Three programs that will consist of one of Jonas Mekas’ feature films that speaks to his mission of personal cinema. He believed that everyone could and should create a film. Each title will be paired with a different filmmaker whose radical or visionary work Jonas invited into the FMC collection in order to ensure the visibility that he believed these masterpieces of cinema deserve. Curated by MM Serra, filmmaker, Executive director of Film-Makers.
Films to be screened:
“Tales of Visions of Community with MM Serra: To Jonas, with Love” (2021), 9 min.
“Outtakes from the Life of a Happy Man” (2012), 68 min. (Jonas Mekas)
“Remembrance: A Portrait Study” (1967), 6 min. (Edward Owens)
“Private Imaginings and Narrative Facts” (1968–70), 6 min. (Edward Owens)
“As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty” – poetic, non-chronological film diary of Jonas Mekas. Footage of daily life, fragments of happiness and beauty, trips to Italy, Spain, Austria, France. Celebration of life, nature, friendships, feelings.
I part
11:00 Screening of “As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty” at Valencia’s International Photography school “Espai d’Art Fotogràfic” (2 hours approx.)
II part
15:00 Screening of “As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty” at Valencia’s International Photography school “Espai d’Art Fotogràfic” (2 hours approx.)
The Studio des Ursulines will be screening “Going Home” (1972) by Adolfas Mekas. This film is a parallel journey through the eyes of Adolfas Mekas, brother of Jonas Mekas who also filmed during his return to Lithuania. In 1971, after a twenty-seven years absence, Adolfas with Jonas returned to their birthplace in Lithuania.
The film programme, which is taking place in partnership with the Slovenian Cinematheque as part of the 24th Documentary Film Festival, will reveal the work of the Lithuanian-American avant-garde film giant Jonas Mekas (1922–2019).
More information on the programme of Jonas Mekas films is available here.
Jonas Mekas retrospective at the 22. New Horizons International Film Festival in Wrocław focuses on autobiographical aspects of the artist’s work: organized at the 100th anniversary of his birth it underlines the artist’s life as material for his films, and points to the specific diaristic film form pioneered, perfected, practiced and popularized by Mekas as well as his immigrant status as a major factor in the process of forming underground film and art community (‘new nation’) around Mekas in New York.
The program includes major works documenting first moments by Mekas in America (shot on 16mm film as early as 1949 “Lost Lost Lost”, edited in 1976), his visits to native Lithuania, his monumental reflection on his life “As I Was Moving Ahead I Occasionally Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty” from 2000, till recent video “Out-takes From the Life of a Happy Man”, 2012.
More information on the program at the New Horizons International Film Festival here and the list of Jonas Mekas’ screenings here.
Created in 1991, the association Documentaire sur grand écran works to promote documentary cinema and the distribution of films in France and in French-speaking countries.
Every first Tuesday of the month two films are shown. This time DOC&DOC presents a program “Retours au pays natal” and two chronicles filmed by Jonas Mekas and Karim Aïnouz. Films on the places of their origin where they must return, places which they each leave with a captured film.
This year Tampere Film Festival, which takes place in Tampere, Finland, between 9–13 March 2022, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas. 2 film programs show a small glimpse to Jonas Mekas´ work to encourage spectators to find more about him and his films. In this small selection, we can only speedily go through the decades and see how he saw the world around him through the lens of his camera.
“Jonas Mekas 2” program consists of “Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol” (1990), “Zafiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas” (1992), “This Side of Paradise: Fragments of an Unfinished Biography (Warhol/Kennedy)” (1999) by Jonas Mekas.
Read more about Jonas Mekas at Tampere Film Festival here.
More information on “Jonas Mekas 2” program and tickets available here.
This year Tampere Film Festival, which takes place in Tampere, Finland, between 9–13 March 2022, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas. 2 film programs show a small glimpse to Jonas Mekas´ work to encourage spectators to find more about him and his films. In this small selection, we can only speedily go through the decades and see how he saw the world around him through the lens of his camera.
“Jonas Mekas 1” film program consists of documentary by Pip Chodorov “Jonas Keeps Shooting Around – an Interview Portrait of Jonas Mekas” (2002) and ten short films by Jonas Mekas “Cassis” (1966), “Hare Krishna” (1966), “Notes on the Circus” (1966), “Quartet Number One” (1991), “Imperfect 3-image Films” (1995), “Song of Avignon” (1998), “Cinema is not 100 years old” (1996), “Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten” (2001), “Williamsburg, Brooklyn” (2002), “365 Day Project March 16” (2007).
Read more about Jonas Mekas at Tampere Film Festival here.
More information on “Jonas Mekas 1” program and tickets available here.
Barbican presents a landmark work “Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania” (1972; 16mm) from the filmmaking pioneer Jonas Mekas with an introduction by curator Herb Shellenberger and poetry reading by Paulina Pukytė.
A session dedicated to the most famous siblings of experimental cinema will be held at Cinémathèque de Grenoble, where “Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania” by Jonas Mekas and “Going Home” by Adolfas Mekas will be presented.
Jonas and Adolfas Mekas emigrated to the United States in the 1940s, fleeing a war-torn Lithuania, confronting Nazi occupation and Soviet-initiated repressions. These two films are the intimate chronicle of a return to the native land, the rediscovery of childhood faces and landscapes, with the melancholy of banished men. Because, as Thomas Wolfe wrote, “You can’t go home again”.
