Screens Sunday 3/31 2:15p
For tickets http://tinyurl.com/ksn3k6s
Jonas Mekas, who died on Wednesday (1/23/19), at ninety-six, has no analogues that I can see in American or European culture—he was a tireless, visionary promoter, an organizer and entrepreneur, a filmmaker, a poet, a diarist, a blogger decades before the invention of the Internet, a man more concerned with documenting his life than anyone before Karl Ove Knausgaard "-J. Hoberman
Jonas Mekas left behind a huge body of work; this year we set time aside to dip a giant toe into that deep pool through a few shorts. The following films will be presented in 16MM.
Hare Krishna
1966 4min
"A 'documentary' - one Sunday afternoon in New York - beautiful new generation - dancing in the streets of New York - singing 'Hare Hare' - filling the streets and the air with love - in the very beginning of the New Age - Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky (on soundtrack) singing 'Hare Hare.'" – J.M.
Film Magazine of the Arts
1963 20min
"In Spring, 1963 Show Magazine called me and asked that I make a film on arts in New York. I told them, why did they want me to make it - didn't they know I was a bit unusual? ... 'We want something unusual,' they said. So I went out and made a newsreel on arts. Show people looked at the rough cut of the film and became very angry. 'But there is nothing about Show Magazine and DuPont fabrics in the movie,' they said. 'What has that to do with the arts in New York!' I said. The battle was short. The film was destroyed. Really, I have no idea what they did with it. This workprint of the first FILM MAGAZINE OF THE ARTS is the only print in existence, as far as I know."
Report from Millbrook
1966 16min
"REPORT FROM MILLBROOK was filmed in 1965, on a weekend visit to Tim Leary's place. It was a light summer outing. No LSD. Tim took me for a walk, though, and we talked about LSD. I told him that the chemicals that motivate and drive artists are more powerful and mysterious than LSD or any drug. On that note we turned back and ended our walk. There was nothing more to say. In 1966, Tim's place was raided by the local sheriff. The East Village Other taped an interview with the sheriff about the raid. I used the interview as the soundtrack for the film. The footage can also be seen in a different form in DIARIES, NOTES & SKETCHES."
Cassis
1966 4.5min
A small port in South of France, a lighthouse, the sea, shot from just before the sunrise until just after the sunset, all day long, frame by frame, a frame or two every second or every few minutes.
Notes on the Circus
1966 12min
Ringling Bros., filmed in three sessions (three-ring circus), with no post-editing of opticals, five rolls strung together as they came out of a camera. Jim Kweskin's Jug Band prepared the soundtrack. Film can also be watched with soundtrack turned off (if you're a "purist" which I'm not).
Scenes of the Life of Andy Warhol
1982 36min
Music: Velvet Underground, recorded in 1966. Opening segment taped at the Dom at the public performance with Nico. End section: Mass for Andy Warhol at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The film is made up of my film diaries related to Andy Warhol from the years 1965-1982. Locations are New York and Montauk: The Factory, house of George Maciunas, village gate, psychiatrist's convention, home of Stephen Shore, Warhol Estate, Montauk, etc. The "cast" includes Lou Reed, Nico, Edie Sedgwick, Gerard Malanga, Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, Ed Sanders, Barbara Rubin, Tuli Kupferberg, Peter Orlovsky, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, George Maciunas, Vincent Friemont, Henry Geldzahler, Paul Morrissey, Karen Lerner, Jay Lerner, Peter Beard, John Kennedy Jr., Lee Radziwill, Tina Radziwill, Anthony Radziwill, D'Allessandro, Caroline Kennedy, Mick Jagger, Jade Jagger and many others.
All synopses courtesy of the filmmaker