Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas (Lithuanian: [%CB%88jon%C9%90s ˈmækɐs]; born December 23,1922) is a Lithuanian American filmmaker, poet and artist who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals worldwide.

Biography

In 1944, Mekas left Lithuania because of war. En route, his train was stopped in Germany and he and his brother, Adolfas Mekas (1925–2011), were imprisoned in a labor camp in Elmshorn, a suburb of Hamburg, for eight months. The brothers escaped and were detained near the Danish border where they hid on a farm for two months until the end of the war. After the war, Mekas lived in displaced person camps in Wiesbaden and Kassel. From 1946 to 1948, he studied philosophy at the University of Mainz and at the end of 1949, he emigrated with his brother to the U.S., settling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Two weeks after his arrival, he borrowed the money to buy his first Bolex 16mm camera and began to record moments of his life. He discovered avant-garde film at venues such as Amos Vogel’s pioneering Cinema 16, and he began curating avant-garde film screenings at Gallery East on Avenue A and Houston Street, and a Film Forum series at Carl Fisher Auditorium on 57th Street.
In 1954, together with his brother Adolfas Mekas, he founded Film Culture, and in 1958, began writing his “Movie Journal” column for The Village Voice. In 1962, he co-founded Film-Makers' Cooperative and the Filmmakers' Cinematheque in 1964, which eventually grew into Anthology Film Archives, one of the world’s largest and most important repositories of avant-garde film. He was part of the New American Cinema, with, in particular, fellow film-maker Lionel Rogosin. He was a close collaborator with artists such as Andy Warhol, Nico, Allen Ginsberg, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Salvador Dalí, and fellow Lithuanian George Maciunas. In 1964, Mekas was arrested on obscenity charges for showing Flaming Creatures (1963) and Jean Genet’s Un Chant d’Amour (1950). He launched a campaign against the censorship board, and for the next few years continued to exhibit films at the Film-makers’ Cinemathèque, the Jewish Museum, and the Gallery of Modern Art. From 1964 to 1967, he organized the New American Cinema Expositions, which toured Europe and South America and in 1966 joined 80 Wooster Fluxhouse Coop. In 1970, Anthology Film Archives opened on 425 Lafayette Street as a film museum, screening space, and a library, with Mekas as its director. Mekas, along with Stan Brakhage, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, James Broughton, and P. Adams Sitney, began the ambitious Essential Cinema project at Anthology Film Archives to establish a canon of important cinematic works. As a film-maker, Mekas' own output ranges from his early narrative film (Guns of the Trees, 1961) to “diary films” such as Walden (1969); Lost, Lost, Lost (1975); Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972), Zefiro Torna (1992), and As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, which have been screened extensively at festivals and museums around the world. Mekas expanded the scope of his practice with his later works of multi-monitor installations, sound immersion pieces and "frozen-film" prints. Together they offer a new experience of his classic films and a novel presentation of his more recent video work. His work has been exhibited at the 51st Venice Biennial, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, the Ludwig Museum, the Serpentine Gallery, and the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center. In the year 2007, Mekas released one film every day on his website, a project he entitled "The 365 Day Project." The online diary is still ongoing on Jonas Mekas' official website. It was celebrated in 2015 with a show titled "The Internet Saga" which was curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi at Palazzo Foscari Contarini on the occasion of the 56th Venice Biennale of Visual Arts. Since the 1970s, he has taught film courses at the New School for Social Research, MIT, Cooper Union, and New York University. Mekas is also a well-known Lithuanian language poet and has published his poems and prose in Lithuanian, French, German, and English. He has published many of his journals and diaries including "I Had Nowhere to Go: Diaries, 1944–1954," and "Letters from Nowhere," as well as articles on film criticism, theory, and technique. On November 10, 2007, the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center was opened in Vilnius.

Jonas Mekas in culture

The German fillmmaker Peter Sempel has made three films about Mekas' works and life, Jonas in the Desert (1991), Jonas at the Ocean (2004), and Jonas in the Jungle (2013).

Awards and honors

• Guggenheim Fellowship (1966)
• Creative Arts Award, Brandeis University (1977)
• Mel Novikoff Award, San Francisco Film Festival (1989)
• Lithuanian National Prize, Lithuania (1995)
• Doctor of Fine Arts, Honoris Causa, Kansas City Art Institute (1996)
• Special Tribute, New York Film Critics Circle Awards (1996)
• Pier Paolo Pasolini Award, Paris (1997)
• International Documentary Film Association Award, Los Angeles (1997)
• Governors Award from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine (1997)
• Atrium Doctoris Honoris Causa, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania (1997)
• Represented Lithuania at the 51st International Art Exhibition Venice Biennial (2005)
• United States National Film Preservation Board selects "Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania" for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry (2006)
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association's Award (2007)
• Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (2008)
• Baltic Cultural Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to the field of Arts and Science (2008)
• Life Achievement Award at the second annual Rob Pruitt's Art Awards (2010)
• George Eastman Honorary Scholar Award (2011)
• 'Carry your Light and Believe' Award, Ministry of Culture, Lithuania (2012
• Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres, Ministry of Culture, France (2013)

Filmography

• Guns of the Trees (1962)
• Film Magazine of the Arts (1963)
• The Brig (1964) - 65 minutes
• Empire (1964)
• Award Presentation to Andy Warhol (1964)
• Report from Millbrook (1964–65)
• Hare Krishna (1966)
• Notes on the Circus (1966)
• Cassis (1966)
• The Italian Notebook (1967)
• Time and Fortune Vietnam Newsreel (1968)
• Walden (Diaries, Notes, and Sketches) (1969) - 3 hours
• Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971–72)
• Lost, Lost, Lost (1976)
• In Between: 1964–8 (1978)
• Notes for Jerome (1978)
• Paradise Not Yet Lost (also known as Oona's Third Year) (1979)
• Street Songs (1966/1983)
• Cups/Saucers/Dancers/Radio (1965/1983)
• Erik Hawkins: Excerpts from “Here and Now with Watchers”/Lucia Dlugoszewski Performs (1983)
• He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life (1969/1985)
• Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol (1990)
• Mob of Angels/The Baptism (1991)
• Dr. Carl G. Jung or Lapis Philosophorum (1991)
• Quartet Number One (1991)
• Mob of Angels at St. Ann (1992)
• Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (1992)
• The Education of Sebastian or Egypt Regained (1992)
• He Travels. In Search of... (1994)
• Imperfect 3-Image Films (1995)
• On My Way to Fujiyama I Met… (1995)
• Happy Birthday to John (1996) - 34 minutes
• Memories of Frankenstein (1996)
• Birth of a Nation (1997)
• Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit (1997)
• Letter from Nowhere – Laiskas is Niekur N.1 (1997)
• Symphony of Joy (1997)
• Song of Avignon (1998)
• Laboratorium (1999)
• Autobiography of a Man Who Carried his Memory in his Eyes (2000)
• This Side of Paradise (1999) - 35 minutes
• Notes on Andy's Factory (1999)
• Mysteries (1966–2001)
• As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) - 285 minutes
• Remedy for Melancholy (2000)
• Ein Maerchen (2001)
• Williamsburg, Brooklyn (1950–2003)
• Mozart & Wien and Elvis (2000)
• Travel Songs (1967–1981)
• Dedication to Leger (2003)
• Notes on Utopia (2003) 30 min,
• Letter from Greenpoint (2004)
• 365 Day Project (2007), 30 hours in total
• Notes on American Film Director: Martin Scorsese (2007), 80 minutes.
• Lithuania and the Collapse of USSR (2008), 4 hours 50 minutes.
• Sleepless Nights Stories (Premiere at the Berlinale 2011) - 114 minutesz
• My Mars Bar Movie (2011)
• Correspondences: José Luis Guerin and Jonas Mekas (2011)
• Reminiszenzen aus Deutschlan (2012)
• Out-takes from the Life of a Happy Man (2012) - 68 minutes

Personal life

He married Hollis Melton in 1974. They had two children, a daughter (Oona) and a son (Sebastian). His family is featured in Jonas' films such as "Out-takes from the Life of a Happy Man".

In 1944, at the age of twenty-two, Jonas Mekas left his small village in Lithuania, then occupied by the Nazis, in the company of his brother Adolfas. Mekas had begun his literary career as the editor of a provincial weekly paper and had published his first poems. He’d also had a hand in publishing an anti-German bulletin and had written a poem against Stalin; he was twice marked. Jonas and Adolfas set out for Vienna, aiming for Switzerland from there, but were instead pulled off a train near Hamburg and sent to a Nazi forced-labor camp. There, Mekas started keeping a diary.

Eventually, of course, he reached New York, where he and Adolfas founded the influential magazine Film Culture and, later, the Film-makers’ Cinematheque, which grew into the indispensable avant-garde repository Anthology Film Archives. But in the years of the diary, 1944 to 1955, as Mekas navigates postwar Europe and the immigrant landscape of midcentury New York, uncertainty was the only constant. “As I reread these diaries,” he wrote in 1985, “I do not know anymore, is this truth or fiction … I am reading this not as my own life but someone else’s, as if these miseries were never my own. How could I have survived it? This must be somebody else I am reading about.” Originally published by Black Thistle Press in 1991, the diary, titled I Had Nowhere to Go, will be reissued this month by Spector Books.

The three entries below, from January 1948, find Jonas and Adolfas in a Weisbaden displaced-person camp; Mekas is homesick and depressed but is, as he is throughout the diary, tenacious about living one day to the next. —Nicole Rudick

Source: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/08/17/diary-of-a-displaced...

Jonas Mekas (1922 m. gruodžio 24 d. Semeniškiuose – 2019 m. sausio 23 d. Niujorke) – lietuvių kilmės JAV filmų kūrėjas, menininkas ir kuratorius, dažnai vadinamas amerikietiškojo avangardo kino krikštatėviu. Gyveno ir dirbo Niujorke.

Biografija Gimė 1922 m. Semeniškiuose, tuometiniame Papilio valsčiuje, Biržų apskrityje. Būsimasis menininkas augo kartu su keturiais broliais (vienas jų, Adolfas Mekas, taip pat žinomas kūrybos bei kino pasaulyje) ir viena seserimi. Tėvai, Povilas ir Elžbieta, ūkininkavo, nebuvo pasiturintys, tėvas dar vertėsi staliaus darbais.

1933 m. pradėjo lankyti Laužadiškio pradinę mokyklą. Papilyje baigė 5 ir 6 klases. 1943 m. baigė Biržų gimnaziją. 1944 m. traukėsi į Vakarus. Elmshorne, Vokietijoje, pateko į karo belaisvių lagerį prie prievartinių darbų. 1945 m. apsistojo Visbadeno DP stovykloje, 1947 m. perkeltas į Kaselio DP stovyklą. 1946–1948 m. Mainco universitete studijavo filosofiją ir romanistiką.

1941–1942 m. redagavo laikraštį „Naujosios Biržų žinios“, 1943–1944 m. – „Panevėžio apygardos balsas“. 1944 m. su broliu Adolfu suimti nacių ir 8-iems mėnesiams įkalinti priverstinių darbų stovykloje Elmshorne Vokietijoje. 1946–1948 m. žurnalo „Žvilgsniai“ redaktorius.

1949 m. pabaigoje su broliu emigravo į JAV, apsistojo Bruklino rajone Niujorke. Praėjus dviem savaitėm po atvykimo pasiskolino pinigų, įsigijo 16 mm filmavimo kamerą ir pradėjo fiksuoti savo gyvenimo momentus. Gyvendamas Niujorko centre susidomėjo kaimynystės kino teatruose rodomais avangardiniais filmais ir 1956 m. pradėjo kurti savo filmus. J. Mekas tapo viena iš Amerikos avangardinio filmo vedančių personų, ir dirbo įvairiuose su filmo kuravimu susijusiuose darbuose.

Nuo 1954 m. leido ir redagavo anglišką dvimėnesį kino žurnalą „Film Culture“, 1955–1957 m. redagavo mėnesinį filmų meno laikraštį „Intro Bulletin“. Nuo 1958 m. redagavo žurnalo „The Village Voice“ skyrių Movie Journal. Filmų klausimais straipsnius spausdino savo redaguotuose žurnaluose, taip pat leidiniuose „Cinemages“, „Films in Review“, „Film Book“, „Cinema“. Buvo filmų studijinių bei diskusinių susirinkimų programų 1951–1953 m. „Film Study Group“, 1953–1954 m. „Film Forum“ vedėjas. 1962 m. su broliu įkūrė „The Film Makers' Cooperative“, o 1964 m. „The Filmmakers' Cinematheque“, kuris palaipsniui išaugo į „Anthology Film Archives“, vieną didžiausių pasaulyje amerikiečių avangardinio filmo archyvų.

J. Mekas artimai bendravo ir dirbo su tokiais menininkais kaip Jurgis Mačiūnas, Andy Warhol, Nico, Allen Ginsberg, Yoko Ono, John Lennon ir Salvador Dalí. Garsių menininkų „Fluxus“ kolekcijas pristato Vilniuje įsteigtas Jono Meko vizualiųjų menų centras.

Mirė 2019 m. sausio 23 d. Niujorke, savo namuose Bruklino rajone.

Šeima

Būdamas 52 metų, 1974 m. J. Mekas vedė Amerikos airę fotografę Hollis Melton. 2005 m. šeima išsiskyrė. Jų vaikai: duktė aktorė Oona Mekas (g. 1975), sūnus aktorius Sebastian Mekas (g. 1981).

Įvertinimas

• 2007 m. spalį J. Mekui Prezidentas Valdas Adamkus išimties tvarka suteikė Lietuvos Respublikos pilietybę.
• 2008 m. balandžio 1 d. už nuopelnus meno ir mokslo srityse Austrijos Menų komiteto sprendimu įteiktas aukščiausias Austrijos apdovanojimas – Pasižymėjimo ženklas. Jį įteikė Austrijos prezidentas Heinz Fisher. Gavęs šį apdovanojimą, J. Mekas taip pat tapo Austrijos Menų komiteto nariu.
• 2011 m. birželio 30 d. Biržų rajono savivaldybės sprendimu Jonui Mekui buvo suteiktas Biržų garbės piliečio vardas.
• 2018 m. lapkričio 30 d. Vilniaus dailės akademijos senato sprendimu Jonui Mekui suteiktas Vilniaus dailės akademijos garbės daktaro vardas.

Bibliografija

• Trys broliai, pasakos ir pjesės vaikams, 1945 m.
• Iš pasakų krašto, 1947 m.
• Knyga apie karalius ir žmones, pasakos ir pjesės vaikams, 1947 m.
• Semeniškių idilės, eilėraščiai, 1948 m.
• Gėlių kalbėjimas, eilėraščiai, 1961 m.
• Pavieniai žodžiai, eilėraščiai, 1967 m.
• Reminiscencijos, eilėraščiai, 1972 m.
• Dienoraščiai, eilėraščiai, 1970–1982 m. 1985 m.
• There Is No Ithaca", 1996 m.
• Laiškai iš niekur, eseistika, 1997 m.
• Mano naktys, eseistika, 2007 m.

Filmografija

• Guns of the Trees (1962 m.)
• Film Magazine of the Arts (1963 m.)
• The Brig (1964 m.)
• Award Presentation to Andy Warhol (1964 m.)
• Report from Millbrook (1964–65 m.)
• Hare Krishna (1966 m.)
• Notes on the Circus (1966 m.)
• Cassis (1966 m.)
• The Italian Notebook (1967 m.)
• Time and Fortune Vietnam Newsreel (1968 m.)
• Walden (Diaries, Notes, and Sketches) (1969 m.)
• Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1971–72 m.)
• Lost, Lost, Lost (1976 m.)
• In Between: 1964–8 (1978 m.)
• Notes for Jerome (1978 m.)
• Paradise Not Yet Lost (also known as Oona’s Third Year) (1979 m.)
• Street Songs (1966/1983 m.)
• Cups/Saucers/Dancers/Radio (1965/1983 m.)
• Erik Hawkins: Excerpts from „Here and Now with Watchers“/Lucia Dlugoszewski Performs (1983 m.)
• He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life (1969/1985 m.)
• Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol (1990 m.)
• Mob of Angels/The Baptism (1991 m.)
• Dr. Carl G. Jung or Lapis Philosophorum (1991 m.)
• Quartet Number One (1991 m.)
• Mob of Angels at St. Ann (1992 m.)
• Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (1992 m.)
• The Education of Sebastian or Egypt Regained (1992 m.)
• He Travels. In Search of… (1994 m.)
• Imperfect 3-Image Films (1995 m.)
• On My Way to Fujiyama I Met… (1995 m.)
• Happy Birthday to John (1996 m.)
• Memories of Frankenstein (1996 m.)
• Birth of a Nation (1997 m.)
• Scenes from Allen’s Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit (1997 m.)
• Letter from Nowhere – Laiskas is Niekur N.1 (1997 m.)
• Symphony of Joy (1997 m.)
• Song of Avignon (1998 m.)
• Laboratorium (1999 m.)
• Autobiography of a Man Who Carried his Memory in his Eyes (2000 m.)
• This Side of Paradise (1999 m.)
• Notes on Andy’s Factory (1999 m.)
• Mysteries (1966–2001 m.)
• As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000 m.)
• Remedy for Melancholy (2000 m.)
• Ein Maerchen (2001 m.)
• Williamsburg, Brooklyn (1950–2003 m.)
• Mozart & Wein and Elvis (2000 m.)
• Travel Songs (1967–1981 m.)
• Dedication to Leger (2003 m.)
• Notes on Utopia (2003 m.) 30 min,
• Letter from Greenpoint (2004 m.)
• Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR (2009 m.)
• Sleepless Nights Stories (Premjera Berlyno filmų festivalyje 2011)