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Jonas Mekas

For anyone that's followed his films, that feels like losing a friend

Literally just gasped exactly for that reason. He was in his 90s so it's not too surprising, but still it is like losing Grandpa.

Quite bummed. As I Was Moving Ahead... is one of my absolute favorites, a film that brought me much joy.

Announcement on his Facebook page and a later announcement on Anthology Film Archive's page.

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania is one of my favorite films, just beautiful poetry as well as a remarkable documentary essay.

Jonas:
https://www.artforum.com/news/jonas-mek ... 2019-78408

We hosted him at Los Angeles Filmforum in November 1997. We all went out for drinks after, and he passed around the camera that he was using at that time for diary filming (a mini-DV, I think) and we all got to shoot a few frames. He also said that his view of programming avant-garde films was that it was important that the films get shown, even films that one doesn't like, but anything worthy. I've tried to hold that to heart.
He's eternal.

What a loss. He was a veritable institution. Not just a great filmmaker in his own right, but an enthusiastic enabler for so many others. The impression I get from even his most throwaway films is of somebody who was always fully engaged with life.

Nice Indie Wire tribute:
https://www.indiewire.com/2019/01/jonas ... 202037652/

This is probably a good place to note that Mekas is one of the rare experimental directors that is well-represented on disc. Kino have a BluRay set of Walden and Lost Lost Lost, plus various shorts, there's the fantastic Potemkine / Re:Voir box set (6 discs) available in France, as well as a follow-up (boxless) 5-disc box set of more films from Re:Voir. Plus odds and ends like his feature-length film correspondence with Jose Luis Guerin.

And as any filmmaker/writer knows, he was not only available for interviews and guidance he also gave the city of New York the venerable Anthology Film Archives, a place I’ve probably visited more than any other NYC location. It was a great honor to intern there and work with the man, even in a small capacity.

It’s like losing a relative indeed. I would highly recommend My Night Life.

My favorite story about him (which he recounts on the DVD of Jean Genet's Un Chant d'Amour) is about how he smuggled the film through U.S. customs with the help of Harold Pinter, who just happened to be on the same transatlantic flight. Mekas would later go on to be arrested for exhibiting that film at his underground theater in the East Village, the Charles, and would be arrested on a separate occasion for screening Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures there. Is "cinephile-activist" a thing someone can be? Because that's really what he was.

The Re-Voir discs are PAL, right?

I didn't realize this until yesterday, Mekas was one of the subjects for an ongoing NY Times series that profiled some super-old people. Which, I dunno, not the greatest hook in the world, but this final entry (for Mekas at least) has some interesting material about his last year and what turned out to be his final illness.

More appreciations to read
https://frieze.com/article/carolee-schn ... -1922-2019
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/27/movi ... ation.html
https://www.thevillager.com/2019/01/jon ... spiration/

If you go on the Anthology Film Archive's instagram account, they posted a public memorial that's been growing outside their doors