Porretta film festival pays homage to Jonas Mekas’ 100th anniversary. On December 8, “Guns of the trees” will be screened that it was presented in Porretta Terme in 1962, as a preview, at the second International Exhibition of Free Cinema. The film won the Golden Naiad which was the first recognition received by Jonas Mekas. Following, on December 8, it will be screened the documentary “Fragments of paradise” by KD Davison, winner of 2022 at the Venice Film Festival.
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Jonas Mekas birth, BULAC is organizing a screening of the film “Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania”. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Michaël Batalla, director of the Centre international de poésie Marseille (CipM), who coordinates the “Translating Mekas” programme, a seminar on the collective translation of Jonas Mekas’s poems, and Cécile Tourneur, a doctor of aesthetics, science and technology of the cinema and audiovisual sector, and author of a thesis on the qualification of the voice in Jonas Mekas’s films.
More information on this event can be found here.
“Jonas Mekas Musical Milieu” – a series of concerts of events, organized by the Lithuanian Museum of Theatre, Music, and Film will take place between the 9th and 12th of November. The series delves into little-explored musicality and musical contexts of the late filmmaker, writer, and one of the most important Lithuanian émigré artists Jonas Mekas.
It was inspired by a text written in 2019 by the curator of the project Edvardas Šumila, published in the Lithuanian Music Link journal titled “New York Scenes and Echoes from Lithuania: Jonas Mekas’ Musical Milieu,” overviewing the musicality of Jonas Mekas, and his connections with the New York avant-garde, experimental, and rock music practitioners, and sharing the insights of his friends.
Throughout the four days of events, the visitors will have a chance to experience Jonas Mekas’ sound installation “To Petrarca, Who Walked Over the Hills of Provence” (2003), which has been never exhibited in Lithuania before.
The four concerts in the series will delve into different aspects of Jonas Mekas and his musical milieu and pieces inspired by his creative work.
More information and a full programme can be found here.
Jonas Mekas, a man with a camera, recorded everyday life, and then compiled the footage into his films. He was an artist among directors who always went against the grain and whose works were characterized by poetic intimacy. This documentary is a tribute to a fascinating man and avant-garde legend.
“Fragments of Paradise” is a more than skin-deep overview of the late Mekas’ life, one that feels like a final message from him directly. It’s a tribute to art’s power to connect, even with those who are gone.
“Fragments of Paradise” will be screened in the Special Docs programme:
For more information visit the link here.
Trieste Contemporanea is pleased to present the second edition of Lithuanian Videospritz. The project, curated by Daniele Capra, consists of two consecutive weekends in which screenings and conversations will alternate.
On Friday 18 and Sunday 20 November from 16.00 to 20.00, we will be able to enjoy the screening of documentary film “As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty”, a long experimental film in which in 2000 Mekas condenses the path of a lifetime of moving images in an uninterrupted flow.
On Saturday 19 November at 18.30, Giulia Simi will talk with the curator Daniele Capra about the corpus of works by the Lithuanian artist starting from Jonas Mekas: cinema e vita (Jonas Mekas: cinema and life).
On Friday 25 November at 18.30, the three artists (Patricija Gilytė, Eglė Grėbliauskaitė and Vitalij Strigunkov) will talk with curator Daniele Capra about their practice, describing the ways they conduct their investigation, the random interactions between life and work, but also the political implications of their analysis.
On Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 November from 16.00 to 20.00, the venue will host a screening of selected video works by the three artists.
For more information visit the link here.
In December, the Gene Siskel Film Center joins cinemas and museums across the world in celebration of the life and work of Jonas Mekas (1922 – 2019), one of the most influential voices in cinema, and considered by many to be the “godfather of avant-garde cinema.” The Lithuanian-born filmmaker seemingly always had a camera in his hand. Though his oeuvre spanned seven decades and includes dozens of titles, the eight programs in our Mekas 100 presentation exemplify the heart of what Mekas distinctively captured so often: daily life. Through his lens, Mekas observed the seemingly mundane routines we all keep, and found poetry.
More information available here.
Two simultaneous Jonas Mekas’ film programmes in two main cinematheques of Israel – Tel Aviv Cinemateque and Jerusalem Cinematheque – will be presented for the audience, followed by roundtables and discussions, including local and international interlocutors.
The programmes curated by film critic Dr. Ariel Schweitzer.
Special screenings as a part of the tribute to Jonas Mekas are foreseen at Tel Aviv Cinematheque:
On 7 November, 21:00 before the documentary film “Fragments of Paradise” (by KD Davison) the opening remarks will be introduced by the curator of the tribute Dr. Ariel Schweitzer.
On 11 November, 12:00 before the film “Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania” (by J. Mekas), there will be a discussion on the work of Jonas Mekas, including panelists Sivan Beskin (poet and translator), Tom Shoval (filmmaker), Yael Perlov (producer and editor) and Jennifer Abessira (artist and designer of the program’s poster), moderated by film critic and curator Dr. Ariel Schweitzer .
For a full programme of this tribute at Tel Aviv Cinematheque please visit link here.
To honor Jonas Mekas’ memory, we present a special program, dedicated to the exceptional artist. Apart from the Jonas Mekas Retrospective: Short Films (1966-2002), it includes an audiovisual performance inspired by Mekas’ film “As I was Moving Ahead I saw brief Glimpses of Beauty” (2000), performed by Julius Zubavičius, and the talk “I Make Home Videos Therefore I Live”.
Artist Denisas Kolomyckis, will give a talk about Jonas Mekas, performances and documentation of processes, friends and practices that have followed through the last ten years of Jonas. Talk will be open for questions and possible discussions about Jonas Mekas‘ films together with the presentation of the current practices of Denisas. Artist will share his experience and stories on life in New York and works that have been highly influenced by Mekas.
More information available here.
A legendary figure of the American avant-garde, Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) was at the heart of the Sixties underground film scene as a critic, curator, and filmmaker. Displaced from their native Lithuania as refugees in postwar New York, Mekas and his brother Adolfas soon joined the city’s independent film community, founding Film Culture, Anthology Film Archives, and writing for the Village Voice. They advocated for a New American Cinema, forming The Film-Makers’ Cooperative with figures like Lionel Rogosin and Shirley Clarke, and later focused on abstract works by experimental filmmakers like Stan Brakhage and Gregory Markopoulos.
Film by Jonas Mekas “Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania” (1974) will be screened on 18 November at 19:30. With the participation of Linda Chiu-han Lai at M+ Cinema movie theater.
The film “Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania” (1974) will also be screened on 24 December at 18:15 at the Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre.
Film by Jonas Mekas “Lost Lost Lost” (1976) will be screened on 9 December at 19:00. With the participation of Mimi Wong at M+ Cinema movie theater.
The film “Lost Lost Lost” (1976) will also be screened on 24 December at 14:30 at the Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre.
More information on this event can be found here.
One-off screening of the film by Jonas Mekas “As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty”. Prior to the showing, a meeting with an expert Dr. Marcin Borchardt, who will present the artist’s work, will take place.
More information on this event can be found here.
