Jonas Mekas (24 December 1922 - 23 January 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.

Filmography

• 2025A Mixtape for Stom
• 2022Jonas Mekas Anthology — Jonas Mekas
• 2022Notes for a Déjà vu
• 2022Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
• 2022Vertigo
• 2020Tapes — Director
• 20193 Friends Singing (...in the Desert)
• 2019Elegy for J.M.
• 2019Jonas Towards Broadway
• 2019Keep singing: a tribute to Jonas Mekas
• 2019Makeshift (for Mekas)
• 2019Requiem — Director
• 2019Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
• 2019Self Discovery for Social Survival — Narrator (voice), Writer
• 2018Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground
• 2017Crickets — Director
• 2017From the Notebooks of a Cinema Maniac — Director
• 2017From the diaries of a cinema maniac — Director
• 2017I Don't Know Which Tree It Comes From that Fragrance — Self, Director
• 2016Hollywood Party — Director
• 2016Memories of Jerome Hiler — Director
• 2016On the Holy Spirit — Director
• 2016Yoko Ono Lennon's Courage Awards 2016: Laurie Anderson, Mohammad el Gharani, Eileen Boxer, RoseLee Goldberg, LoftOpera — Director
• 2016Últimas correspondencias — Self, Director
• 2015A Report from Venice — Director
• 2015All About Bolex — Director, Camera Operator
• 2015Behind the Artist: Andy Warhol, an American Prophet
• 2015Filmstudio, mon amour — Sé stesso
• 2015My Bolexes — Director, Cinematography
• 2015New Seasons Movement IV — Director
• 2015Reconnecting with an Old Friend — Director
• 2015Scenes from the Life of Raimund Abraham — Director
• 2014A Cardinal — Director
• 2014Flowers — Director
• 2014Halloween 1990 — Director
• 2014Have A Good Day! — Self, Director
• 2014My Birthday — Director
• 2014River of Fundament — Wake Guest
• 2013I Leave Chelsea Hotel — Director
• 2013The Sixties Quartet — Director
• 201220 Little Films — Director
• 2012Happy Easter Ride — Director
• 2012Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man — Jonas Mekas, Director
• 2012Reminiscences from Germany — Self, Director
• 20113.11 A Sense of Home Films — Himself (voice) (segment "Mt. Ventoux"), Director
• 2011Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin — Himself, Director
• 2011Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
• 2011First Class Flight — Director
• 2011Keep Singing — Director
• 2011Mont Ventoux — Director
• 2011My Mars Bar Movie — himself, Director
• 2011My Paris Movie — Director
• 2011Re: Maciunas and Fluxus — Director
• 2011Sleepless Nights Stories — Director
• 201042 One Dream Rush — Director
• 2010Lavender — Self, Director, Director of Photography
• 2010New York Conversations
• 2010Orchard Street — Director
• 2010WTC Haikus — Director, Director of Photography, Producer, Editor
• 2009Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR — Director
• 2009The Signing
• 2008Andy Warhol's Factory People... Inside the Sixties Silver Factory
• 2008Notes on an American Film Director at Work — Self, Director, Director of Photography
• 2008Question a Day
• 2007365 Day Project — Self, Director
• 2007Friday Feb. 23, 2007 — Director
• 2007Friday March 16, 2007 — Director
• 2007Friday May 4, 2007: John Zorn – Cobra Part Two — Director
• 2007Monday April 16, 2007 — Director
• 2007Monday Jan. 1, 2007 — Director
• 2007Saturday Jan. 6 — Cinematography, Director
• 2007Sunday December 30, 2007 — Self, Director
• 2007Thursday Jan. 4, 2007: Pedro (São Paulo) or The Right Way To Make Capirinha — Director
• 2007Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007 — Self, Director
• 2006A Visit to Stan Brakhage — Director
• 2006A Visit to Stan Brakhage — Director
• 2006A Visit to Timothy Leary — Director
• 2006A Visit to Timothy Leary — Director
• 2006Allen Ginsberg Sings Blues — Director
• 2006Andy at Work — Director
• 2006Bibi Hansen — Director
• 2006Brakhage Crosses Central Park — Director, Editor, Cinematography, Writer
• 2006Carl Dreyer — Director
• 2006Cinémathèque Française — Director
• 2006Dedication to Matsuo Basho — Director
• 2006Destruction of the Berlin Wall — Director
• 2006Elia Kazan — Director
• 2006End of the Millennium Espresso — Director
• 2006Fluxus on the Hudson — Director
• 2006Graffiti Museum Bronx, NYC — Director
• 2006I Am Searching for Nothing — Director
• 2006Imperfect Film — Director
• 2006Jackie & Lee Fragments of an Unfinished Biography — Director
• 2006John & Yoko Bed-In — Director
• 2006John & Yoko Bed-In — Director
• 2006Jonas' Independence Speech at the Anniversary of the Filmmaker's Cooperative — Director
• 2006Kreutzer Sonata — Director
• 2006Meet The Kuchar Brothers
• 2006Moires with Prof. Oster and Salvador Dalí — Director
• 2006Monks of Cinema — Director
• 2006Nam June Paik's Piano Piece — Director
• 2006Patti Smith at Anthology Film Archives Febr. 19, 1998 — Director
• 2006Phil Glass Plays for Ralph Steiner's Mechanical Principles — Director
• 2006Poets at the Living Theater — Director
• 2006Robert Frank Films — Director
• 2006Salvador Dalí at Work — Self, Director, Writer, Cinematography
• 2006Taping for As I was Moving Ahead… — Director
• 2006The Destruction Quartet — Director
• 2006The Monks of Cinema — Director
• 2006The Song of Central Park — Himself (voice), Director
• 2006To Barbara Rubin with Love — Director
• 2006To John With Love — Director
• 2006Velvet Underground's First Public Appearance — Director
• 2006Warhol and Maciunas — Director
• 2005Notes on Utopia — Self, Director
• 2005Scenes from the Life of Hermann Nitsch — Director, Editor
• 2005The Definition of Insanity
• 2005Vies et morts d'Andy Warhol
• 2004A Letter from Greenpoint — Mekas, Director, Writer, Creator
• 2003A Visit To Hans Richter — Director, Editor
• 2003Williamsburg, Brooklyn — Director
• 2002Mysteries — Director
• 2002Notes in Lifestyle Margins
• 2002Three Friends — Director
• 2001A Letter to Penny Arcade — Director
• 2001Diary Entry: Father and Daughter — Director
• 2001Ein Märchen aus alten Zeiten — Director
• 2000As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty — Narrator (voice), Director, Writer, Cinematography, Editor
• 2000Autobiography of a Man Who Carried his Memory in his Eyes — Director
• 2000Mozart & Elvis — Director
• 2000Requiem for a Manual Typewriter — Himself, Director
• 2000Silence, Please — Director, Cinematography
• 1999A Few Notes on Andy's Factory — Director
• 1999Laboratorium Anthology — Himself, Director, Camera Operator
• 1999Letter to John from Jonas — Director
• 1999This Side of Paradise: Fragments of An Unfinished Biography — Self, Director, Editor, Producer, Writer
• 1998Jonas Mekas in Paris 10/97
• 1998Song of Avignon — Self, Director, Writer, Director of Photography, Editor
• 1997Birth of a Nation — Self, Director, Editor, Cinematography, Writer
• 1997Happy Birthday to John — Director
• 1997Letters from Nowhere — Director, Writer, Editor
• 1997Scenes from Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit — Self, Director, Cinematography, Editor
• 1996Celebrate Cinema 101 — Director
• 1996Cinema Is Not 100 Years Old — Himself, Director
• 1996Song of The Salamander — Director
• 1995Imperfect Three-Image Films — Director
• 1995Memories of Frankenstein — Director
• 1995On My Way to Fujiyama I met.. — Director of Photography
• 1993Peter Kubelka at the Library of Congress — Director
• 1992Cinématon n°1590 : Jonas Mekas
• 1992The Education of Sebastian or Egypt Regained — Director
• 1992Visiting Jonas Mekas
• 1992Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas (Fluxus) — Director
• 1991Carl G. Jung by Jerome Hill or Lapis Philosophorum — Director, Editor
• 1991Just Visiting This Planet
• 1991Quartet Number One — Director
• 1990A Walk — Director, Camera Operator
• 1990Mob of Angels: Baptism — Director
• 1990Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships and Intersections — Self, Director, Editor, Director of Photography
• 1990Step Across the Border — Butterfly Wing
• 1989Belladonna
• 1986He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life — Self (archive footage), Director, Cinematography, Editor, Writer
• 1985Home Movies 1971-81
• 1983Cup/Saucer/Two Dancers/Radio — Director
• 1983Erick Hawkins: Excerpts from "Here and Now with Watchers" — Director
• 1983Street Songs — Director
• 1981Strong Medicine
• 1981The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man
• 1981The Song of Stockholm — Director
• 1981Travel Songs — Self (uncredited), Director
• 1980Robert Haller's Wedding — Director
• 1980Self-Portrait — Himself, Director
• 1979Paradise Not Yet Lost — Himself, Director
• 1978Cinématon — N°1590
• 1978Four Shadows
• 1978In Between — Director
• 1978Notes for Jerome — Self, Director, Cinematography, Writer
• 1976Lost, Lost, Lost — Self, Director, Writer, Cinematography, Editor
• 1975Postcard from America
• 1974‘Rameau’s Nephew’ by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen
• 1973Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
• 1972Nitsch
• 1972Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania — Self, Director, Cinematography, Writer, Editor
• 1971Marcel Hanoun wedding — Director
• 1971The Song of Moscow — Director
• 1970Occhio privato sul nuovo mondo
• 1969Time & Fortune Vietnam Newsreel — Director, Cinematography
• 1968A Matter of Baobab
• 1968Diaries, Notes, and Sketches — Self, self, Director, Writer, Editor, Cinematography
• 1967For Life, Against the War — Director
• 1967Hare Krishna — Director
• 1967Notes on the Circus — Director, Editor, Director of Photography
• 1967The Italian Notebook — Director
• 1967The Song of Assisi — Director
• 1967The Song of Avila — Narrator, Director
• 1967The Song of Italy — Director
• 1966Cassis — Director of Photography, Editor
• 1966European Diaries — Sound Designer
• 1966Report from Millbrook — Director
• 1966Shooting Guns
• 1966The Love Merchant — Lounge Patron
• 1966The Velvet Underground: Psychiatrist's Convention, NYC, 1966 — Camera Operator
• 1965Dirt
• 1965Empire — Self (uncredited), Cinematography
• 1965Film Magazine of the Arts — Director, Editor, Cinematography
• 1964Award Presentation to Andy Warhol — Self, Director, Director of Photography, Editor
• 1964The Brig — Director, Cinematography, Director of Photography
• 1963Hallelujah the Hills — Assistant Director
• 1962Diane the Zebra Woman
• 1962Senseless — Writer
• 1961Guns of the Trees — Director, Writer, Cinematography, Editor
• 1961The Sin of Jesus
• Fragments of an Unfinished Biography of Jackie & Lee
• When — Director

Appearances as themselves (73)

• 2023Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV — Self (archive footage)
• 2022Film: The Living Record of Our Memory — Self
• 2022Fragments of Paradise — Self (archive footage)
• 20219/11: Life Under Attack — Self
• 2021Back from New York — Himself
• 2021The Invisible Father — Self (archive footage)
• 2021The Velvet Underground — Self
• 2020Tiny Tim: King for a Day — Himself
• 2019Cinema and Sanctuary — Self
• 2019Gena Rowlands: A Life on Film — Self
• 2019Last Interview Film of Jonas Mekas/version 1 — Self
• 2018Beyond the Bolex — Self
• 2018George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus — Self
• 2016EXPRMNTL — himself
• 2016I Had Nowhere to Go — Himself
• 2016Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas — Self
• 2015A Day in the Life of Andy Warhol — Self
• 2013Jonas in the Jungle — Self
• 2013My Conversations on Film — Himself
• 2013What Is Cinema? — Self
• 2012Maya Deren, Take Zero — Himself
• 2011Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film — Himself
• 2011Guest — Self
• 2010Portrait Serie - Jonas Mekas — himself
• 2010Visionaries — Himself
• 2009It Came from Kuchar — Self (archive footage)
• 2009Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days — Himself
• 2009The Perfect Team: The Making of 'On the Bowery' — Self
• 2008Doc — Himself
• 2007Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis — Self
• 2006Anger Me — Himself
• 2006Nam June Paik: Lessons from the Video Master — Self
• 2006Notes on Marie Menken — Self
• 2006Who Gets to Call It Art? — Self
• 2005Excavating Taylor Mead — Self
• Kulturplatz — Self
• 2003Axiom of Choice — Self
• 2003Not in Our Name — himself
• 2002In the Mirror of Maya Deren — Himself
• 2002Jonas Keeps Shooting Around — Himself
• 1998My Country is Cinema, Scenes from the Life of Jonas Mekas — Self
• 1997A Poet from the Lower East Side — Self
• 1996Jonas Mekas, Friday 13th October — Himself
• 1996Michael Snow Up Close — Himself
• 1995Nico Icon — Self
• 1994Jonas in the Desert — Self
• 1993Jonas Mekas in Budapest — Himself
• 1993The Misfits - 30 Years of Fluxus — Self
• 1992Award — Himself
• 1991Interview and Reading: Jonas Mekas — Himself
• 1990Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol — Self
• 1989Warhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties — Self
• 1986Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank — Self
• 1986Invocation: Maya Deren — Himself
• 1984Persistence of Vision — Self
• 1980J. Mekas — Self
• 1980No. 18: Mahagonny — Self
• 1979ORG — Self (archive footage)
• 1972Going Home — Himself
• 1972Imagine — Self
• 1971Journey to Lithuania — Himself
• 1971Ricky Leacock Visit, April 15, 1971 — Self
• 1971Up Your Legs Forever — Self - Legs
• 1969Filmmakers — Himself
• 1968Jonas — Himself
• 1968Underground New York — Self
• 1967Poem Posters — Self
• 1966Galaxie — Self
• 1966Screen Test [ST211]: Jonas Mekas — himself
• 1965Andy Warhol Screen Tests — Self
• 1965Jonas in the Brig — Himself
• The Lamb — Self
• Viva Jonas! — Himself