Jonas Mekas
Known for: Directing
Jonas Mekas (24 December 1922 - 23 January 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
Series
Kulturplatz
Self
2004
Film
Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
Self (archive footage)
2023
Film
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships and Intersections
Self
1990
Film
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Narrator (voice)
2000
Film
The Velvet Underground
Self
2021
Film
Film: The Living Record of Our Memory
Self
2022
Film
The Definition of Insanity
2005
Film
River of Fundament
Wake Guest
2014
Film
Laboratorium Anthology
Himself
1999
Film
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Self
1968
Film
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
self
1968
Film
It Came from Kuchar
Self (archive footage)
2009
Film
ORG
Self (archive footage)
1979
Film
Empire
Self (uncredited)
1965
Film
9/11: Life Under Attack
Self
2021
Film
Jonas in the Desert
Self
1994
Film
A Poet from the Lower East Side
Self
1997
Film
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
Self
1990
Film
George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus
Self
2018
The Sin of Jesus
1961
Film
Nitsch
2018
Film
3.11 A Sense of Home Films
Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux")
2011
Film
Andy Warhol Screen Tests
Self
1965
Film
Notes on an American Film Director at Work
Self
2008
Film
365 Day Project
Self
2007
Film
Imagine
Self
1972
Film
Tiny Tim: King for a Day
Himself
2020
Film
Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank
Self
1986
Film
Birth of a Nation
Self
1997
Film
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
1973
Film
Up Your Legs Forever
Self - Legs
1971
Film
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Self (archive footage)
1986
Film
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Self
1972
Film
Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film
Self
2019
Film
Vertigo
2022
Film
Vies et morts d'Andy Warhol
2005
Film
Guest
Self
2011
Film
Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground
2018
Film
This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography
Self
1999
Film
Filmstudio, mon amour
Sé stesso
2015
Film
Salvador Dalí at Work
Self
2006
Film
Fragments of Paradise
Self (archive footage)
2022
Film
Andy Warhol's Factory People... Inside the Sixties Silver Factory
2008
Film
Doc
Himself
2008
Film
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Self
2007
Film
Home Movies 1971-81
1985
Film
A Mixtape for Stom
2025
Film
Notes in Lifestyle Margins
2002
Film
Lost, Lost, Lost
Self
1976
Film
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
Himself
2011
Film
Strong Medicine
1981
Last Interview Film of Jonas Mekas/version 1
Self
2019
Film
‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
1974
Film
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
Himself
2002
Film
Beyond the Bolex
Self
2018
Film
A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol
Self
2015
Film
The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man
1981
No. 18: Mahagonny
Self
1980
Just Visiting This Planet
1991
Film
Self Discovery for Social Survival
Narrator (voice)
2019
Film
Warhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties
Self
1989
Film
What Is Cinema?
Self
2013
Film
I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance
Self
2017
Film
Tapes
2020
Film
Jonas in the Brig
Himself
1965
Film
Cinématon
N°1590
1978
Film
Viva Jonas!
Himself
Film
J. Mekas
Self
1980
Film
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
Self
1997
Film
Visionaries
Himself
2010
Film
Song of Avignon
Self
1998
Film
Re: Maciunas and Fluxus
2011
Film
Back from New York
Himself
2021
Film
Who Gets to Call It Art?
Self
2006
Film
Shooting Guns
1966
Film
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
Self
2016
Film
Going Home
Himself
1972
Film
Behind the Artist: Andy Warhol, an American Prophet
2015
Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master
Self
2006
Film
Underground New York
Self
1968
Film
Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
Self
2007
Film
My Conversations on Film
Himself
2013
Film
Elegy for J.M.
2019
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022
Film
Step Across the Border
Butterfly Wing
1990
Film
Persistence of Vision
Self
1984
The Lamb
Self
Film
Excavating Taylor Mead
Self
2005
Film
Notes for Jerome
Self
1978
Film
Notes for a Déjà vu
2022
Film
Nico Icon
Self
1995
Film
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
Jonas Mekas
2012
Diane the Zebra Woman
1962
Maya Deren, Take Zero
Himself
2012
Film
Belladonna
1989
Film
A Letter to Penny Arcade
2001
A Letter from Greenpoint
Mekas
2004
Film
A Matter of Baobab
1968
Film
Últimas correspondencias
Self
2016
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
Self
1964
Film
I Had Nowhere to Go
Himself
2016
![Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w185/5yEUYxLQWc71aL7OGrhSnpslsQO.jpg)
Film
Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas
himself
1966
Film
A Report from Venice
2015
Notes on Marie Menken
Self
2006
Film
Jonas Keeps Shooting Around
Himself
2002
Film
On the Holy Spirit
2016
Film
Self-Portrait
Himself
1980
Film
The Song of Avila
Narrator
1967
Portrait Serie - Jonas Mekas
himself
2010
Film
Sunday December 30, 2007
Self
2007
Film
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011
Jonas
Himself
1968
Film
The Love Merchant
Lounge Patron
1966
Film
Meet The Kuchar Brothers
2006
Film
Jonas Mekas in Paris 10/97
1998
Film
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)
1992
Film
Occhio privato sul nuovo mondo
1970
Film
Cinématon n°1590 : Jonas Mekas
1992
Film
Keep singing: a tribute to Jonas Mekas
2019
3 Friends Singing (...in the Desert)
2019
The Misfits - 30 Years of Fluxus
Self
1993
Interview and Reading: Jonas Mekas
Himself
1991
Film
The Invisible Father
Self (archive footage)
2021
Film
Filmmakers
Himself
1969
Film
Anger Me
Himself
2006
Film
My Birthday
2014
Film
End of the Millennium Espresso
2006
Paradise Not Yet Lost
Himself
1979
Film
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
Himself
2009
Film
Jonas Mekas, Friday 13th October
Himself
1996
Film
Jonas Mekas in Budapest
Himself
1993
Film
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
2019
Jonas in the Jungle
Self
2013
Film
Reminiscences from Germany
Self
2012
Film
Taping for As I was Moving Ahead…
2006
Imperfect Film
2006
Film
Letter to John from Jonas
1999
Film
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
Himself
2011
Film
Question a Day
2008
My Country is Cinema
Self
1998
Film
Invocation: Maya Deren
Himself
1986
Film
New York Conversations
2010
Film
EXPRMNTL
himself
2016
Film
The Song of Central Park
Himself (voice)
2006
Film
Poem Posters
Self
1967
Film
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
Himself
1996
Film
Michael Snow Up Close
Himself
1996
Film
Four Shadows
1978
Not in Our Name
himself
2003
Film
My Mars Bar Movie
himself
2011
Jonas Towards Broadway
2019
Film
Jonas Mekas Anthology
Jonas Mekas
2022
Ricky Leacock Visit, April 15, 1971
Self
1971
Film
Graffiti Museum Bronx, NYC
2006
Film
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
Himself
2000
The Perfect Team: The Making of 'On the Bowery'
Self
2009
Film
Jonas' Independence Speech at the Anniversary of the Filmmaker's Cooperative
2006
Film
Journey to Lithuania
Himself
1971
Dirt
1965
Film
Notes on Utopia
Self
2005
Film
Postcard from America
1975
Film
Quartet Number One
1991
Film
Travel Songs
Self (uncredited)
1981
Film
Axiom of Choice
Self
2003
Film
Cinema and Sanctuary
Self
2019
Film
All About Bolex
2015
Film
Galaxie
Self
1966
Film
Makeshift (for Mekas)
2019
Film
Lavender
Self
2010
Film
Kreutzer Sonata
2006
Film
Award
Himself
1992
Film
The Signing
2009