2007Film: Director
  68. 2007Friday Feb. 23, 2007Film: Director
  69. 2007Friday March 16, 2007Film: Director
  70. 2007Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007Film: Director
  71. 2007Saturday Jan. 6Film: Director
  72. 2007Thursday Jan. 4, 2007: Pedro (São Paulo) or The Right Way To Make CapirinhaFilm: Director
  73. 2007Monday Jan. 1, 2007Film: Director
  74. 2006Nam June Paik's Piano PieceFilm: Director
  75. 2006Patti Smith at Anthology Film Archives Febr. 19, 1998Film: Director
  76. 2006Moires with Prof. Oster and Salvador DalíFilm: Director
  77. 2006The Song of Central ParkFilm: Director
  78. 2006Jonas' Independence Speech at the Anniversary of the Filmmaker's CooperativeFilm: Director
  79. 2006Graffiti Museum Bronx, NYCFilm: Director
  80. 2006End of the Millennium EspressoFilm: Director

Biography and credits from TMDB. This website uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.