#MekasWeek

19-12-2022

We inaugurate today #MekasWeek to celebrate the centennial of the birth of Lithuanian filmmaker Jonas Mekas (24 Dec 1922 - 23 Jan 2019), "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema"

Lietuvos nacionalinė Martyno Mažvydo biblioteka. Cover of Letter from Nowhere -- Laiškai iš niekur N.1 (1997), 75 min., video. Available in Europeana: https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/2021803/C1B0002974777



Jonas Mekas was born in Semeniškiai, near Biržai (Lithuania) on the 24th December 1922; from 1941 to 1944, while Lithuania was under Nazi occupation, he published poetry and cultural profiles in the newspapers "Naujosios Biržų žinios" and "Panevėžio apygardos balsas". This later became a controversy as both magazines were linked to the fat-right, antisemitic Lithuanian Activist Front, and the fascist Lithuanian Nationalist Party, respectively; in any case, his publications were neither antisemitic, nor pro-totalitarianism.

In 1944, he and his brother Adolfas tried to flee Lithuania and to reach neutral Switzerland by train, passing through Austria, but they were stopped and arrested in Germany. They were imprisoned in a labour camp in Hamburg for eight months, until they managed to escape and hide in a farm near Denmark. After the war, they lived in displaced peoples' camps in Germany, and managed to study philosophy at the University of Mainz, until they secured sponsorship to migrate to the US thanks to sponsorship for a job. Upon arrival, in 1949, they settled in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, back then a popular place for European refugees, though largely poor and dangerous until the early naughties' gentrification.

This is a copy of a 1955 edition of its first book, "Semeniškių Idilės", "Semeniškii's Idylls" first published in 1948 by Lithuanian publisher Žvilgsniai

Biržų krašto muziejus "Sėla". Knyga. Jonas Mekas „Semeniškių idilės. Available in Europeana: https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/2021802/LIMIS_281702741


Two months after his arrival in New York City, he borrowed money to buy his first Bolex 16mm camera, and began recording his everyday life - 70 years before it was a common activity for most people. He soon discovered avant-garde film, and became part of the New American Cinema movement. He began curating screenings in various art galleries in New York City. In 1954, he and his brother founded the journal "Film Culture", which quickly became the most important film publication in the US, and in 1958 he started to contribute regularly for the magazine "The Village Voice", with a column titled "Movie Journal". In 1964 he co-founded the "Filmmakers' Cinematheque", which eventually became Anthology Film Archives, one of the world's largest and most important repositories of avant-garde film. He was quickly recognised as a vibrant voice of the New York art scene of those years. He collaborated with artists such as Andy Warhol, Nico, Allen Ginsberg, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Salvador Dalí, and fellow Lithuanian George Maciunas.


Material on his first narrative film from 1962, "Guns of the Trees", and its UK distributor, available on APE:

https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=GB-2603&term=Jonas+Mekas&using=all&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=gb2603-toc&c=C639007522


Many copies of "The village voice" can be found in archives, here are in the papers of a dancer performing in New York, from 1972:

https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=FR-FRCND&term=Jonas+Mekas&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=FRCND_CHIL&c=C813100758


A letter from the Lithuanian students association of North America, inviting Jonas to their annual conference, most likely in 1972:

Biržai District Municipality Jurgis Bielinis Public Library Jonas and Adolfas Mekas Heritage Studies Center


His fame quickly became international; the feature film "The brig", shot in only 4 hours, won the jury prize at the Venice film festival, and his "New American Cinema Expositions", toured Europe and South America from 1964 to 1967. Always in 1964, he 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 he continued to exhibit films at the Filmmakers' Cinematheque, the Jewish Museum, and the Gallery of Modern Art. He advocated for a cinema that was pure freedom of expression, he invoked the revolution through cameras.


A 1967 Italian newsreel during his exhibition tour:

Istituto Luce, Cinema Sotterraneo, 31/07/1967. Click on the first pic to access the video


A 1987 Spanish newsreel, with an interview:

RTVE, Jonas Mekas, an old friend, available on Europeana. Click on the first pic to access the video

He was also included in the documentary "New York Memories" by French filmmaker Claude Bosson; a copy is available at the French National Archives, all details in Archives Portal Europe: https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=FR-FRAN&term=Jonas+Mekas&using=all&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=FRAN_IR_058381&c=C735352830


Mekas was a writer, critic, and poet, but first and foremost an experimental filmmaker. For all his life he organised multi-monitor installations, sound immersion pieces, "frozen-film" prints, documentaries, and narrative projects. An early comer to digital arts, in 2007 (at the age of 85), Mekas released one film every day on his website, a project he entitled "The 365 Day Project." which is still available on his website.

The references to a 1992 interview aired by Radio France - France Culture for the show "Le mardis du cinéma" ("Cinema on Tuesdays") are available on Archives Portal Europe here

A 2009 Spanish newsreel about the project is available here:

RTVE, Report on Jonas Mekas, available on Europeana. Click on the first pic to access the video


Mekas was and remains one of the most beloved underground artists of the 20th century. He was included with a special project in the 1992-2002 project by the French State for the celebrations of the year 2000 with a large exhibition in Avignon. You can find the information on the Archives Nationales de France here:

https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=FR-FRAN&term=Jonas+Mekas&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=FRAN_IR_026520&c=C731123996

and here:


https://www.archivesportaleurope.net/advanced-search/search-in-archives/results-(archives)/?&repositoryCode=FR-FRAN&term=Jonas+Mekas&levelName=clevel&t=fa&recordId=FRAN_IR_026520&c=C731123956



While residing mostly in New York City for the rest of his life, he maintained strong links with Lithuania. In 1995, he received the Lithuanian National Prize, Nacionalinė kultūros ir meno premija, for awards in the arts.


Here is a letter from Vytautas Partikas, a musician in the small town of Jurbarkas in Lithuania who died in February 2022:

Biržai District Municipality Jurgis Bielinis Public Library Jonas and Adolfas Mekas Heritage Studies Center


A letter of the Lithuanian Jesuits to Mekas from 2011, thanking him for a donation for the educational programs of the Vilnius and Kaunas Jesuit School :

Biržai District Municipality Jurgis Bielinis Public Library Jonas and Adolfas Mekas Heritage Studies Center


Jonas Mekas would have turned 100 on the 24th December 2022, but his life journey ended on the 23rd January 2019, at 97. He remains one of the most important Lithuanian filmmakers and artists of the 20th century.



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