Notes on an American Film Director at Work

Filmmaker Jonas Mekas follows his friend, film director Martin Scorsese, and his cast and crew, through various locations during the shooting of his film The Departed, released in 2006.

Cassis

"I was visiting Jerome Hill. Jerome loved France, especially Provence. He spent all his summers in Cassis. My window overlooked the sea. I sat in my little room, reading or writing, and looked at the sea. I decided to place my Bolex exactly at the angle of light as what Signac saw from his studio which was just behind where I was staying, and film the view from morning till after sunset, frame by frame. One day of the Cassis port filmed in one shot." -JM

Notes on the Circus

The short film is a montage of sped up clips of The Ringling Brothers Circus in action set to a musical track. The film is separated into four segments, each segment which focuses on different acts within the circus. The later segments often incorporate clips from earlier segments, mostly as background to the featured acts. The speed of the clips match the tempo of the soundtrack music.

Guns of the Trees

A depressed woman, Barbara, is on the verge of suicide while a man she meets in a church and a married couple try to convince her that life is worth living.

The Song of Italy

Part of the series of Travel Songs by Jonas Mekas.

Birth of a Nation

Filmmaker Jonas Mekas films 160 underground film people over four decades.

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania

A 1971–72 documentary film by Jonas Mekas. It revolves around Mekas' trip back to Semeniškiai, the village of his birth.

Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR

A meditation on the time when the world watched as filmmaker Jonas Mekas' home country of Lithuania fought for independence. An immersion into the addictive grasp of the 24-hour news cycle, into a moment of major social upheaval, and into one very personal fixation of an obsessive chronicler. The film exists in a shortened, four-screen version as well as a one-screen, full-length document.

Salvador Dalí at Work

Filmmaker Jonas Mekas follows the surrealist artist around the streets of New York documenting staged public art events.

From the Notebooks of a Cinema Maniac

Video diary film by Jonas Mekas, premiered at the British Film Institute on December 5, 2017.

The Song of Assisi

In 1967, I decided to visit Avila where I had an enlightening experience.

The Song of Stockholm

Sightseeing Stockholm offbeat through the lens of Jonas Mekas.

365 Day Project

This exhibition focuses on Jonas Mekas’ 365 Day Project, a succession of films and videos in calendar form. Every day as of January 1st, 2007 and for an entire year, as indicated in the title, a large public (the artist's friends, as well as unknowns) were invited to view a diary of short films of various lengths (from one to twenty minutes) on the Internet. A movie was posted each day, adding to the previously posted pieces, resulting altogether in nearly thirty-eight hours of moving images.

Report from Millbrook

An oblique documentary about the LSD group experiments of Timothy Leary, with off screen commentary of a participant and shots of Leary's house and the surroundings.

Elvis Live at Madison Square Garden

Elvis Presley performance at the Madison Square Garden arena in New York City on Saturday June 10, 1972, the concert, and the subsequent album, were promoted as being Presley's first live concerts in the Big Apple since the 1950s.

Thursday Jan. 4, 2007: Pedro (São Paulo) or The Right Way To Make Capirinha

Pedro, at Nick Cave's favorite caipirinha bar in São Paolo, gives a lesson in how to prepare the classic Brazilian drink.

Award Presentation to Andy Warhol

In 1964 Film Culture magazine chose Andy Warhol for its annual Independent Film award. The plan was to show some of Andy's films and have Andy come on stage and hand him the award. Andy said, no, he didn't want a public presentation.

A Report from Venice

Opening of the Internet Saga Pavilion. At Palazzo Foscari Contarini, Venice. May 6 and 7, 2015.

All About Bolex

"I developed a need to try to retain everything I was passing through, by means of my Bolex camera."

Carl G. Jung by Jerome Hill or Lapis Philosophorum

In 1950 Jerome Hill went to Zurich with the intention of making a film about Dr. Carl G. Jung. The project was abandoned when Hill decided that Jung was not a good subject. After Hill's death, Jonas Mekas edited the film which focuses on Dr. Jung as a person.