Jonas Mekas
Directing • Born 1922-12-24 – Died 2019-01-23
Biography
Jonas Mekas (12-24-1922 - 1-23-2019) 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 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.
Filmography
158 credits
My Country is Cinema
Movie • 1998
Self
Last Interview Film of Jonas Mekas/version 1
Movie • 2019
Self
The Velvet Underground
Movie • 2021
Self
Film: The Living Record of Our Memory
Movie • 2022
Self
Notes for a Déjà vu
Movie • 2022
Cinema and Sanctuary
Movie • 2019
Self
Strong Medicine
Movie • 1981
Persistence of Vision
Movie • 1984
Self
All About Bolex
Movie • 2015
A Report from Venice
Movie • 2015
Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
Movie • 2023
Self (archive footage)
Back from New York
Movie • 2021
Himself
Michael Snow Up Close
Movie • 1996
Himself
The Signing
Movie • 2009
Anger Me
Movie • 2006
Himself
Lavender
Movie • 2010
Self
My Birthday
Movie • 2014
Home Movies 1971-81
Movie • 1985
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)
Movie • 1992
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Movie • 2000
Narrator (voice)
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
Movie • 2012
Jonas Mekas
A Poet from the Lower East Side
Movie • 1997
Self
Belladonna
Movie • 1989
Jonas Keeps Shooting Around
Movie • 2002
Himself
River of Fundament
Movie • 2014
Wake Guest
Vertigo
Movie • 2022
Galaxie
Movie • 1966
Self
Interview and Reading: Jonas Mekas
Movie • 1991
Himself
Jonas Mekas Anthology
Movie • 2022
Jonas Mekas
Fragments of Paradise
Movie • 2022
Self (archive footage)
Notes for Jerome
Movie • 1978
Self
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
Movie • 2022
The Lamb
Movie
Self
J. Mekas
Movie • 1980
Self
Occhio privato sul nuovo mondo
Movie • 1970
Guest
Movie • 2011
Self
Viva Jonas!
Movie
Himself
Doc
Movie • 2008
Himself
Just Visiting This Planet
Movie • 1991
Jonas
Movie • 1968
Himself
Maya Deren, Take Zero
Movie • 2012
Himself
The Perfect Team: The Making of 'On the Bowery'
Movie • 2009
Self
Four Shadows
Movie • 1978
Diane the Zebra Woman
Movie • 1962
On the Holy Spirit
Movie • 2016
I Had Nowhere to Go
Movie • 2016
Himself
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
Movie • 2002
Himself
Reminiscences from Germany
Movie • 2012
Himself
The Song of Avila
Movie • 1967
Narrator
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Movie • 1986
Self (archive footage)
Step Across the Border
Movie • 1990
Butterfly Wing
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
Movie • 1997
Self
The Definition of Insanity
Movie • 2005
I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance
Movie • 2017
Self
The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man
Movie • 1981
The Love Merchant
Movie • 1966
Lounge Patron
Going Home
Movie • 1972
Himself
Notes on Marie Menken
Movie • 2006
Self
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Movie • 1972
Self
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Movie • 2007
Self
Salvador Dalí at Work
Movie • 2006
Self
No. 18: Mahagonny
Movie • 1980
Self
Jonas in the Brig
Movie • 1965
Himself
Underground New York
Movie • 1968
Self
ORG
Movie • 1979
Self (archive footage)
Self-Portrait
Movie • 1980
Himself
Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
Movie • 2007
Self
My Conversations on Film
Movie • 2013
Himself
Meet The Kuchar Brothers
Movie • 2006
Jonas in the Desert
Movie • 1994
Self
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
Movie • 2011
Himself
‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
Movie • 1974
Filmmakers
Movie • 1969
Himself
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
Movie • 1996
Himself
Journey to Lithuania
Movie • 1971
Himself
Laboratorium Anthology
Movie • 1999
Himself
Invocation: Maya Deren
Movie • 1986
Himself
It Came from Kuchar
Movie • 2009
Self (archive footage)
Visionaries
Movie • 2010
Himself
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
Movie • 1964
Self
New York Conversations
Movie • 2010
George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus
Movie • 2018
Self
Warhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties
Movie • 1989
Self
What Is Cinema?
Movie • 2013
Self
Question a Day
Movie • 2008
Letter to John from Jonas
Movie • 1999
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
Movie • 2000
Himself
Portrait Serie - Jonas Mekas
Movie • 2010
himself
Keep singing: a tribute to Jonas Mekas
Movie • 2019
Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground
Movie • 2018
Poem Posters
Movie • 1967
Self
Excavating Taylor Mead
Movie • 2005
Self
A Letter from Greenpoint
Movie • 2004
Mekas
Makeshift (for Mekas)
Movie • 2019
A Matter of Baobab
Movie • 1968
A Letter to Penny Arcade
Movie • 2001
Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film
Movie • 2019
Self
Self Discovery for Social Survival
Movie • 2019
Narrator (voice)
Nitsch
Movie • 2018
Dirt
Movie • 1965
A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol
Movie • 2015
Self
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
Movie • 2009
Himself
Award
Movie • 1992
Himself
Andy Warhol Screen Tests
Movie • 1965
Self
Nico Icon
Movie • 1995
Self
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
Movie • 1990
Self
Who Gets to Call It Art?
Movie • 2006
Self
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
Movie • 2019
My Mars Bar Movie
Movie • 2011
himself
Imagine
Movie • 1972
Self
Cinématon
Movie • 1978
N°1590
Andy Warhol's Factory People... Inside the Sixties Silver Factory
Movie • 2008
Paradise Not Yet Lost
Movie • 1979
Himself
Beyond the Bolex
Movie • 2018
Self
365 Day Project
Movie • 2007
Self
Empire
Movie • 1965
Self (uncredited)
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Movie • 1968
Self
Lost, Lost, Lost
Movie • 1976
Self
Re: Maciunas and Fluxus
Movie • 2011
Quartet Number One
Movie • 1991
Song of Avignon
Movie • 1998
Self
Jonas Mekas, Friday 13th October
Movie • 1996
Himself
![Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/original/5yEUYxLQWc71aL7OGrhSnpslsQO.jpg)
Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas
Movie • 1966
himself
Not in Our Name
Movie • 2003
himself
Notes on an American Film Director at Work
Movie • 2008
Self
The Song of Central Park
Movie • 2006
Himself (voice)
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
Movie • 2011
Himself
Tapes
Movie • 2020
Postcard from America
Movie • 1975
3.11 A Sense of Home Films
Movie • 2011
Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux")
3 Friends Singing (...in the Desert)
Movie • 2019
Elegy for J.M.
Movie • 2019
Axiom of Choice
Movie • 2003
Self
Jonas Towards Broadway
Movie • 2019
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
Movie • 2016
Self
Tiny Tim: King for a Day
Movie • 2020
Himself
Cinématon n°1590 : Jonas Mekas
Movie
Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank
Movie • 1986
Self
EXPRMNTL
Movie • 2016
himself
The Sin of Jesus
Movie • 1961
The Invisible Father
Movie • 2021
Self (archive footage)
Sunday December 30, 2007
Movie • 2007
Self
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Movie • 1968
self
Notes in Lifestyle Margins
Movie • 2002
Jonas Mekas in Budapest
Movie • 1993
Himself
Vies et morts d'Andy Warhol
Movie • 2005
Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master
Movie • 2006
Self
Behind the Artist: Andy Warhol, an American Prophet
Movie • 2015
The Misfits - 30 Years of Fluxus
Movie
Self
Ricky Leacock Visit, April 15, 1971
Movie • 1971
Self
Jonas Mekas in Paris 10/97
Movie • 1998
A Mixtape for Stom
Movie • 2025
Filmstudio, mon amour
Movie • 2015
Sé stesso
Shooting Guns
Movie • 1966
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
Movie • 1973
Jonas in the Jungle
Movie • 2013
Self
Últimas correspondencias
Movie • 2016
Self
Kulturplatz
TV • 2004
Self