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Jonas Mekas
Mekas in 1971
Born
(1922-12-24)December 24, 1922
Semeniškiai, Lithuania
Died
January 23, 2019(2019-01-23) (aged 96)
New York City, U.S.
Nationality
Lithuanian-American
Alma mater
University of Mainz
Occupations
Poet
filmmaker
artist
Years active
1954–2019
Movement
Avant-garde cinema
Spouse
Hollis Melton
(m. 1974)
Children
2
Awards
Lithuanian National Prize (1995)
Signature
Jonas Mekas (Lithuanian:[ˈjonɐsˈmækɐs]; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema".[1] Mekas' work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals worldwide.[2] Mekas was active in New York City, where he co-founded Anthology Film Archives, The Film-Makers' Cooperative, and the journal Film Culture. He was also the first film critic for The Village Voice.[3][4]
In the 1960s, Mekas launched anti-censorship campaigns in defense of the LGBTQ-themed films of Jean Genet and Jack Smith, garnering support from cultural figures including Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Norman Mailer, and Susan Sontag. Mekas mentored and supported many prominent artists and filmmakers, including Ken Jacobs, Peter Bogdanovich, Chantal Akerman, Richard Foreman, John Waters, Barbara Rubin, Yoko Ono, and Martin Scorsese. He helped launch the writing careers of the critics Andrew Sarris, Amy Taubin, and J. Hoberman. During World War II, Mekas edited and contributed to two far-right, collaborationist newspapers under the Nazi occupation of Lithuania, the significance of which has been debated by historians.[5][6][7][8]
^Needham, Alex (January 23, 2019). "Jonas Mekas, titan of underground filmmaking, dies aged 96". The Guardian. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
^"Interview: Jonas Mekas by Modestas Mankus". Our Culture Mag. April 18, 2017.
^"Lectures on Avant-Garde Art, Films Planned During Artist's Visit". Iowa City Press-Citizen. Iowa City, IA. November 1, 1995. p. 21. Retrieved May 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
^""I'm Like the Last Leaf of A Big Tree": A Conversation with Jonas Mekas | Village Voice". September 21, 2017. Archived from the original on September 21, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Casper, Michael. "I Was There | Michael Casper". The New York Review of Books 2022. ISSN 0028-7504. Retrieved July 20, 2022.
^"World War II Revisionism at the Jewish Museum". Jewish Currents. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
^Vyšniauskas, Karolis. "Correcting the Record: Michael Casper on Jonas Mekas | NARA". nara.lt. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
^"Portrait of a Poet as a Young Man: Jonas Mekas in War and Exile - Journal #129". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved July 17, 2023.
JonasMekas (Lithuanian: [ˈjonɐs ˈmækɐs]; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called...
classic of American film. Mekas was born on a farm in Semeniškiai, Lithuania, the son of Elzbieta (Jašinskaitė) and Povilas Mekas. His sister was Elžbieta...
and editor JonasMekas (1922–2019), Lithuanian-born American filmmaker, writer, and curator This page lists people with the surname Mekas. If an internal...
film. JonasMekas, Ken Jacobs, and Florence Karpf were prosecuted, and the film was ruled to be in violation of New York's obscenity laws. Mekas and critic...
include: Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Andy Warhol, Peter Jackson, JonasMekas, Jean-Luc Godard, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, James Dean, David Lynch,...
matter of days. He produced and distributed The Flicker with the help of JonasMekas. The film is now recognized as a key work of structural filmmaking. The...
Jonas in the Jungle is a 2013 documentary film by Peter Sempel about the filmmaker JonasMekas. It is part of a long term series of films about Mekas...
February 21, 2015. Mekas, Jonas. "Video of JonasMekas talking about Barbara Rubin, Part 1". Web of Stories. Mekas, Jonas. "The JonasMekas Interview"....
Tate, music critic Robert Christgau, and film critics Andrew Sarris, JonasMekas, and J. Hoberman. In October 2015, The Village Voice changed ownership...
Culture magazine with JonasMekas in 1955, providing a Marxist-theoretical perspective to their criticism which Mekas later abandoned. Mekas describes De Laurot's...
including Maya Deren (in whose apartment he briefly lived), Willard Maas, JonasMekas, Marie Menken, Joseph Cornell and John Cage. Brakhage would collaborate...
1972 documentary film by JonasMekas. It revolves around Mekas' trip back to Semeniškiai, the village of his birth. It was Mekas' second diary film, which...
Before the Revolution (Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy) The Brig (JonasMekas & Adolfas Mekas, USA) Cyrano et d'Artagnan (Abel Gance, France) Diary of a Chambermaid...
Brockman to refer to works in expanded cinema that were associated with JonasMekas' Film-Makers’ Cinematheque. Gene Youngblood also described intermedia...
Culture was an American film magazine started by Adolfas Mekas and his brother JonasMekas in 1954. The publication's headquarters were in New York City...
Brakhage, Harry Everett Smith, Maya Deren, Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, JonasMekas, Ken Jacobs, Ron Rice, Jack Smith, George and Mike Kuchar, and Bruce...
they presented "To George With Love: From the Personal Collection of JonasMekas," which displayed original drawings, posters, objects, and other Fluxus...
works by Lithuanian avant-garde film maker JonasMekas. These works are currently held by the JonasMekas Visual Arts Center. Collections from Saint Petersburg's...
Creatures (1963), Smith's best known film, and difficult collaborations with JonasMekas and Andy Warhol and others. Voiceovers from Smith, culled from some 14...
York art world has included Kate Millett, Nam June Paik, Dan Richter, JonasMekas, Merce Cunningham, Judith Malina, Erica Abeel, Fred DeAsis, Peggy Guggenheim...
November are, among others, Tom Otterness, Kiki Smith, Jim Jarmusch and JonasMekas. By October 2015, Paddle8 had raised $44 million from leaders from across...
The Living Theatre) or to JonasMekas, but fascinated by Mekas' work, Foreman and his wife, Kate Manheim, began following Mekas as he filmed various projects...
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