Jonas Mekas

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Jonas Mekas (2008)

Jonas Mekas (born December 24, 1922 in Semeniškiai , now Biržai district , Lithuania ; † January 23, 2019 in New York City ) was a Lithuanian-American film director , writer and curator . He was often called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema ".

life and work

Mekas grew up in a Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed family. During World War II, he typed texts for an anti-Nazi newspaper with a typewriter , which the Gestapo discovered in the stable. From 1943 to 1944 Mekas lived in the attic of his uncle, a Protestant pastor, in Biržai .

In 1944 Mekas and his younger brother Adolfas were arrested by the Nazis and locked in a labor camp in Elmshorn for eight months . Due to the Soviet occupation he could not return to Lithuania after the war and was considered a homeless displaced person . He found accommodation in DP camps in Wiesbaden and Kassel . From 1946 to 1948 Mekas studied philosophy at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz .

At the end of 1949 Jonas Mekas emigrated with his brother to the United States, where he settled in Williamsburg , New York. Shortly after his arrival, Mekas bought a 16mm Bolex camera and began filming moments from his life. At events such as Amos Vogel's Cinema 16 , he discovered the avant-garde film and began making his own films from 1953. The meeting with the Dadaist Hans Richter , whose film class he attended, was important. Soon Mekas was one of the key figures in New American Cinema .

He founded the magazine Film Culture (1954–1996), which is now regarded as the main institution for the creation of American auteur films . From 1958 he wrote film reviews for the New York city magazine The Village Voice in its Movie Journal column . In 1962 he and Emile de Antonio founded the independent film makers 'cooperative , an association of freelance experimental filmmakers , and in 1964 the Film Makers' Cinematheque, which was affiliated with him, as a forum for showing their films. Mekas was arrested in 1964 for showing the explicit films Flaming Creatures and A Love Song at the Film Makers' Cinematheque. In 1970, the Cinematheque developed into the Anthology Film Archives project, also founded by Mekas , which houses the world's largest collection of avant-garde film art. He worked with artists such as Andy Warhol , Nico , Yoko Ono , John Lennon , Salvador Dalí and his compatriot George Maciunas .

Although his narrative and documentaries are highly regarded, Mekas is best known for his diary films, including Walden (1969), Lost, Lost, Lost (1975), Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972), and Zefiro Torna (1992). In 2000, a four-hour diary film called As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty came out, which Mekas compiled from the material he had recorded daily with his Bolex for around 30 years (1970-1999).

In 2007 Mekas was awarded the special prize for the Roswitha Haftmann Prize . In 2008 he received the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Art from Federal President Heinz Fischer . In 2013 he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 2017 his films were shown during documenta 14 .

In 2007, Mekas received Lithuanian citizenship again based on a decree of the Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus . Mekas lived and worked in New York City (USA).

The German director Peter Sempel dealt with Mekas in three films: Jonas in the Desert (1991), Jonas at the Ocean (2004) and Jonas in the Jungle (2013).

family

Mekas was married from 1974 to 2005 to the photographer Hollis Melton, who is of Irish descent. Her daughter, Oona Mekas (* 1975), works as an actress. The son, Sebastian Mekas (* 1981), completed a degree in mathematics and astrophysics and also worked as an actor.

museum

Quote

“First I have to say that I am not a very thoughtful person. People think too much. And they take themselves too seriously. I live without a plan. My biggest discovery was understanding that I don't have to do anything: all I have to do is allow things to happen […] out of their way. I'm not sure if I influenced other filmmakers or artists. My job was that of a midwife helping fragile, newborn beings to survive their first steps in this world. My job was that of a protector protecting helpless newborns from establishment attacks. Taking yourself seriously, be it in art or in life, is nonsense. Art or life without humor is not worth living. "

- revolver . Film magazine, issue 12, 2005

Fonts

  • Scrapbook of the Sixties: Writings 1958-2010. Spector Books, 2015.
  • I didn't have a place. Diaries 1944–1955. Spector Books OHG, 2017. American original edition: I had nowhere to go. Spector Books. French translation: Je n'avais nulle part où aller. POL, 2004.
  • A Dance with Fred Astair. Anthology Editions, 2017. (Memories)
  • Conversations with film makers . Spektor, Leipzig 2018.

literature

  • Barbara Engelbach (Ed.): Jonas Mekas (exhibition catalog Museum Ludwig, Cologne). Koenig, London 2008. ISBN 978-3-86560-562-7

Web links

Commons : Jonas Mekas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jautrus Jono Meko pasakojimas: Kūčios menininkui pažadindavo skaudžius prisiminimus (daily newspaper Lietuvos rytas )
  2. ↑ Thomas Haemmerli : Jonas Mekas: The great experimental filmmaker has died. Sunday newspaper of April 22, 2001, accessed on January 26, 2019.
  3. ↑ Jonas Mekas 1922 - 2019. Retrieved March 11, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Patrick Straumann: Obituary for the avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas: "Bringing reality and the self to merge". NZZ from January 23, 201p, accessed on January 24, 2019.
  5. ↑ [1]
  6. ↑ Peter Sempel. Retrieved February 12, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Wilfried Hippen: Documentary filmmaker Peter Sempel: Der Seelenverwandte . In: The daily newspaper: taz . March 12, 2014, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on February 12, 2018]).
  8. ↑ [2]
  9. ↑ Oona Mekas imdb.de. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Mekas, Jonas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lithuanian film director, film critic, writer and curator
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Semeniškiai near Biržai , Lithuania
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 2019
Place of death New York City