Directing · Semeniškiai, Lithuania · Born December 24, 1922
Jonas Mekas (24-12-1922 - 23-1-2019) 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.
MovieA Mixtape for Stom
2025
MovieNam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
2023
as Self (archive footage)
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022
MovieJonas Mekas Anthology
2022
as Jonas Mekas
MovieFragments of Paradise
2022
as Self (archive footage)
MovieFilm: The Living Record of Our Memory
2022
as Self
MovieVertigo
2022
MovieNotes for a Déjà vu
2022
MovieBack from New York
2021
as Himself
MovieThe Velvet Underground
2021
as Self
Movie9/11: Life Under Attack
2021
as Self
MovieThe Invisible Father
2021
as Self (archive footage)
MovieTapes
2020
MovieTiny Tim: King for a Day
2020
as Himself
MovieElegy for J.M.
2019
MovieSebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
2019
MovieCinema and Sanctuary
2019
as Self
MovieSelf Discovery for Social Survival
2019
as Narrator (voice)
MovieGena Rowlands: A Life on Film
2019
as Self
MovieMakeshift (for Mekas)
2019
Last Interview Film of Jonas Mekas/version 1
2019
as Self
MovieKeep singing: a tribute to Jonas Mekas
2019
3 Friends Singing (...in the Desert)
2019
Jonas Towards Broadway
2019
MovieBeyond the Bolex
2018
as Self
MovieBarbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground
2018
MovieGeorge: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus
2018
as Self
MovieNitsch
2018
MovieI Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance
2017
as Self
MovieOn the Holy Spirit
2016
MovieEXPRMNTL
2016
as himself
MovieI Had Nowhere to Go
2016
as Himself
MovieReminiscences of Jonas Mekas
2016
as Self
MovieÚltimas correspondencias
2016
as Self
MovieFilmstudio, mon amour
2015
as Sé stesso
MovieA Day in the Life of Andy Warhol
2015
as Self
MovieBehind the Artist: Andy Warhol, an American Prophet
2015
MovieA Report from Venice
2015
MovieAll About Bolex
2015
MovieMy Birthday
2014
MovieRiver of Fundament
2014
as Wake Guest
MovieMy Conversations on Film
2013
as Himself
Jonas in the Jungle
2013
as Self
MovieWhat Is Cinema?
2013
as Self
MovieOut-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
2012
as Jonas Mekas
Maya Deren, Take Zero
2012
as Himself
MovieReminiscences from Germany
2012
as Self
MovieMy Mars Bar Movie
2011
as himself
Movie3.11 A Sense of Home Films
2011
as Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux")
MovieFree Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
2011
as Himself
MovieCinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
2011
as Himself
MovieGuest
2011
as Self
MovieRe: Maciunas and Fluxus
2011
MovieCyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011
Portrait Serie - Jonas Mekas
2010
as himself
MovieNew York Conversations
2010
MovieLavender
2010
as Self
MovieVisionaries
2010
as Himself
MovieJonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
2009
as Himself
MovieIt Came from Kuchar
2009
as Self (archive footage)
MovieThe Signing
2009
The Perfect Team: The Making of 'On the Bowery'
2009
as Self
MovieDoc
2008
as Himself
MovieQuestion a Day
2008
MovieAndy Warhol's Factory People... Inside the Sixties Silver Factory
2008
MovieNotes on an American Film Director at Work
2008
as Self
Movie365 Day Project
2007
as Self
MovieSunday December 30, 2007
2007
as Self
MovieJack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007
as Self
MovieTuesday Jan. 9, 2007
2007
as Self
MovieThe Song of Central Park
2006
as Himself (voice)
Jonas' Independence Speech at the Anniversary of the Filmmaker's Cooperative
2006
Graffiti Museum Bronx, NYC
2006
End of the Millennium Espresso
2006
Imperfect Film
2006
Taping for As I was Moving Ahead…
2006
Kreutzer Sonata
2006
MovieAnger Me
2006
as Himself
Notes on Marie Menken
2006
as Self
MovieWho Gets to Call It Art?
2006
as Self
MovieMeet The Kuchar Brothers
2006
Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master
2006
as Self
MovieThe Definition of Insanity
2005
MovieVies et morts d'Andy Warhol
2005
MovieExcavating Taylor Mead
2005
as Self
TVKulturplatz
2004
as Self
A Letter from Greenpoint
2004
as Mekas
Not in Our Name
2003
as himself
MovieAxiom of Choice
2003
as Self
MovieJonas Keeps Shooting Around
2002
as Himself
MovieIn the Mirror of Maya Deren
2002
as Himself
MovieNotes in Lifestyle Margins
2002
MovieA Letter to Penny Arcade
2001
MovieAs I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000
as Narrator (voice)
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
2000
as Himself
Letter to John from Jonas
1999
Laboratorium Anthology
1999
as Himself
MovieJonas Mekas in Paris 10/97
1998
MovieSong of Avignon
1998
as Self
My Country is Cinema
1998
as Self
MovieScenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
1997
as Self
MovieA Poet from the Lower East Side
1997
as Self
MovieJonas Mekas, Friday 13th October
1996
as Himself
MovieMichael Snow Up Close
1996
as Himself
MovieCinema Is Not 100 Years Old
1996
as Himself
MovieNico Icon
1995
as Self
MovieJonas in the Desert
1994
as Self
MovieJonas Mekas in Budapest
1993
as Himself
The Misfits - 30 Years of Fluxus
1993
as Self
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus)
1992
MovieAward
1992
as Himself
Just Visiting This Planet
1991
MovieQuartet Number One
1991
Interview and Reading: Jonas Mekas
1991
as Himself
MovieSuperstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
1990
as Self
MovieStep Across the Border
1990
as Butterfly Wing
MovieBelladonna
1989
MovieWarhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties
1989
as Self
MovieInvocation: Maya Deren
1986
as Himself
MovieHe Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1986
as Self (archive footage)
MovieFire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank
1986
as Self
MovieHome Movies 1971-81
1985
MoviePersistence of Vision
1984
as Self
MovieStrong Medicine
1981
MovieThe Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man
1981
No. 18: Mahagonny
1980
as Self
MovieSelf-Portrait
1980
as Himself
MovieJ. Mekas
1980
as Self
MovieORG
1979
as Self (archive footage)
Paradise Not Yet Lost
1979
as Himself
MovieCinématon
1978
as N°1590
MovieFour Shadows
1978
MovieNotes for Jerome
1978
as Self
MovieLost, Lost, Lost
1976
as Self
MoviePostcard from America
1975
Movie‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
1974
MovieNotes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
1973
MovieImagine
1972
as Self
MovieGoing Home
1972
as Himself
MovieReminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
1972
as Self
MovieUp Your Legs Forever
1971
as Self - Legs
Ricky Leacock Visit, April 15, 1971
1971
as Self
MovieJourney to Lithuania
1971
as Himself
MovieOcchio privato sul nuovo mondo
1970
MovieFilmmakers
1969
as Himself
MovieDiaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968
as Self
MovieA Matter of Baobab
1968
Jonas
1968
as Himself
MovieUnderground New York
1968
as Self
MovieThe Song of Avila
1967
as Narrator
MoviePoem Posters
1967
as Self
![Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w342/5yEUYxLQWc71aL7OGrhSnpslsQO.jpg)
MovieScreen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas
1966
as himself
MovieGalaxie
1966
as Self
The Love Merchant
1966
as Lounge Patron
MovieShooting Guns
1966
MovieAndy Warhol Screen Tests
1965
as Self
Dirt
1965
MovieJonas in the Brig
1965
as Himself
MovieEmpire
1965
as Self (uncredited)
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
1964
as Self
MovieSalvador Dalí at Work
1964
as Self
Diane the Zebra Woman
1962
The Sin of Jesus
1961
The Lamb
as Self
MovieViva Jonas!
as Himself
Cinématon n°1590 : Jonas Mekas
