Cine AI
Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas

Director · Born 1922-12-24 · Semeniškiai, Lithuania

Get the app Browse on web

Biography

Jonas Mekas (24-12-1922 - 23-1-2019) 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. 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 p…

Directed

  1. As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) — Director
  2. Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972) — Director
  3. Diaries, Notes, and Sketches (1968) — Director
  4. Song of Avignon (1998) — Director
  5. Lost, Lost, Lost (1976) — Director
  6. Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships & Intersections (1990) — Director
  7. Guns of the Trees (1961) — Director
  8. Notes on the Circus (1967) — Director
  9. Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin (2011) — Director
  10. Hare Krishna (1967) — Director
  11. The Brig (1964) — Director
  12. He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life (1986) — Director
  13. Happy Birthday to John (1997) — Director
  14. Report from Millbrook (1966) — Director
  15. Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus) (1992) — Director
  16. Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man (2012) — Director
  17. Cassis (1966) — Director
  18. Sleepless Nights Stories (2011) — Director
  19. This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography (1999) — Director
  20. In Between (1978) — Director
  21. The Song of Moscow (1971) — Director
  22. The Song of Avila (1967) — Director
  23. The Song of Italy (1967) — Director
  24. WTC Haikus (2010) — Director
  25. The Song of Assisi (1967) — Director
  26. The Song of Stockholm (1981) — Director
  27. Travel Songs (1981) — Director
  28. Notes on an American Film Director at Work (2008) — Director
  29. Time & Fortune Vietnam Newsreel (1969) — Director
  30. Williamsburg, Brooklyn (2003) — Director
  31. Birth of a Nation (1997) — Director
  32. To Barbara Rubin with Love (2006) — Director
  33. Award Presentation to Andy Warhol (1964) — Director
  34. Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit (1997) — Director
  35. Quartet Number One (1991) — Director
  36. Imperfect Three-Image Films (1995) — Director
  37. 3.11 A Sense of Home Films (2011) — Director
  38. Yoko Ono Lennon's Courage Awards 2016: Laurie Anderson, Mohammad el Gharani, Eileen Boxer, RoseLee Goldberg, LoftOpera (2016) — Director
  39. My Birthday (2014) — Director
  40. Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR (2009) — Director

Also appeared in

  1. The Velvet Underground (2021) — Self
  2. As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) — Narrator (voice)
  3. Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972) — Self
  4. Empire (1965) — Self (uncredited)
  5. Imagine (1972) — Self
  6. Diaries, Notes, and Sketches (1968) — Self
  7. Song of Avignon (1998) — Self
  8. What Is Cinema? (2013) — Self
  9. Lost, Lost, Lost (1976) — Self
  10. River of Fundament (2014) — Wake Guest
  11. In the Mirror of Maya Deren (2002) — Himself
  12. 9/11: Life Under Attack (2021) — Self
  13. Step Across the Border (1990) — Butterfly Wing
  14. Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film (2011) — Himself
  15. Nico Icon (1995) — Self
  16. Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin (2011) — Himself
  17. Tiny Tim: King for a Day (2020) — Himself
  18. It Came from Kuchar (2009) — Self (archive footage)
  19. Film: The Living Record of Our Memory (2022) — Self
  20. He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life (1986) — Self (archive footage)
  21. Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV (2023) — Self (archive footage)
  22. Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus) (1992)
  23. Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man (2012) — Jonas Mekas
  24. Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis (2007) — Self
  25. ORG (1979) — Self (archive footage)
  26. Guest (2011) — Self
  27. The Love Merchant (1966) — Lounge Patron
  28. ‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen (1974)
  29. Who Gets to Call It Art? (2006) — Self
  30. The Sin of Jesus (1961)
  31. The Song of Avila (1967) — Narrator
  32. The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man (1981)
  33. Cinématon (1978) — N°1590
  34. Strong Medicine (1981)
  35. Going Home (1972) — Himself
  36. My Conversations on Film (2013) — Himself
  37. Notes on Marie Menken (2006) — Self
  38. Jonas in the Desert (1994) — Self
  39. Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film (2019) — Self
  40. Self Discovery for Social Survival (2019) — Narrator (voice)