Year: 1998
Duration: 10
"Dedicated to my 1966 trip to Avignon that
helped me survive a deep crisis that I was going through. Texts from diaries of
that period on the soundtrack are read by Angus MacLise" (J. Mekas).
"Mekas emerges from a Dantean dark wood into purifying flame" (M.
McE).
Biography
film director
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas (Semeniskiai, USSR, 1922) was imprisoned in a work camp during the German occupation. He managed to escape in 1945 and hid in a refugee camp. After graduating in humanities and philosophy from the University of Tübingen, he published a literary magazine and a book of poetry. In 1950 he moved to New York and began working in cinema. In 1955 he founded the magazine "Film Culture" which became the voice of the New American Cinema. In 1958 he inaugurated the column "Movie Journal" in "The Village Voice" and three years later directed his first experimental film, Guns of the Trees, thus becoming one of the main exponents of the underground scene. He founded the Film-Makers' Cooperative to distribute films made by independent directors, followed by the Film-Makers -Cinémathèque in 1963.
FILMOGRAFIA
Guns of the Trees (1960-61), Film Magazine of the Arts (cm, 1963), The Brig (1964), Award Presentation to Andy Warhol (cm, 1964), Report From Millbrook (cm, 1965-1966), Hare Krishna (cm, 1966), Notes on the Circus (cm, 1966), Cassis (cm, 1966), The Italian Notebook (cm, 1967), Time and Fortune Vietnam Newsreel (cm, 1968), Walden (1969), Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971/1972), Lost, Lost, Lost (1976), In Between (mm, 1978), Notes for Jerome (mm, 1978), Paradise Not Yet Lost (a/k/a Oona Third Year) (1979), Street Song (cm, 1966/1983), cup / saucer / two dancers / radio (cm, 1965/1983), Erick Hawkins: Excepts from "Here and Now with Watchers" / Lucia Dlugoszewski Performs (cm, 1964/1983), He Stands in a Desert Counting ther Second of His Life (1985), Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol (mm, 1990), Dr. Carl Jung Filmed by Jerome Hill or Lapis Philosophorum (cm, 1991), Mob of Angels: A Baptism (mm, 1990), Mob of Angels at Ann's (1991), Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Mciunas (cm, 1992), Quartet # 1 (cm, 1992), The Education of Sebastian or Egypt Regained (1992), Memories of Frankenstein (1996), Happy Birthday to John (cm, 1997), Birth of a Nation (1996), Scenes from Allen's Last 3 Days on Earth (1997), Song of Avignon (cm, 1998-2003).
Cast
& Credits
Regia/Director: Jonas
Mekas.