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person_profile-Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas Died at age: 96

Actor | Producer

Fullname:

Jonas Mekas

Date of Birth:

Dec 24, 1922

Country of birth:

Lithuania

Died:

Jan 23, 2019

Biography of

Jonas Mekas

    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.

Photos of

Jonas Mekas

Photos ( 3 Photos

Filmography of

Jonas Mekas

Found 75 Movies in total

Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV

Self (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 2023

Jonas Mekas Anthology

Jonas Mekas ( Actor )

... 2022

Fragments of Paradise

Self (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 2022

... 2022

Vertigo

Actor

... 2022

Back from New York

Himself ( Actor )

... 2021

... 2021

The Invisible Father

Self (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 2021

Tapes

Actor

... 2020

Tiny Tim: King for a Day

Himself ( Actor )

... 2020

Cinema and Sanctuary

Self ( Actor )

... 2019

Self Discovery for Social Survival

Narrator (voice) ( Actor )

Writer

... 2019

... 2019

Beyond the Bolex

Self ( Actor )

... 2018

... 2018

... 2018

EXPRMNTL

himself ( Actor )

... 2016

I Had Nowhere to Go

Himself ( Actor )

... 2016

... 2016

... 2015

River of Fundament

Wake Guest ( Actor )

... 2014

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches

Self ( Actor )

Cinematography

... 2013

My Conversations on Film

Himself ( Actor )

... 2013

What Is Cinema?

Self ( Actor )

... 2013

Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man

Jonas Mekas ( Actor )

Director

... 2012

My Mars Bar Movie

himself ( Actor )

Director

... 2011

3.11 A Sense of Home Films

Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux") ( Actor )

Director

... 2011

... 2011

... 2011

Guest

Self ( Actor )

... 2011

... 2011

... 2010

It Came from Kuchar

Self (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 2009

Doc

Himself ( Actor )

... 2008

Notes on an American Film Director at Work

Self ( Actor )

Director Of Photography

... 2008

... 2008

365 Day Project

Himself ( Actor )

Director

... 2007

... 2007

Anger Me

Himself ( Actor )

... 2006

Who Gets to Call It Art?

Himself ( Actor )

... 2006

... 2006

... 2005

... 2005

Excavating Taylor Mead

Himself ( Actor )

... 2005

... 2002

... 2000

... 1997

... 1997

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

Himself ( Actor )

Cinematography

... 1996

Michael Snow Up Close

Himself ( Actor )

... 1996

Nico Icon

Himself ( Actor )

... 1995

Jonas in the Desert

Himself ( Actor )

... 1994

Step Across the Border

Butterfly Wing ( Actor )

... 1990

... 1990

... 1989

Invocation: Maya Deren

Himself ( Actor )

... 1986

... 1986

... 1985

... 1981

... 1981

ORG

Self (archive footage) ( Actor )

... 1979

Cinématon

N°1590 ( Actor )

... 1978

... 1978

Notes for Jerome

Self ( Actor )

Cinematography

... 1978

Lost, Lost, Lost

Self ( Actor )

Cinematography

... 1976

... 1974

Imagine

Self ( Actor )

... 1972

Going Home

Himself ( Actor )

... 1972

Journey to Lithuania

Himself ( Actor )

... 1971

... 1970

Underground New York

Himself ( Actor )

... 1968

Galaxie

Himself ( Actor )

... 1966

... 1965

Empire

Self (uncredited) ( Actor )

Cinematography

... 1965