JONAS MEKAS

Jonas Mekas was born in Semeniskiai, Lithuania, in 1922. He lives and works in New York. After being imprisoned by the Nazis in a forced-labor camp and a period in Belgian Displaced Person camps, Mekas studied philosophy at the University of Mainz 1946­1948. He then emigrated with his brother Adolfas to the United States, settling in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Mekas discovered avant-garde film at venues such as Amos Vogel's Cinema 16, and began to screen his own films in 1953. In 1954 he became Editor-in-Chief of Film Culture magazine, and in 1958 he began his groundbreaking Movie Journal' column in The Village Voice. In 1962 Mekas founded the Film-Makers' Cooperative (FMC) and in 1964 the Filmmakers' Cinematheque. The latter eventually grew into Anthology Film Archives, one of the world's largest repositories of avant-garde film, which Mekas continues to direct. Mekas's film output includes narrative (Guns of the Trees, 1961), documentary (The Brig, 1963) and diaries (Walden, 1969; Lost, Lost, Lost, 1975; Reminiscences of a Voyage to Lithuania, 1972; Zefiro Torna, 1992, and As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, 2001). In addition to his prolific output in film, Jonas Mekas has published 24 volumes of poetry, essays, interviews, and diaries, and has been the subject of 12 book-length studies. His films have been exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, including Jeu de Paume in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Tokyo, Documenta 11, the Venice Biennale, and many others.