
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas (12-24-1922 - 1-23-2019) 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.
148 directing credits · 159 acting credits
Directing · 148

Notes on an American Film Director at Work
2008

42 One Dream Rush
2010

3.11 A Sense of Home Films
2011

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968

Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships & Intersections
1990

365 Day Project
2007

Lost, Lost, Lost
1976

Birth of a Nation
1997

The Brig
1964

He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1986

To John With Love
2006

Sleepless Nights Stories
2011

20 Little Films
2012

Happy Birthday to John
1997

This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography
1999

Warhol and Maciunas
2006

For Life, Against the War
1967

I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance
2017
Elvis Live at Madison Square Garden
1972

Carl Dreyer
2006

Carl G. Jung by Jerome Hill or Lapis Philosophorum
1991

Tapes
2020

Notes for Jerome
1978

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
1972

Yoko Ono Lennon's Courage Awards 2016: Laurie Anderson, Mohammad el Gharani, Eileen Boxer, RoseLee Goldberg, LoftOpera
2016

Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
1997

The Song of Moscow
1971
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
1964

Celebrate Cinema 101
1996

Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
2012

Poets at the Living Theater
2006

Guns of the Trees
1961

Velvet Underground's First Public Appearance
2006

Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten
2001

A Visit to Stan Brakhage
2006

Moires with Prof. Oster and Salvador Dalí
2006

To Barbara Rubin with Love
2006
A Letter from Greenpoint
2004
Paradise Not Yet Lost
1979

Salvador Dalí at Work
1964

Mozart & Elvis
2000

Andy at Work
2006

John & Yoko Bed-In
2006

Robert Frank Films
2006

Cassis
1966

Imperfect Three-Image Films
1995
Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR
2009

Travel Songs
1981
Street Songs
1983
A Visit To Hans Richter
2003

Patti Smith at Anthology Film Archives Febr. 19, 1998
1998

On the Holy Spirit
2016

A Report from Venice
2015
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)
1992

The Song of Avila
1967

Bed-In: John Lennon & Yoko Ono
—
Scenes from the Life of Hermann Nitsch
2005
Peter Kubelka at the Library of Congress
1993
First Class Flight
2011

Film Magazine of the Arts
1965

Letters from Nowhere
1997

Hare Krishna
1967

Time & Fortune Vietnam Newsreel
1969
A Visit to Timothy Leary
2006

All About Bolex
2015

Re: Maciunas and Fluxus
2011

Song of Avignon
1998

Scenes from the Life of Raimund Abraham
2015
Orchard Street
2010

Thursday Jan. 4, 2007: Pedro (São Paulo) or The Right Way To Make Capirinha
2007
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
2000

Quartet Number One
1991

Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
2007
The Monks of Cinema
—

Williamsburg, Brooklyn
2003

Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
1996

The Song of Italy
1967

Destruction of the Berlin Wall
2014

Report from Millbrook
1966

Robert Haller's Wedding
1980

Monday April 16, 2007
2007

Brakhage Crosses Central Park
2006

Requiem
2019

Self-Portrait
1980

Friday May 4, 2007: John Zorn – Cobra Part Two
2007

My Paris Movie
2011

Nam June Paik's Piano Piece
1997

Últimas correspondencias
2016

Lavender
2010

Silence, Please
2000

Halloween 1990
2014

Keep Singing
2011
The Italian Notebook
1967

Three Friends
2002
John & Yoko Bed-In
2006

Cinémathèque Française
2006
Happy Easter Ride
2012

Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
2011
Erick Hawkins: Excerpts from "Here and Now with Watchers"
1983
Marcel Hanoun wedding
—

My Mars Bar Movie
2011

WTC Haikus
2010

Reminiscences from Germany
2012

Notes on Utopia
2005

From the diaries of a cinema maniac
2017
Cup/Saucer/Two Dancers/Radio
1983
When
—
From the Notebooks of a Cinema Maniac
2017

Friday March 16, 2007
2007

A Few Notes on Andy's Factory
1999

Notes on the Circus
1967

Monks of Cinema
2006
Letter to John from Jonas
1999

In Between
1978
Mt. Ventoux
2011

The Sixties Quartet
2013
A Visit to Stan Brakhage
2006
Dedication to Matsuo Basho
2006

Bibi Hansen
2006

A Walk
1990

The Song of Stockholm
1981

On My Way to Fujiyama I met..
1995

Sunday December 30, 2007
2007
A Visit to Timothy Leary
—
Song of The Salamander
1996
Laboratorium Anthology
1999

My Bolexes
2015
Mob of Angels: Baptism
1990

The Song of Assisi
1967
Diary Entry: Father and Daughter
2001

Autobiography of a Man Who Carried his Memory in his Eyes
2000

The Education of Sebastian or Egypt Regained
1992
I Am Searching for Nothing
—

My Birthday
2014

Monday Jan. 1, 2007
2007

I Leave Chelsea Hotel
2013

The Destruction Quartet
2006

A Letter to Penny Arcade
2001

Memories of Frankenstein
1995
Mysteries
2002

The Song of Central Park
2006
Fluxus on the Hudson
—
Elia Kazan
—
Flowers
2014
Saturday Jan. 6
2007
A Cardinal
2014
Crickets
2017
Acting · 159

Kulturplatz
2004

Notes on an American Film Director at Work
2008

3.11 A Sense of Home Films
2011

ORG
1979

Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
1990

Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
2023

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000

Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968
Last Interview Film of Jonas Mekas/version 1
2019

9/11: Life Under Attack
2021

The Velvet Underground
2021

365 Day Project
2007

Cinématon
1978

Film: The Living Record of Our Memory
2022

What Is Cinema?
2013

River of Fundament
2014

Imagine
1972

Notes in Lifestyle Margins
2002

Andy Warhol's Factory People... Inside the Sixties Silver Factory
2008
Maya Deren, Take Zero
2012

Strong Medicine
1981

Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007

Andy Warhol Screen Tests
1965

Lost, Lost, Lost
1976

‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
1974

Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film
2019
Just Visiting This Planet
1991

Empire
1965

He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1986

Guest
2011

It Came from Kuchar
2009

Excavating Taylor Mead
2005

Jonas in the Desert
1994

Fragments of Paradise
2022

Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
2011

EXPRMNTL
2016

Invocation: Maya Deren
1986

Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground
2018

The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man
1981

Underground New York
1968

Warhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties
1989

Tiny Tim: King for a Day
2020

I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance
2017

Persistence of Vision
1984

George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus
2018

Beyond the Bolex
2018

Tapes
2020

Notes for Jerome
1978

Four Shadows
1978

The Definition of Insanity
2005

Vertigo
2022

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
1972

My Conversations on Film
2013

Filmmakers
1969

Nico Icon
1995

Galaxie
1966

Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
1997

Step Across the Border
1990

I Had Nowhere to Go
2016

Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank
1986

Vies et morts d'Andy Warhol
2005
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
1964

In the Mirror of Maya Deren
2002

Meet The Kuchar Brothers
2006
Notes on Marie Menken
2006
The Sin of Jesus
1961

Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
2012
Diane the Zebra Woman
1962
The Love Merchant
1966

Who Gets to Call It Art?
2006
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022
Dirt
1965

New York Conversations
2010
A Letter from Greenpoint
2004
Paradise Not Yet Lost
1979

Salvador Dalí at Work
1964

A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol
2015

The Signing
2009

Elegy for J.M.
2019

Journey to Lithuania
1971

Filmstudio, mon amour
2015

Postcard from America
1975

Anger Me
2006

On the Holy Spirit
2016

A Report from Venice
2015

Going Home
1972
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)
1992

Doc
2008

Home Movies 1971-81
1985
No. 18: Mahagonny
1980

Belladonna
1989

A Matter of Baobab
1968

The Song of Avila
1967

Jonas in the Brig
1965

Michael Snow Up Close
1996

Jonas Keeps Shooting Around
2002

Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011

Cinema and Sanctuary
2019

Makeshift (for Mekas)
2019

Poem Posters
1967
My Country is Cinema
1998

Award
1992

Self Discovery for Social Survival
2019

All About Bolex
2015
Jonas
1968

Re: Maciunas and Fluxus
2011

Question a Day
2008

The Invisible Father
2021

Song of Avignon
1998
The Misfits - 30 Years of Fluxus
—
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
2000

Quartet Number One
1991

Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
2007

Occhio privato sul nuovo mondo
1970

Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
1996

Jonas Mekas in Paris 10/97
1998

Visionaries
2010
3 Friends Singing (...in the Desert)
2019
The Perfect Team: The Making of 'On the Bowery'
2009

Self-Portrait
1980

Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
2009

Behind the Artist: Andy Warhol, an American Prophet
2015

Últimas correspondencias
2016

Lavender
2010

Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
2016
Not in Our Name
2003
Jonas Towards Broadway
2019

Axiom of Choice
2003

Keep singing: a tribute to Jonas Mekas
2019

Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
2011

Jonas Mekas, Friday 13th October
1996

Jonas Mekas in Budapest
1993

A Poet from the Lower East Side
1997

Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
1973

My Mars Bar Movie
2011

Reminiscences from Germany
2012

Viva Jonas!
—

Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
2019

J. Mekas
1980
Ricky Leacock Visit, April 15, 1971
1971
Interview and Reading: Jonas Mekas
1991

Nitsch
2018
Portrait Serie - Jonas Mekas
2010
Letter to John from Jonas
1999

A Mixtape for Stom
2025

Sunday December 30, 2007
2007

Jonas Mekas Anthology
2022

Back from New York
2021
Laboratorium Anthology
1999

Notes for a Déjà vu
2022
![Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.tmdb.org%2Ft%2Fp%2Fw500%2F5yEUYxLQWc71aL7OGrhSnpslsQO.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas
1966

Shooting Guns
1966

My Birthday
2014
The Lamb
—

A Letter to Penny Arcade
2001

The Song of Central Park
2006
Cinématon n°1590 : Jonas Mekas
—
Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master
2006
Jonas in the Jungle
2013