Jonas Mekas

Personal Info

Known For Director

Gender Male

Birthday 1922-12-24

Deathday 2019-01-23 (96 years old)

Place of Birth Semeniškiai, Lithuania

Also Known As 요나스 메카스, 乔纳斯·梅卡斯

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.

Known For

Director

When

as Director

2020
Tapes

as Director

2019
Requiem

as Director

2016
On the Holy Spirit

as Director

2015
My Bolexes

as Director

2015
All About Bolex

as Director

2015
2014
My Birthday

as Director

2014
Halloween 1990

as Director

2013
2012
20 Little Films

as Director

2012
Happy Easter Ride

as Director

2011
2011
First Class Flight

as Director

2011
2011
Mt. Ventoux

as Director

2011
My Mars Bar Movie

as Director

2011
Keep Singing

as Director

2011
2011
My Paris Movie

as Director

2010
WTC Haikus

as Director

2010
42 One Dream Rush

as Director

2010
Lavender

as Director

2010
Orchard Street

as Director

2009
2007
2007
Day Nine

as Director

2007
2007
365 Day Project

as Director

2006
2006
John & Yoko Bed-In

as Director

2006
2006
2006
Bibi Hansen

as Director

2006
Carl Dreyer

as Director

2006
2006
Andy at Work

as Director

2006
Robert Frank Films

as Director

2006
2006
2006
Monks of Cinema

as Director

2006
2006
2005
Notes on Utopia

as Director

2004
2003
2003
2002
Three Friends

as Director

2002
Mysteries

as Director

2001
Elvis

as Director

2001
Wien & Mozart

as Director

2000
Silence, Please

as Director

1999
1998
Song of Avignon

as Director

1997
1997
Birth of a Nation

as Director

1997
1996
1996
1995
1991
Quartet Number One

as Director

1990
A Walk

as Director

1990
1983
Street Songs

as Director

1981
Travel Songs

as Director

1981
1980
Self-Portrait

as Director

1980
1979
1978
Notes for Jerome

as Director

1978
In Between

as Director

1976
Lost, Lost, Lost

as Director

1970
The Song of Moscow

as Director

1967
1967
Hare Krishna

as Director

1967
1967
The Song of Avila

as Director

1967
The Song of Assisi

as Director

1967
The Song of Italy

as Director

1966
Cassis

as Director

1966
1964
The Brig

as Director

1963
Hallelujah the Hills

as Assistant Director

1961
Guns of the Trees

as Director

Actor

The Lamb

as Self

Viva Jonas!

as Himself

2023
Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV

as Self (archive footage)

2022
Jonas Mekas Anthology

as Jonas Mekas

2022
Fragments of Paradise

as Self (archive footage)

2021
2020
2019
2018
2018
2016
EXPRMNTL

as himself

2016
2014
River of Fundament

as Wake Guest

2013
2012
2011
3.11 A Sense of Home

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

2011
2011
Guest

as Self

2010
Lavender

as Self

2010
Visionaries

as Himself

2009
It Came from Kuchar

as Self (archive footage)

2008
Doc

as Himself

2007
365 Day Project

as Himself

2007
Day Nine

as Himself

2006
The Song of Central Park

as Himself (voice)

2006
Anger Me

as Himself

2006
2004
Kulturplatz

as Self

2003
Not in Our Name

as himself

1999
1998
1996
1995
Nico Icon

as Himself

1992
Award

as Himself

1990
Step Across the Border

as Butterfly Wing

1986
1984
1980
Self-Portrait

as Himself

1980
J. Mekas

as Self

1979
ORG

as Self (archive footage)

1979
1978
Cinématon

as N°1590

1978
1976
1972
Imagine

as Self

1972
Going Home

as Himself

1971
1969
Filmmakers

as Himself

1968
Jonas

as Himself

1968
1967
The Song of Avila

as Narrator

1967
Poem Posters

as Self

1966
Galaxie

as Himself

1966
The Love Merchant

as Lounge Patron

1965
1965
1965
Empire

as Self (uncredited)

Crew

2015
My Bolexes

as Cinematography

2013
2006
2006
Salvador Dalí at Work

as Cinematography

2000
Silence, Please

as Cinematography

1997
Birth of a Nation

as Cinematography

1978
Notes for Jerome

as Cinematography

1976
Lost, Lost, Lost

as Cinematography

1969
1967
Notes on the Circus

as Cinematography

1965
Film Magazine of the Arts

as Cinematography

1965
Empire

as Cinematography

1964
The Brig

as Cinematography

1961
Guns of the Trees

as Cinematography

Camera

2015
All About Bolex

as Camera Operator

2010
Lavender

as Director of Photography

2010
WTC Haikus

as Director of Photography

2008
1995
On My Way to Fujiyama I met..

as Director of Photography

1990
A Walk

as Camera Operator

1966
Cassis

as Director of Photography

1965
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol

as Director of Photography

Sound

1966
European Diaries

as Sound Designer