# Jonas Mekas [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Mekas) ( 1922 – 2019 ) ## Description Lithuanian-American filmmaker, critic, and institution-builder — the central organizing figure of the New York underground film scene, through his "Movie Journal" criticism, his own diary-film practice, and his founding of the Film-Makers' Cooperative and Anthology Film Archives. ## Key Tags #diary-film #film-poem #ny-underground #institution-builder #critic ## Essential Works - *Walden: Diaries, Notes, and Sketches* (1969) - foundational diary film assembling years of personal 16mm footage of the New York underground scene - *Lost Lost Lost* (1976) - diary film on his and his brother's displacement as postwar refugees and early years in New York - *As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty* (2000) - late, epic-length diary film spanning decades of personal footage - "Movie Journal" - his long-running *Village Voice* film column, a primary critical record of the 1960s New York avant-garde ## Details Arrived in New York in 1949 as a displaced person after WWII; became the central advocate, distributor, chronicler, and institution-builder for the American postwar avant-garde. Founded the Film-Makers' Cooperative in 1962 as a non-curated, filmmaker-run distribution model — directly inspiring London's own [[London Film-Makers' Co-op]] in 1966 — and co-founded Anthology Film Archives in 1970 with [[P. Adams Sitney]], [[Stan Brakhage]], Peter Kubelka, and Jerome Hill. As a critic and distributor he was an early and persistent champion of [[Jack Smith]]'s *Flaming Creatures*, screening it despite obscenity prosecution. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Avant Garde Film]] - as critic, distributor, and institution-builder, arguably the single most consequential organizing figure for the field ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Collaborators - [[P. Adams Sitney]] - co-founder of Anthology Film Archives, 1970 - [[Stan Brakhage]] - co-founder of Anthology Film Archives - [[Jack Smith]] - early champion and distributor of *Flaming Creatures*, defending it through obscenity prosecution ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements - Film-Makers' Cooperative - founder, 1962; non-curated, filmmaker-run distribution model that inspired the [[London Film-Makers' Co-op]] - Anthology Film Archives - co-founder, 1970 ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography Mekas, Jonas. *Walden: Diaries, Notes, and Sketches*. 1969. ### Secondary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %%