Jonas Mekas — Director (34)
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships and Intersections (1990) [Movie] Douban WikiData IMDb TMDB
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships and Intersections
director: 乔纳斯·梅卡斯 actor: 丹尼斯·霍珀 / 安迪·沃霍尔
other title: 安迪·沃霍尔生活选景:友谊与交集 / Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships & Intersections
This intimate portrait of Andy Warhol pulls together a unique library of material shot by New York film legend Jonas Mekas. Spanning from 1963 to 1990, the film features a cast of counterculture icons including Allen Ginsberg, George Maciunas, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono, as well as John and Caroline Kennedy, and Lee Radziwill (Jackie Kennedy Onassis's sister and Warhol muse)—to whom Mekas dedicates the film. The film features footage from the Velvet Underground's first public performance. A portrait of the remarkable life of arguable the twentieth century's most famous artist and leading iconographer.
Song of Avignon (1998) [Movie] Douban TMDB IMDb
Song of Avignon
other title: 阿维尼翁之歌
Jonas Mekas reflects on a 1966 trip to Avignon that offered solace during a period of personal crisis. Combining diary texts read by Angus MacLise with images of place and memory, the film becomes a lyrical meditation on pain, survival, and the restorative power of reflection.
3.11 A Sense of Home (2011) [Movie] Douban
3.11 A Sense of Home
director: 河濑直美 / 维克多·艾里斯 actor: 桃井薰 / 赵涛
other title: 3.11 家的感觉 / 311即景:我们的家(台)
2011年3月11日の東日本大震災を受け、河瀬直美監督が世界の映像作家に呼びかけて実現した短編集。ビクトル・エリセ(スペイン)、ポン・ジュノ(韓国)、ジャ・ジャンクー(中国)、アピチャッポン・ウィーラセタクン(タイ)、パティ・スミス&スティーブン・セブリング(アメリカ)、桃井かおり(日本)ら21人の監督が「A Sense of Home(家という感覚)」をテーマにそれぞれ3分11秒の短編を手がけ、家族や故郷、祖国への思いをつづっていく。
監督: アリエル・ロッター、イサキ・ラクエスタ、アピチャッポン・ウィーラセタクン、ジャ・ジャンクー、カトリーヌ・カドゥ、桃井かおり、百々俊二、ジョナス・メカス、想田和弘、チャオ・イエ、西中拓史、ウィスット・ポンニミット、レスリー・キー、ポン・ジュノ、ソー・ヨン・キム、山崎都世子、モハメド・ナジブ・ラザク、ペドロ・ゴンザレス・ルビオ、パティ・スミス、スティーブン・セブリング、ビクトル・エリセ、河瀬直美
365 Day Project (2007) [TV] Douban
365 Day Project
In 2007, Mekas took his filmmaking online, using his website Jonasmekas.com as the platform for a project called 365 Films, posting a new video each day for the entire year. Intended for "eye-pods" (as his May 31 entry puts it), many of these tidbits are created from now-archival film and video diaries years or decades old, while some employ content shot only days prior to posting. (...) Each daily dose is under 10 minutes (app. 30 hours in total), and their effect is collective; a years' worth of these forms a digital approximation of the monumental quality of his long-form films.
Sleepless Nights Stories (2011) [Movie] Douban
Sleepless Nights Stories
director: 乔纳斯·梅卡斯 actor: 玛丽娜·阿布拉莫维奇 / 哈莫尼·科林
other title: 一千零一无眠夜
Jonas Mekas invites viewers on a tour through his nightlife, bringing together twenty-five stories of life, love and friendship.
Jonas Mekas' opening confession that he suffers from insomnia will come as no surprise to anyone aware of his singular contribution to cinema. Over 50 years he has established and promoted a viable culture for truly independent and avant-garde filmmaking, and his recent acceptance by the art world has brought a long overdue wave of attention and success. Sleepless Nights Stories is the latest in the series of long-form diary films that Mekas has been making since his arrival in the USA in 1949. Eating, drinking, singing and dancing with friends, the tireless octogenarian is full of life and wonder, casually weaving together contemporary folk tales collected during travels across the globe. Marina Abramovic fantasises about domesticity, Lee Stringer recounts an episode from his crack-addicted past, and the protagonist toasts the 'working class voice' of Amy Winehouse. Treating significant and inconsequential moments with equal import, Mekas' modern-day saga presents the first episodes from his ambitious '1001 Nights' project.
Mark Webber
Notes on the Circus (1966) [Movie] Douban
Notes on the Circus
director: Jonas Mekas
other title: 马戏团日志 / Cirko užrašai
Ringling Bros., filmed in 1966, in three sessions (three ringed circus), colours, motions and memories of a circus. Edited in camera (an exercise in instantaneous structuring). Dedicated to Kenneth Anger who provided the Ektachrome film stock, in one of my many dry periods. ~Jonas Mekas
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (2003) [Movie] Douban
director: Jonas Mekas
Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas de Jonas Mekas
États-Unis, 1992, 16mm, 34’, nb et coul., vostf
avec George Maciunas, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Andy Warhol…
« Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti
L’aer fa grato e’l pie discoglie e l’onde,
é mormorando tra le verdi fronde…»
Monteverdi, Madrigaux, livre IX, 1651
« La vie de George Maciunas, ses parents, ses amis ; de 1952 à 1978, divers événements de Fluxus : rencontres, réunions d’amis (Yoko Ono, Peter Moore, John Lennon, Andy Warhol, Almus Salcius, etc.). Des images de son mariage et de lui à l’hôpital de Boston, trois jours avant sa mort. Bande-son : musique de Monteverdi (Zefiro Torna), moi-même lisant les parties de mon journal concernant la dernière année de la vie de Maciunas. Méditation sur la Mort et le Néant. »
Jonas Mekas
« À l’opposé de la monumentalité froide et pétrifiée du tombeau, Zefiro Torna, le film comme le madrigal, nous enseigne qu’avec la dispersion des cendres, tout peut revenir, tout peut reverdir pour qui est capable de les disséminer, de les abandonner au caprice de la brise ou au fil inconstant de l’eau. […] Étrange histoire de cendres et de souffrance, de retour au pays natal, de flux et de reflux que cet ultime geste qui n’est pas sans m’évoquer, pour finir, une image qui hante, elle, depuis toujours l’écriture et le cinéma de Mekas […], celle, rémanente, d’une pluie d’infimes fragments de paradis qui retombent lentement sur terre. Un paradis jamais perdu pour qui sait les recueillir sous toutes leurs formes, ici et maintenant, au sein d’une communauté d’amis. »
Patrice Rollet, « Zefiro Torna de Jonas Mekas », Trafic n°80, hiver 2011
Lost, Lost, Lost (1976) [Movie] Douban IMDb TMDB
Lost, Lost, Lost
6.8 (5 ratings) director: 乔纳斯·梅卡斯 actor: 乔纳斯·梅卡斯 / 阿道法斯·梅卡斯
other title: 失,失,失 / 로스트 로스트 로스트
Drawn from footage shot between 1949 and 1963, Jonas Mekas’s autobiographical diary film chronicles his early years in exile, capturing the struggle to build a new life in New York and his gradual discovery of a vibrant artistic community.
Gimme Some Truth: The Making of John Lennon's Imagine Album (2000) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData Douban
Gimme Some Truth: The Making of John Lennon's Imagine Album
director: 乔纳斯·梅卡斯 / 安德鲁·索特 actor: 约翰·列侬 / 小野洋子
other title: 告诉我真相:约翰·列侬的《Imagine》专辑是如何制作的 / 告訴我真相:約翰·列儂的《Imagine》專輯是如何製作的
The personal film archives of Yoko Ono were utilized for this feature-length documentary on the life of John Lennon. Predictably, it downplays Lennon's association with the Beatles and concentrates on his years with Ono. The film spends a lot of time recounting Lennon's anti-war activities, highlighted by a confrontation on a talk show hosted by conservative cartoonist Al Capp. The title of the documentary is, of course, taken from Lennon's idyllic ballad about a world free of hatred and discord. Imagine: John Lennon is a reverent but ultimately depressing chronicle of an artist who died the untimeliest of deaths.
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000) [Movie] Douban TMDB Eggplant.place WikiData IMDb
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
9.3 (7 ratings) director: 乔纳斯·梅卡斯 actor: 乔纳斯·梅卡斯 / 阿道法斯·梅卡斯
other title: En el camino, de cuando en cuando, vislumbré breves momentos de belleza / 当我往前走之时偶尔会瞥到一缕美丽之景
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
Diaries Notes and Sketches (1970) [Movie] Douban WikiData IMDb TMDB
Diaries Notes and Sketches
8.9 (9 ratings) director: 乔纳斯·梅卡斯 actor: 蒂莫西·利瑞 / 艾德·艾姆许维勒
other title: 笔记·日志·素描 / 瓦尔登
Also known as Walden, Jonas Mekas’s first diary film is a six-reel chronicle of his life in 1960s New York, interweaving moments with family, friends, lovers, and artistic idols. Blending everyday encounters with portraits of the avant-garde art scene, it forms an epic, personal meditation on community, creativity, and the passage of time.
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man (2013) [Movie] Douban TMDB IMDb
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
8.3 (6 ratings) director: 乔纳斯·梅卡斯 actor: Friedl Bondy / James Broughton
other title: 从一个快乐男人的生活中剪下不用的片段 / 快男废片
“A motion picture composed of brief diaristic scenes not used in completed films from the years 1960-2000; and self-referential video footage taped during the editing. Brief glimpses of family, friends, girl-friends, the City, seasons of the year, travels. Occasionally I talk, reminisce, or play music I taped during those earlier years, plus more recent piano improvisations by Auguste Varkalis. It’s a kind of autobiographical, diaristic poem, celebration of happiness and life. I consider myself a happy man.” –J.M.
“In a film of amazing delicacy and poetic insight, Mekas celebrates the beauty of imperfect images…” –Amy Taubin
“OUT-TAKES starts with Mekas alone at night while the city sleeps, editing his old films. As he looks back over his life he starts to talk, insisting that his life’s work amounts to ‘just images, some fragments of this world’ that he will bring together for himself and a few friends. But as images of the people who brought joy into his life pass by, we realize that most of them are no longer alive. Mekas sees them again, but he is seeing them alone. As much as it is about his happy life, the film is also about emptiness, loss, and a longing for some sort of spiritual consolation. At one moment the cover of St John of the Cross’s MEDITATIONS appears on screen. This is Mekas’s long dark night of the soul.” – Richard Dorment, THE TELEGRAPH
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man, Jonas Mekas
USA/UK, 2012, 68 min, 16mm&video, color, mono