Jonas Mekas
Known For: Directing
Gender: Male
Date of Birth: December 24, 1922
Day of Death: January 23, 2019 (96 years old)
Place of Birth: Semeniškiai, Lithuania
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.
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
Actor Self
Last Interview Film of Jonas Mekas/version 1
Actor Self
Cinema and Sanctuary
Actor
Keep singing: a tribute to Jonas Mekas
Actor
Makeshift (for Mekas)
Actor Self
Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film
Actor Narrator (voice)
Self Discovery for Social Survival
Actor
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
Actor
3 Friends Singing (...in the Desert)
Actor
Jonas Towards Broadway
Actor
Elegy for J.M.
Director
Requiem
Writer
Self Discovery for Social Survival
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
Actor Himself
My Conversations on Film
Actor Self
What Is Cinema?
Actor Self
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Actor self
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Director
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Director
The Sixties Quartet
Cinematography
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Writer
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Editor
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
2012
2011
Actor Self
Guest
Actor Himself
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
Actor himself
My Mars Bar Movie
Actor
Re: Maciunas and Fluxus
Actor Himself
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
Actor Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux")
3.11 A Sense of Home
Director
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
Director
Sleepless Nights Stories
Director
First Class Flight
Director
3.11 A Sense of Home
Director
Mt. Ventoux
Director
My Mars Bar Movie
Director
Keep Singing
Director
Re: Maciunas and Fluxus
Director
My Paris Movie
2010
2009
2008
2007
Actor Self
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Actor Self
Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
Actor Self
365 Day Project
Actor Self
Sunday December 30, 2007
Director
Friday March 16, 2007
Director
Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
Director
Monday Jan. 1, 2007
Director
Thursday Jan. 4, 2007: Pedro (São Paulo) or The Right Way To Make Capirinha
Director
365 Day Project
Director
Monday April 16, 2007
Director
Friday May 4, 2007: John Zorn – Cobra Part Two
Director
Sunday December 30, 2007
2006
Actor Himself
Anger Me
Actor Self
Notes on Marie Menken
Actor Self
Salvador Dalí at Work
Actor
Meet The Kuchar Brothers
Actor Self
Who Gets to Call It Art?
Actor Himself (voice)
The Song of Central Park
Director
A Visit to Stan Brakhage
Director
Velvet Underground's First Public Appearance
Director
John & Yoko Bed-In
Director
To Barbara Rubin with Love
Director
A Visit to Stan Brakhage
Director
A Visit to Timothy Leary
Director
Dedication to Matsuo Basho
Director
Bibi Hansen
Director
Carl Dreyer
Director
Poets at the Living Theater
Director
Warhol and Maciunas
Director
Andy at Work
Director
Robert Frank Films
Director
Salvador Dalí at Work
Writer
Salvador Dalí at Work
Director
Cinémathèque Française
Editor
Brakhage Crosses Central Park
Writer
Brakhage Crosses Central Park
Cinematography
Brakhage Crosses Central Park
Director
Brakhage Crosses Central Park
Director
The Destruction Quartet
Director
Monks of Cinema
Cinematography
Salvador Dalí at Work
Director
Moires with Prof. Oster and Salvador Dalí
Director
The Song of Central Park
Director
To John With Love
Director
John & Yoko Bed-In
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
Actor Narrator (voice)
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Actor Himself
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
Director
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Director
Silence, Please
Cinematography
Silence, Please
Director
Autobiography of a Man Who Carried his Memory in his Eyes
Writer
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Cinematography
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Editor
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Director
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
1999
Actor Himself
Laboratorium Anthology
Actor
Letter to John from Jonas
Director
This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography
Editor
This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography
Producer
This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography
Director
Laboratorium Anthology
Director
Letter to John from Jonas
Writer
This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography
Director
A Few Notes on Andy's Factory
1998
1997
Actor Self
A Poet from the Lower East Side
Actor Self
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
Director
Happy Birthday to John
Director
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
Director
Nam June Paik's Piano Piece
Director
Birth of a Nation
Cinematography
Birth of a Nation
Editor
Birth of a Nation
Writer
Birth of a Nation
Editor
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
Cinematography
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
Writer
Letters from Nowhere
Editor
Letters from Nowhere
Director
Letters from Nowhere
1996
Actor Himself
Michael Snow Up Close
Actor Self
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Actor Himself
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
Actor Himself
Jonas Mekas, Friday 13th October
Director
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Director
Celebrate Cinema 101
Cinematography
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Writer
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Editor
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Director
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
Director
Song of The Salamander
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
1990
Actor Butterfly Wing
Step Across the Border
Actor Self
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
Director
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships & Intersections
Director
A Walk
Camera Operator
A Walk
Director
Mob of Angels: Baptism
Editor
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships & Intersections
Cinematography
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships & Intersections
1989
1986
Actor Self (archive footage)
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Actor Himself
Invocation: Maya Deren
Actor Self
Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank
Director
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Writer
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Cinematography
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Editor
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1985
1984
1983
1981
1980
1979
1978
1976
1975
1974
1972
1971
1970
1969
1968
1967
1966
![Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas](http://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w185/5yEUYxLQWc71aL7OGrhSnpslsQO.jpg)
1965
Actor Himself
Jonas in the Brig
Actor Self
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
Actor
Dirt
Actor Self
Andy Warhol Screen Tests
Actor Self (uncredited)
Empire
Director
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
Director
Film Magazine of the Arts
Director of Photography
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
Editor
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
Editor
Film Magazine of the Arts
Cinematography
Film Magazine of the Arts
Cinematography
Empire
