Jonas Mekas

Personal Info

Birthday

December 24, 1922

Day of Death

2019-01-23

(96 years old)

Place of Birth

Semeniškiai, Lithuania

Jonas Mekas

Biography

Jonas Mekas was born in 1922 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.

Known For

Cinématon

The Love Merchant

River of Fundament

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

A Letter from Greenpoint

Step Across the Border

Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man

Self Discovery for Social Survival

Filmography

2023
Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV
as Self (archive footage)
2022
Jonas Mekas Anthology
as Jonas Mekas
Fragments of Paradise
as Self (archive footage)
Film: The Living Record of Our Memory
as Self
2021
Back from New York
as Himself
The Velvet Underground
as Self
The Invisible Father
as Self (archive footage)
2020
Tiny Tim: King for a Day
as Himself
2019
Cinema and Sanctuary
as Self
Self Discovery for Social Survival
as Narrator (voice)
Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film
as Self
Last Interview Film of Jonas Mekas/version 1
as Self
2018
Beyond the Bolex
as Self
George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus
as Self
2017
I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance
as Self
2016
EXPRMNTL
as himself
I Had Nowhere to Go
as Himself
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
as Self
2015
A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol
as Self
2014
River of Fundament
as Wake Guest
2013
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
as Self
My Conversations on Film
as Himself
What Is Cinema?
as Self
2012
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
as Jonas Mekas
Maya Deren, Take Zero
as Himself
Reminiscences from Germany
as Himself
2011
My Mars Bar Movie
as himself
3.11 A Sense of Home Films
as Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux")
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
as Himself
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
as Himself
Guest
as Self
2010
Portrait Serie - Jonas Mekas
as himself
Lavender
as Self
Visionaries
as Himself
2009
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
as Himself
It Came from Kuchar
as Self (archive footage)
The Perfect Team: The Making of 'On the Bowery'
as Self
2008
Doc
as Himself
Notes on an American Film Director at Work
as Self
2007
365 Day Project
as Self
Sunday December 30, 2007
as Self
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
as Self
Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007
as Self
2006
The Song of Central Park
as Himself (voice)
Salvador Dalí at Work
as Self
Anger Me
as Himself
Notes on Marie Menken
as Self
Who Gets to Call It Art?
as Self
Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master
as Self
2005
Excavating Taylor Mead
as Self
2004
A Letter from Greenpoint
as Mekas
2003
Not in Our Name
as himself
Axiom of Choice
as Self
2002
Jonas Keeps Shooting Around
as Himself
In the Mirror of Maya Deren
as Himself
2000
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
as Narrator (voice)
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
as Himself
1999
Laboratorium Anthology
as Himself
1998
Song of Avignon
as Self
My Country is Cinema
as Self
1997
Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit
as Self
A Poet from the Lower East Side
as Self
1996
Jonas Mekas, Friday 13th October
as Himself
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
as Self
Michael Snow Up Close
as Himself
Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old
as Himself
1995
Nico Icon
as Self
1994
Jonas in the Desert
as Self
1993
Jonas Mekas in Budapest
as Himself
1992
Award
as Himself
1991
Interview and Reading: Jonas Mekas
as Himself
1990
Step Across the Border
as Butterfly Wing
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
as Self
1989
Warhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties
as Self
1986
Invocation: Maya Deren
as Himself
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
as Self (archive footage)
Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank
as Self
1984
Persistence of Vision
as Self
1980
No. 18: Mahagonny
as Self
Self-Portrait
as Himself
J. Mekas
as Self
1979
ORG
as Self (archive footage)
Paradise Not Yet Lost
as Himself
1978
Cinématon
as N°1590
Notes for Jerome
as Self
1976
Lost, Lost, Lost
as Self
1972
Imagine
as Self
Going Home
as Himself
1971
Journey to Lithuania
as Himself
1969
Filmmakers
as Himself
1968
Underground New York
as Self
Jonas
as Himself
1967
The Song of Avila
as Narrator
Poem Posters
as Self
1966
Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas
as himself
Galaxie
as Self
The Love Merchant
as Lounge Patron
1965
Andy Warhol Screen Tests
as Self
Jonas in the Brig
as Himself
Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
as Self
Empire
as Self (uncredited)