1 00:00:42,138 --> 00:00:46,548 Here I am. Here is me 2 00:00:49,808 --> 00:00:50,808 By myself. 3 00:00:54,438 --> 00:00:58,258 Here is my hand, here is my face, 4 00:00:59,928 --> 00:01:03,678 my hair, my heart. 5 00:01:04,428 --> 00:01:07,038 Here is my heart. Somewhere there. 6 00:01:08,828 --> 00:01:12,798 Here I am. Me, me. 7 00:01:16,088 --> 00:01:19,438 Where is me? What is me? 8 00:01:22,708 --> 00:01:25,598 What was my life all about? 9 00:01:30,058 --> 00:01:31,158 Do I still have time 10 00:01:33,338 --> 00:01:36,118 to do something about my life? 11 00:01:39,198 --> 00:01:40,318 I really don't know. 12 00:01:46,468 --> 00:01:49,598 Some called him the godfather of underground film... 13 00:01:49,728 --> 00:01:51,364 Filmmaker Jonas Mekas. That's Jonas Mekas. 14 00:01:51,388 --> 00:01:53,478 My guest tonight is Jonas Mekas, 15 00:01:53,698 --> 00:01:56,878 who was first of all a poet before he was a filmmaker. Uh, 16 00:01:57,318 --> 00:02:00,078 I was a farmer before I was a filmmaker. 17 00:02:00,458 --> 00:02:04,758 His name is Jonas Mekas, a man who I think more than almost anybody in the world, 18 00:02:05,408 --> 00:02:09,598 epitomizes the meaning and significance of independent film-making. 19 00:02:09,778 --> 00:02:10,598 I'm delighted to have you here. 20 00:02:10,599 --> 00:02:13,558 I'm happy to be here on this autumn day. 21 00:02:14,328 --> 00:02:18,957 Jonas Mekas has remained at the forefront of American independent film-making for 22 00:02:18,958 --> 00:02:19,958 more than half a century. 23 00:02:20,138 --> 00:02:22,238 Author, critic, film distributor, 24 00:02:22,538 --> 00:02:26,958 and a movie maker whose influence extends far beyond his adopted home. 25 00:02:27,208 --> 00:02:29,517 Jonas Mekas was the most exciting person. I mean, 26 00:02:29,518 --> 00:02:30,998 he just got excited about anything. 27 00:02:32,148 --> 00:02:33,658 Jonas became a social center 28 00:02:34,258 --> 00:02:36,978 as well as making his own films and writing his own poetry. 29 00:02:37,638 --> 00:02:42,238 I began keeping film diaries immediately after I came to this country. 30 00:02:42,338 --> 00:02:46,078 The dominant form of my life became the diary. 31 00:02:46,898 --> 00:02:51,678 So I'm just filming moments of life. 32 00:02:53,438 --> 00:02:57,038 I do not know what makes me do it, 33 00:02:57,898 --> 00:03:02,551 but I have to do it. I just have to do It. 34 00:03:21,678 --> 00:03:25,638 I cannot sleep. I cannot sleep. 35 00:03:26,778 --> 00:03:31,718 Oh boy. I don't know what I'm going to do tonight. 36 00:03:34,698 --> 00:03:35,698 Box is.. 37 00:03:36,658 --> 00:03:40,158 Box is... why all my life is boxed? 38 00:03:41,178 --> 00:03:44,318 I have boxed myself into, I dunno where I am. 39 00:03:45,148 --> 00:03:48,918 It's a mess. It's a mess. Uh, 40 00:03:50,258 --> 00:03:55,901 As I'm slowly moving to my editing room, 41 00:04:00,828 --> 00:04:05,798 some old footage, fading, fading footage, 42 00:04:10,218 --> 00:04:12,718 My friends, here I am 43 00:04:14,258 --> 00:04:19,038 trying to remember it all. Footage I took with my first 44 00:04:19,368 --> 00:04:24,358 Bolex, but the dust of time is falling on all of it. 45 00:04:25,058 --> 00:04:26,438 My brother Adolfas 46 00:04:27,108 --> 00:04:31,678 Some of the details are already deep under the 47 00:04:32,308 --> 00:04:33,308 dust of time. 48 00:04:38,758 --> 00:04:42,958 Adolfas and I came here from post-war Europe 49 00:04:43,708 --> 00:04:47,078 Full of doubts about civilization. 50 00:04:48,458 --> 00:04:52,358 All the affairs of this world. 51 00:04:55,978 --> 00:04:59,438 We loved you, world. 52 00:05:01,018 --> 00:05:04,958 But you did lousy things to us. 53 00:05:08,138 --> 00:05:11,598 We are displaced persons 54 00:05:13,858 --> 00:05:16,078 and the world is full of us. 55 00:05:21,388 --> 00:05:26,038 This was recorded by someone in exile. 56 00:05:32,828 --> 00:05:35,908 I was so lonely when I came 57 00:05:37,458 --> 00:05:39,348 that... this city 58 00:05:42,158 --> 00:05:44,188 saved my sanity. 59 00:05:46,458 --> 00:05:47,638 The first years here, 60 00:05:48,818 --> 00:05:51,878 we embraced New York 61 00:05:52,102 --> 00:05:54,102 and the city embraced us 62 00:05:55,418 --> 00:05:59,638 We did not miss a single theater performance, 63 00:05:59,918 --> 00:06:04,838 a single film that opened, a single ballet performance, 64 00:06:05,288 --> 00:06:06,288 music... 65 00:06:06,978 --> 00:06:09,678 We were hungry, thirsty for... 66 00:06:12,218 --> 00:06:13,218 Art. 67 00:06:30,418 --> 00:06:35,238 It's raining in New York on this November day. 68 00:06:37,098 --> 00:06:39,638 My camera is getting wet, 69 00:06:41,818 --> 00:06:46,738 but it doesn't matter. Orchard Street. 70 00:06:48,018 --> 00:06:50,498 I lived here. I lived here for two years. 71 00:06:54,788 --> 00:06:57,578 Walking, always walking. 72 00:07:00,088 --> 00:07:04,248 That is the life of a displaced person. 73 00:07:05,788 --> 00:07:08,888 A DP in a strange place, 74 00:07:18,168 --> 00:07:24,838 Grass clinging the block of cement, trying to live 75 00:07:26,418 --> 00:07:31,968 In a place where life seems to be totally impossible. 76 00:07:36,698 --> 00:07:41,198 And there, behind that bridge, it's Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 77 00:07:42,438 --> 00:07:45,638 I spent two years of my life. Yeah, two, 78 00:07:47,548 --> 00:07:51,338 There is a point somewhere where you don't know anymore 79 00:07:52,588 --> 00:07:56,638 where your home really is. 80 00:07:58,638 --> 00:07:59,958 I am still at that point. 81 00:08:03,118 --> 00:08:06,358 I think my real home is cinema. 82 00:08:15,608 --> 00:08:19,118 Jonas and Adolfas Mecca, born in Lithuania, 83 00:08:19,788 --> 00:08:24,598 came to the US and the first thing they did was they bought 84 00:08:24,838 --> 00:08:26,878 a 16 millimeter Bolex camera. 85 00:08:28,388 --> 00:08:31,118 Neither myself nor my brother spoke English. 86 00:08:31,978 --> 00:08:36,918 We thought maybe we can do the camera and speak with images. 87 00:08:38,288 --> 00:08:40,278 Jonas carried his camera everywhere. 88 00:08:41,718 --> 00:08:45,838 I don't think I ever saw Jonas without a camera. 89 00:08:46,738 --> 00:08:51,238 We thought we will get into Hollywood and make big movies there, 90 00:08:51,338 --> 00:08:52,171 but meanwhile, 91 00:08:52,218 --> 00:08:56,518 we have to practice and master what the camera can do, all the tricks. 92 00:09:04,108 --> 00:09:08,278 Very soon it was cinema that was our lives, 93 00:09:08,778 --> 00:09:11,558 our minds, our hearts. 94 00:09:13,298 --> 00:09:17,798 And we wished that we would have some kind of platform 95 00:09:18,458 --> 00:09:22,678 to exchange ideas. France had Cahiers du Cinéma 96 00:09:24,708 --> 00:09:29,318 England had Sight and Sound. In United States, nothing. 97 00:09:31,138 --> 00:09:32,998 So we said, said, let's do it. 98 00:09:34,978 --> 00:09:37,158 By December 54, 99 00:09:37,858 --> 00:09:40,278 we brought out the first issue 100 00:09:47,098 --> 00:09:50,958 For Film Culture Magazine. I wrote a piece about The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 101 00:09:52,468 --> 00:09:56,038 John Ford's film. I think I made 25 bucks, 102 00:09:56,968 --> 00:09:58,758 which got me through a couple of dates. 103 00:10:02,138 --> 00:10:04,278 The first play I directed off Broadway. 104 00:10:05,288 --> 00:10:09,198 Jonas came to see it with his brother Adolfas, and that's where we met. 105 00:10:10,098 --> 00:10:14,838 And he was very kind and very encouraging, encouraging me to make movies, 106 00:10:15,448 --> 00:10:16,638 which I ended up doing 107 00:10:19,258 --> 00:10:23,438 But for Film Culture, yeah. I wrote for them a couple of... few times 108 00:10:25,448 --> 00:10:27,118 After you started Film Culture, 109 00:10:27,698 --> 00:10:32,637 you got into being the first film critic for the Village Voice writing about 110 00:10:32,638 --> 00:10:35,318 commercial cinema. But you are writing now. 111 00:10:35,898 --> 00:10:39,238 It is primarily a criticism of the avantgarde. 112 00:10:40,178 --> 00:10:44,918 It happened so not by, you know, our choice, but I see great, 113 00:10:45,018 --> 00:10:48,317 you know, beauty, excitement there and nobody's writing about them. 114 00:10:48,318 --> 00:10:52,438 Nobody's bringing these films to the, you know, reader's, viewer's attention. 115 00:10:52,778 --> 00:10:54,198 And that I consider is a cry. 116 00:10:54,898 --> 00:10:58,758 So it's my duty to bring those films to the attention of the people. 117 00:11:06,488 --> 00:11:10,198 Jonas Mekas was my savior. Somehow. 118 00:11:10,318 --> 00:11:12,558 I knew about the Village Voice and I got it. 119 00:11:12,818 --> 00:11:15,598 And I used to read Jonas's column, Movie Journal, 120 00:11:15,818 --> 00:11:18,478 and he told me what underground movies were. 121 00:11:19,418 --> 00:11:23,317 And that's how I learned about Warhol and Kenneth Anger and the Kuchar Brothers 122 00:11:23,318 --> 00:11:27,838 and all those kind of movies. So I became kind of obsessed by them. 123 00:11:27,898 --> 00:11:30,158 And I would sneak away on the Greyhound Bus to 124 00:11:30,178 --> 00:11:33,318 New York and see the underground movies that Jonas wrote about. 125 00:11:34,818 --> 00:11:36,678 That's how I got my film education. 126 00:11:38,458 --> 00:11:39,838 Before I was a film student 127 00:11:39,918 --> 00:11:44,317 I just live every week to read Jonas's column in the Village Voice because it 128 00:11:44,318 --> 00:11:46,838 opened up a whole new world of, uh, what cinema could be. 129 00:11:48,218 --> 00:11:51,798 The word movie didn't mean just one thing anymore. To the younger generation, 130 00:11:52,178 --> 00:11:56,278 you have lighter equipment, so you can actually start making your own films. 131 00:11:57,388 --> 00:12:00,238 Underground movies, we're doing it a completely different way. 132 00:12:00,508 --> 00:12:04,918 Turning your nose up at Hollywood. Technique, billion dollar 133 00:12:05,068 --> 00:12:06,068 budgets and everything, 134 00:12:06,778 --> 00:12:09,198 You can step out in the street with your characters. 135 00:12:09,898 --> 00:12:13,758 If all your expenses were subway fair and film, 136 00:12:13,978 --> 00:12:17,318 you could somehow work. You didn't eat so good, but you could work. 137 00:12:18,138 --> 00:12:21,638 And that Jonas valued the work was amazing. 138 00:12:22,818 --> 00:12:24,478 He couldn't have been more generous 139 00:12:39,728 --> 00:12:44,268 For the first time in the last 10 years, 140 00:12:45,428 --> 00:12:49,748 I did not feel alone in America. 141 00:12:50,978 --> 00:12:57,988 Like I was slowly becoming a part of it. 142 00:12:59,858 --> 00:13:02,768 There was a moment when I forgot 143 00:13:04,468 --> 00:13:06,008 My home. 144 00:13:10,308 --> 00:13:14,488 We wrote, we did a lot of writing 145 00:13:16,318 --> 00:13:21,008 with coffee eating our stomachs. 146 00:13:25,108 --> 00:13:29,088 We started shooting our first film. 147 00:13:31,708 --> 00:13:38,128 It was exciting. Everything was new. 148 00:13:49,088 --> 00:13:54,008 I was a teenager reading Jonas' Movie Journal in the Village Voice 149 00:13:54,138 --> 00:13:57,928 And I went to Cinema 16. 150 00:13:58,298 --> 00:14:02,728 where, mixed in with narrative films and 151 00:14:02,958 --> 00:14:07,888 science films and pornography were these other films. 152 00:14:08,508 --> 00:14:11,248 And that's when I first saw Maya Deren 153 00:14:16,748 --> 00:14:17,748 and Stan Brakhage. 154 00:14:24,668 --> 00:14:27,408 And I thought, this is most ridiculous stuff I've ever seen. 155 00:14:28,988 --> 00:14:31,648 And then I saw Jonas's Guns of the Trees, 156 00:14:40,268 --> 00:14:45,207 and I never wanted to go back to Cinema 16 after that because it 157 00:14:45,208 --> 00:14:47,368 was the most depressing thing that I'd ever seen. 158 00:14:47,748 --> 00:14:52,328 Not everyone digs underground movies, but those who do can dig them here. 159 00:14:52,918 --> 00:14:54,328 This is The Bridge in New York, 160 00:14:54,428 --> 00:14:58,487 one of several small theaters around the country where underground films are 161 00:14:58,488 --> 00:15:01,008 shown. But what is an underground movie? 162 00:15:01,298 --> 00:15:03,558 The subject almost defies description 163 00:15:04,328 --> 00:15:08,538 Like any art cinema has the narrative aspect and the poetic aspect 164 00:15:09,318 --> 00:15:14,537 and so-called underground filmmakers are exploring the poetic 165 00:15:14,538 --> 00:15:15,538 aspect of cinema. 166 00:15:17,948 --> 00:15:22,578 Jonas was interested in freedom of expression with an 167 00:15:22,778 --> 00:15:27,138 emphasis on individuality, the personal, sometimes very private, 168 00:15:27,798 --> 00:15:29,418 that Hollywood will never make. 169 00:15:30,478 --> 00:15:33,458 And he saw that these films couldn't get distribution. 170 00:15:34,078 --> 00:15:38,018 So what did Jonas do? He started the Filmmakers Co-op, 171 00:15:38,438 --> 00:15:41,577 The Filmmaker's Cooperative distributed Mondo Trasho. 172 00:15:41,578 --> 00:15:44,018 That was the first real distributor I ever got. 173 00:15:47,038 --> 00:15:50,857 It was in the catalog. And they would pay a dollar a minute, 90 minutes long. 174 00:15:50,858 --> 00:15:53,298 So I got $90 every time somebody rented it. 175 00:15:54,078 --> 00:15:58,977 Anyone could deposit a film at the Filmmaker's Cooperative and it 176 00:15:58,978 --> 00:16:02,258 would be distributed if people asked for it. 177 00:16:03,038 --> 00:16:06,258 And how would people know to ask for it? Well, 178 00:16:06,468 --> 00:16:08,338 Jonas mentored them in the Village Voice. 179 00:16:08,958 --> 00:16:11,898 No one would've ever heard of those movies, if not for Jonas. 180 00:16:12,438 --> 00:16:16,218 He essentially wrote about the films that his friends were making. 181 00:16:17,158 --> 00:16:21,537 And the reason the Village Voice regarded this not as a conflict of interest for 182 00:16:21,538 --> 00:16:24,778 many years, is that no one made any money. 183 00:16:27,048 --> 00:16:28,978 When I started working at the Co-Op, 184 00:16:29,158 --> 00:16:32,218 it was at 414 Park Avenue South, 185 00:16:32,838 --> 00:16:35,138 and Jonas lived in the back. 186 00:16:36,628 --> 00:16:41,098 Filmmakers Cooperative was a period of like four years. 187 00:16:41,338 --> 00:16:45,058 I don't know how I slept because it was always busy that place. 188 00:16:47,048 --> 00:16:51,898 Most of the time I slept and then my Moviola, there was no other room. 189 00:16:52,988 --> 00:16:56,618 Every evening we had screenings, filmmakers bringing their footage, 190 00:16:57,798 --> 00:17:00,018 people gathering and showing their work. 191 00:17:01,838 --> 00:17:05,978 You could meet everybody there from Robert Frank, Allen Ginsburg, 192 00:17:06,458 --> 00:17:09,498 Salvador Dali, they all came to the screenings. 193 00:17:10,798 --> 00:17:15,298 It was at those screenings that I met Barbara Rubin, 194 00:17:15,548 --> 00:17:20,098 Harry Smith, Jack Smith, and Warhol. 195 00:17:23,158 --> 00:17:27,938 Andy was there in my loft, sitting on the floor watching movies already, 196 00:17:28,168 --> 00:17:31,338 several months, but I did not know it was Andy. 197 00:17:32,368 --> 00:17:34,458 That was Andy's film school. 198 00:17:36,748 --> 00:17:41,657 Jonas certainly gave Andy the idea of 199 00:17:41,658 --> 00:17:44,458 making films. And for a period of time, 200 00:17:45,198 --> 00:17:48,938 Warhol pretty much put away painting 201 00:17:50,158 --> 00:17:51,898 in favor of making films. 202 00:17:53,448 --> 00:17:56,498 They were the most important thing that Warhol was doing. 203 00:18:14,538 --> 00:18:18,078 But this evening, as I was, um, 204 00:18:18,618 --> 00:18:21,598 eating my supper, it came to me that, 205 00:18:21,658 --> 00:18:26,078 Andy's constant audio taping.. 206 00:18:26,778 --> 00:18:27,898 Constant in the later years. 207 00:18:28,008 --> 00:18:31,998 Video taping, it came from shyness. 208 00:18:35,418 --> 00:18:40,318 A shy person is not able to hundred percent connect 209 00:18:40,628 --> 00:18:45,518 with the people and remains always a little 210 00:18:45,538 --> 00:18:50,278 bit on the side. A watcher. A looker. A gazer. 211 00:18:51,448 --> 00:18:55,558 Because that is like one's only protection. 212 00:18:56,258 --> 00:19:00,318 It is the chain that keeps you 213 00:19:00,758 --> 00:19:03,998 attached to the people around you. 214 00:19:08,068 --> 00:19:10,478 That is what I have been thinking 215 00:19:15,338 --> 00:19:16,478 As I think about Andy 216 00:19:20,778 --> 00:19:21,778 To you. 217 00:19:29,768 --> 00:19:31,598 There were two kinds of underground workers. 218 00:19:31,808 --> 00:19:35,558 There was the real arty kind like Stan Brakhage, and Ed Emshwiller 219 00:19:35,918 --> 00:19:39,997 I didn't like them so much then, I like them now and realized that Jonas was 220 00:19:39,998 --> 00:19:43,917 completely right about that school too. But then there was the Warhol, 221 00:19:43,918 --> 00:19:46,478 Kenneth Anger, Kuchar, the ones I liked really, 222 00:19:46,828 --> 00:19:49,998 that always had nudity, and gay people and drugs. 223 00:19:51,538 --> 00:19:54,518 You know, when people think of the sixties, 224 00:19:55,588 --> 00:19:59,798 they think of just this counterculture. Anything goes, 225 00:20:00,418 --> 00:20:02,278 Nudity, sex. 226 00:20:03,418 --> 00:20:07,278 But actually the censorship then was terrible. 227 00:20:08,108 --> 00:20:10,438 I'll never forget, I went to forbidden screening, 228 00:20:10,818 --> 00:20:14,158 An illegal screening of a banned film at Loft in the Village. 229 00:20:15,298 --> 00:20:19,278 And Mekas introduced. It was Kenneth Anger's, Scorpio Rising. 230 00:20:19,978 --> 00:20:21,718 It was certainly a life changer for me. 231 00:20:30,858 --> 00:20:35,078 If you look at the history of queer film 232 00:20:35,698 --> 00:20:38,598 and you look at the history of avantgarde film, 233 00:20:39,548 --> 00:20:42,438 They are twined around each other. 234 00:20:44,098 --> 00:20:46,758 And that was a big deal for Jonas, 235 00:20:47,098 --> 00:20:51,318 who began writing in the Village Voice some very homophobic pieces. 236 00:20:52,618 --> 00:20:54,238 And then at a certain point, 237 00:20:54,698 --> 00:20:59,598 he looked at Jack Smith's work and he realized that Jack was making 238 00:20:59,628 --> 00:21:00,918 great film and great art, 239 00:21:01,338 --> 00:21:05,598 And something changed profoundly in Jonas. 240 00:21:07,778 --> 00:21:09,878 During the summer of 64, 241 00:21:10,698 --> 00:21:14,918 the series of arrests were taking place under the 242 00:21:15,228 --> 00:21:17,278 pretext of obscenity. 243 00:21:18,618 --> 00:21:23,517 We decided that they have no right to tell us how to make our movies 244 00:21:23,518 --> 00:21:26,678 or what to show. We went ahead and we showed everything. 245 00:21:26,868 --> 00:21:29,158 Without submitting to the senators, 246 00:21:31,928 --> 00:21:34,438 Jonas booked the screening of Flaming Creatures. 247 00:21:34,998 --> 00:21:38,798 I was the manager of the theater and Flo's taking tickets. 248 00:21:40,148 --> 00:21:45,038 Cops came out of nowhere. I was arrested. Flo was arrested. 249 00:21:45,768 --> 00:21:50,558 Jonas was arrested and was incredibly courageous talking 250 00:21:50,658 --> 00:21:53,478 to the cops, telling them how stupid they were. 251 00:21:54,758 --> 00:21:56,117 I thought he was gonna get us killed, 252 00:21:56,118 --> 00:21:59,598 or at least we were gonna leave there without teeth. I was impressed. 253 00:22:02,318 --> 00:22:06,358 I don't think anyone was prepared to see the cops show up. 254 00:22:07,888 --> 00:22:11,118 After this arrest, when everybody said I'm in trouble, 255 00:22:11,998 --> 00:22:14,438 I thought okay. Then I will make it worse. 256 00:22:16,758 --> 00:22:21,598 A week after Flaming Creatures, Jonas arranged 257 00:22:21,648 --> 00:22:23,048 the screening of 'Un chant d'amour' 258 00:22:23,158 --> 00:22:25,378 Be it smuggled, the Genet, 259 00:22:25,528 --> 00:22:29,978 semi pornographic or actually pornographic film into the country, 260 00:22:31,048 --> 00:22:33,498 Looking for trouble with the police. 261 00:22:34,868 --> 00:22:38,698 Jonas said, it's not porn. Porn is in the eyes of the beholder. 262 00:22:40,248 --> 00:22:41,248 It's poetry. 263 00:22:43,758 --> 00:22:46,578 Police were threatened by underground movies for some reason, 264 00:22:46,768 --> 00:22:49,938 they really believe that they were gonna, I don't know, 265 00:22:49,958 --> 00:22:53,097 do what, make everybody go crazy and turn gay or what? 266 00:22:53,098 --> 00:22:56,898 I don't know what they thought. For Jonas, it made him a hero, 267 00:22:57,558 --> 00:22:58,558 the revolutionary. 268 00:22:59,358 --> 00:23:04,058 He introduced a new genre of rebellion in film that has never ended. 269 00:23:05,549 --> 00:23:09,138 Jonas wanted to break down the barriers, storm the Bastille. 270 00:23:09,318 --> 00:23:12,458 He talked like that too. We have to take it down and break it down. 271 00:23:13,398 --> 00:23:16,537 And that was very encouraging at that time, for all us young people that were 272 00:23:16,538 --> 00:23:17,538 just starting out. 273 00:23:17,748 --> 00:23:21,298 There was so much dedication and solidarity of the whole community. 274 00:23:22,358 --> 00:23:26,018 And in the middle there was Jonas Mekas. He was the prophet, 275 00:23:27,018 --> 00:23:29,098 a guiding visionary spirit. 276 00:23:29,478 --> 00:23:33,938 He showed us the way and made us understand that there are no limits 277 00:23:34,758 --> 00:23:35,758 to the art of cinema. 278 00:24:02,818 --> 00:24:06,957 We have all come here to tell the public that, uh, we are now, uh, 279 00:24:06,958 --> 00:24:08,478 taking over the entire universe. 280 00:24:09,978 --> 00:24:13,838 What's important about the underground cinema is that it's not important at all. 281 00:24:14,458 --> 00:24:15,557 The underground filmmakers 282 00:24:15,558 --> 00:24:19,438 are not taking themselves seriously. They're just playing, having a good time. 283 00:24:24,288 --> 00:24:28,597 Jonas Mekas, the impresario. Jonas is the head of the 284 00:24:28,598 --> 00:24:32,757 Filmmaker Co-Operative. He puts together movies and sends them 285 00:24:32,758 --> 00:24:34,878 around to, uh, Europe and America. Mm-hmm. 286 00:24:35,498 --> 00:24:38,798 Movies like Flaming Creatures and The Brig. 287 00:24:53,138 --> 00:24:56,678 Now, this will be another glorious day. 288 00:25:01,298 --> 00:25:03,757 The thing is that The Brig is a film of an actual performance 289 00:25:03,858 --> 00:25:05,238 of the living theater. 290 00:25:05,539 --> 00:25:07,718 Yes. It was shot on stage. 291 00:25:08,638 --> 00:25:13,358 I walked into the middle of the play, with the camera, with sound 292 00:25:19,988 --> 00:25:22,438 Disrupted the whole situation as a new element. 293 00:25:23,018 --> 00:25:25,438 It was not an adaptation filming of a play, 294 00:25:25,818 --> 00:25:30,718 but my instantaneous reaction to a production in long 10 minute 295 00:25:30,968 --> 00:25:35,958 takes. With the movement of the camera, the brutality of it, uh, 296 00:25:36,018 --> 00:25:37,238 uh, was sort of crazy. 297 00:25:42,258 --> 00:25:44,438 The Brig showed at the Venice Film Festival. 298 00:25:45,268 --> 00:25:50,078 They thought it was a real Brig as opposed to the documentary 299 00:25:50,178 --> 00:25:53,318 of a theater production. But it did win a prize. 300 00:25:53,538 --> 00:25:56,798 And it did put Jonas on the map, 301 00:25:57,778 --> 00:26:00,158 though still as some kind of curator. 302 00:26:01,418 --> 00:26:05,718 People didn't see Jonas as a filmmaker in his own right until 303 00:26:06,228 --> 00:26:08,238 Diaries, Notes and Sketches, Walden. 304 00:26:10,478 --> 00:26:18,478 I knew. Therefore I make films, I make films, 305 00:26:23,588 --> 00:26:27,588 I make home movies, therefore, 306 00:26:28,228 --> 00:26:29,228 I live. 307 00:26:35,528 --> 00:26:39,428 Walden was the first Jonas film that really moved me, 308 00:26:41,288 --> 00:26:44,708 was like, wow, this is like its own form completely. 309 00:26:49,238 --> 00:26:52,998 Jonas was able to use the form of cinema in the way. 310 00:26:53,328 --> 00:26:56,798 Poets don't obey the laws of pros. 311 00:26:56,828 --> 00:26:59,358 They don't obey the laws or rules. 312 00:26:59,988 --> 00:27:01,998 They are there to abstract them. 313 00:27:05,228 --> 00:27:09,198 Jonas's personal cinema represented an entire 314 00:27:09,728 --> 00:27:14,118 vocabulary of symbols and signifiers, 315 00:27:15,418 --> 00:27:17,518 and there was no goal. 316 00:27:19,548 --> 00:27:23,518 Diaristic, memoirist documentarian 317 00:27:25,348 --> 00:27:26,798 Through the eyes of a poet 318 00:27:32,578 --> 00:27:35,478 Around 1961. Looking back, 319 00:27:36,078 --> 00:27:40,078 I realized that the footage I've shot with my first two Bolexes 320 00:27:40,948 --> 00:27:45,598 felt like a diary documenting certain aspects of my life. 321 00:27:49,978 --> 00:27:52,198 So Diaries, Notes, and Sketches. 322 00:27:52,468 --> 00:27:56,358 This footage from 1964 to 1968. 323 00:27:58,808 --> 00:28:03,268 I'm not documenting reality. That doesn't interest me, 324 00:28:03,288 --> 00:28:05,868 but I'm celebrating reality. 325 00:28:07,168 --> 00:28:12,068 I'm picking out certain bits and I film them in a way 326 00:28:12,298 --> 00:28:16,028 that they are like celebrations of life. 327 00:28:18,978 --> 00:28:23,187 Temperament, attitude, state of being. That feeling, like in the air. 328 00:28:23,188 --> 00:28:26,108 Pace, rhythm, movement, life, exposure 329 00:28:26,318 --> 00:28:30,988 -- focus intensively how I feel as I'm looking at that detail 330 00:28:32,168 --> 00:28:35,548 to catch reality as it happens now. 331 00:28:38,258 --> 00:28:40,548 That is how my diary form started. 332 00:28:52,078 --> 00:28:56,708 Jonas was an expert at turning his journals and diaries into his art 333 00:28:58,448 --> 00:29:02,708 Walden and Lost, Lost, Lost are two of my favorite films of, 334 00:29:02,928 --> 00:29:05,988 of not just of Jonas's, but two of my favorite films ever. 335 00:29:06,538 --> 00:29:09,707 Lost, Lost, Lost stuck with me a great deal, 336 00:29:09,708 --> 00:29:14,348 particularly when he was filming the grass. You know, 337 00:29:15,298 --> 00:29:19,948 Like he was dancing around with his camera, fluidly in space. 338 00:29:20,408 --> 00:29:22,348 So ecstatically happy. 339 00:29:26,118 --> 00:29:30,948 Jonas and images of Jonas with a Bolex camera 340 00:29:30,968 --> 00:29:34,068 reminded me of Woody Guthrie's guitar that he had. 341 00:29:34,738 --> 00:29:36,748 This machine kills fascists. 342 00:29:37,258 --> 00:29:40,468 That guitar was his way of delivering things. 343 00:29:40,688 --> 00:29:45,268 And Jonas's Bolex was equally iconic to me. 344 00:29:45,938 --> 00:29:50,668 This machine destroys preconceptions of what is filmmaking. 345 00:29:53,178 --> 00:29:54,598 The camera took Jonas, 346 00:29:55,148 --> 00:29:59,677 It's like basketball to Michael Jordan or Jimi Hendrix playing the guitar 347 00:29:59,678 --> 00:30:00,718 for Christ's sake, you know. 348 00:30:01,908 --> 00:30:06,078 It's just part of his body, coordinated so naturally, 349 00:30:06,378 --> 00:30:10,558 so fluidly. He was in his element. 350 00:30:11,818 --> 00:30:14,878 And that's a very important thing to recognize. God, you know 351 00:30:14,888 --> 00:30:19,678 Jonas as a person is super shy, sometimes painfully so, 352 00:30:20,088 --> 00:30:23,438 especially when he's been caught in some kind of crowd. 353 00:30:26,048 --> 00:30:30,757 Jonas was the artiest person to be at the 354 00:30:30,758 --> 00:30:37,098 center of so many different stratas of society. 355 00:30:38,058 --> 00:30:42,078 He was highly regarded in Park Avenue living rooms 356 00:30:42,178 --> 00:30:46,518 In the homes of great art collectors. 357 00:30:48,458 --> 00:30:53,237 He was omnipresent on the scene and he always deflected accolades from 358 00:30:53,238 --> 00:30:56,398 himself to like, "Well, but did you see this? Did you hear about this?" 359 00:30:58,378 --> 00:31:03,318 He had a lot of access to people because they recognized Jonas' integrity, the purity 360 00:31:07,018 --> 00:31:10,517 He was telling the tales of his own life and the people he encountered. 361 00:31:10,518 --> 00:31:12,998 And it has some of those people happen to be, you know, 362 00:31:13,008 --> 00:31:17,438 Miles Davis, or John and Yoko or all these different luminaries of the period. 363 00:31:21,439 --> 00:31:24,158 Jonas doesn't have the same ambition. 364 00:31:25,978 --> 00:31:29,278 He doesn't really wanna be that famous when you think about it. 365 00:31:30,548 --> 00:31:33,918 Whether he's hanging out with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, 366 00:31:34,778 --> 00:31:39,358 or following the cockroach, just trying to get across the street. 367 00:31:39,948 --> 00:31:41,398 He'd have the similar 368 00:31:43,138 --> 00:31:46,558 joy and attention being paid to those moments. 369 00:31:47,188 --> 00:31:52,158 There's no hierarchy between Yoko Ono, John Lennon, 370 00:31:52,308 --> 00:31:56,678 cockroach. He always talk about that glimpse of beauty in paradise. 371 00:31:57,188 --> 00:32:01,518 That was it. Being caught in the moment. 372 00:32:04,028 --> 00:32:06,638 Very important philosophy of life. 373 00:32:15,348 --> 00:32:18,678 It's my nature now to record, 374 00:32:19,738 --> 00:32:23,398 to try to keep everything I'm passing through. 375 00:32:25,478 --> 00:32:27,678 I have lost too much. 376 00:32:40,388 --> 00:32:42,511 It's raining somehow 377 00:32:44,968 --> 00:32:49,518 And I have lots of time. I'm not in a hurry really 378 00:32:53,398 --> 00:32:54,678 I don't mind it all. 379 00:32:58,888 --> 00:33:03,418 For this rain to rush to the streets of New York 380 00:33:05,618 --> 00:33:11,078 After coming 7000 miles from home, from Lithuania. 381 00:33:13,778 --> 00:33:18,718 It doesn't matter. 100 blocks, one way or the other. 382 00:33:21,178 --> 00:33:23,598 I'm on Broadway and it's raining 383 00:33:24,008 --> 00:33:26,998 7,000 miles away. 384 00:34:34,438 --> 00:34:38,818 The editor of Pravda, propaganda newspaper of Russia. 385 00:34:39,568 --> 00:34:40,568 He had seen The Brig. 386 00:34:41,388 --> 00:34:44,728 And she thought it was a great anti-American film 387 00:34:47,468 --> 00:34:51,928 and that it should be shown in Moscow Film Festival. And I said, 388 00:34:52,048 --> 00:34:55,648 I will come, but at the same time, 389 00:34:55,848 --> 00:34:58,687 I would like that to go... If I'm in Moscow, 390 00:34:58,688 --> 00:35:02,848 Maybe I could go also to Lithuania and visit my mother. 391 00:35:04,148 --> 00:35:06,128 So that took me to my mother. 392 00:35:24,168 --> 00:35:28,928 And as we were approaching, closer and closer 393 00:35:30,148 --> 00:35:31,608 to the places we knew so well, 394 00:35:33,798 --> 00:35:37,448 Retracing bits of past. 395 00:35:39,408 --> 00:35:44,248 I did not recognize the places, there were no trees. 396 00:35:44,358 --> 00:35:45,358 When we left, 397 00:35:46,428 --> 00:35:50,398 We planted small seedlings all around, yes 398 00:35:51,258 --> 00:35:55,678 And now the little seedling had grown 399 00:35:56,418 --> 00:36:00,838 up into big, large trees. 400 00:36:11,058 --> 00:36:12,638 And there was Mama. 401 00:36:14,258 --> 00:36:16,958 And she was waiting. 402 00:36:18,978 --> 00:36:23,838 She was waiting for 25 years. 403 00:37:11,618 --> 00:37:14,318 Our home, our house was still there. 404 00:37:15,978 --> 00:37:18,598 And the cat met us. 405 00:38:53,498 --> 00:38:57,358 Our mother is telling about the terrible post-war years 406 00:38:58,878 --> 00:39:02,038 And how every night, for a year, the police was waiting 407 00:39:02,362 --> 00:39:05,984 behind a house in the bushes, for me to come home 408 00:39:06,408 --> 00:39:09,258 They thought I had joined the partisans 409 00:39:09,633 --> 00:39:12,133 For more than a year, behind the bathhouse. 410 00:39:12,571 --> 00:39:15,071 The dogs used to bark every night, she said 411 00:40:06,138 --> 00:40:07,798 My decision is to leave. 412 00:40:09,578 --> 00:40:13,278 If you want to criticize me for my lack of 413 00:40:14,128 --> 00:40:16,158 patriotism or courage, 414 00:40:17,458 --> 00:40:19,718 You can go to hell. 415 00:40:21,118 --> 00:40:24,478 I do not want any part of this war. 416 00:40:25,628 --> 00:40:28,238 This war is not mine. 417 00:40:30,038 --> 00:40:31,038 I am a poet. 418 00:40:36,338 --> 00:40:41,237 False papers were made for us to go to the University of Vienna 419 00:40:41,238 --> 00:40:44,078 and study there, and there we went. 420 00:40:46,058 --> 00:40:48,678 The only thing was that we never got there. 421 00:40:50,508 --> 00:40:55,398 Germans directed our train towards Hamburg and we 422 00:40:55,418 --> 00:41:01,238 ended in the slave camps of the Nazi Germany. 423 00:41:57,738 --> 00:42:02,558 One thing that people always forget about Jonas is that he's a survivor of 424 00:42:02,698 --> 00:42:06,318 one of the worst mass slaughters in human history. 425 00:42:07,338 --> 00:42:08,478 And even after the war, 426 00:42:08,888 --> 00:42:13,397 Jonas and Adolfas were lost in that mix of people who were trying to figure 427 00:42:13,398 --> 00:42:17,758 out how to get home. They were not welcome in Soviet-occupied Lithuania. 428 00:42:18,308 --> 00:42:21,878 They had to stay in a displaced person's camp for four years. 429 00:42:22,338 --> 00:42:26,958 And so at this point, he begins to really develop as 430 00:42:27,238 --> 00:42:31,598 a poet, this is when he writes his Idylls of Semeniškia 431 00:43:24,918 --> 00:43:28,748 By the time I ended up in the fourth labor camp, 432 00:43:29,428 --> 00:43:34,268 I only wanted to write. And my first poetry book was published in 433 00:43:34,348 --> 00:43:38,028 a very cheap way in displaced person camps. 434 00:43:54,348 --> 00:43:58,668 I got to know him through the book called Jonas Mekas' Poetry, 435 00:43:59,118 --> 00:44:04,248 which was published in 1971 because previously in Lithuania, 436 00:44:04,249 --> 00:44:10,458 his poetry wasn't available. I found a book in my parents library. 437 00:44:13,488 --> 00:44:18,028 It sounded different than Lithuanian poetry that I knew. 438 00:44:20,688 --> 00:44:23,628 The country really has a difficult history, 439 00:44:24,078 --> 00:44:28,588 which was a living trauma for the generation of Jonas Mekas. 440 00:44:31,828 --> 00:44:36,708 Jonas consolidated that historical experience of the country 441 00:44:36,928 --> 00:44:41,718 and its people and expressed it in this very 442 00:44:42,278 --> 00:44:46,078 personal way. Now that I speak, 443 00:44:46,158 --> 00:44:50,158 I suddenly realized that I was probably only a few years younger than Jonas 444 00:44:50,348 --> 00:44:54,358 himself, when he started his journey away from Lithuania. 445 00:44:57,898 --> 00:45:00,558 The darkness is falling, beyond the windows. 446 00:45:05,218 --> 00:45:08,558 All the past is falling together. 447 00:45:12,348 --> 00:45:14,958 Just two lines from Jonas Poetry. 448 00:45:18,348 --> 00:45:19,998 What more do you want from me? 449 00:45:23,838 --> 00:45:26,398 I am a musician. I became a politician, 450 00:45:27,948 --> 00:45:33,281 participant of my nation's self liberation 451 00:45:34,988 --> 00:45:37,638 from longstanding Soviet yoke. 452 00:45:40,418 --> 00:45:44,798 Jonas was a very painful one 453 00:45:46,938 --> 00:45:48,478 and full of miracles. 454 00:45:51,258 --> 00:45:52,638 It looks paradoxical. 455 00:45:54,308 --> 00:45:57,798 Jonas speaks about the most simple things 456 00:46:00,098 --> 00:46:03,238 and then you understand that they are the most important. 457 00:46:06,658 --> 00:46:08,438 The element of past 458 00:46:10,498 --> 00:46:14,438 was especially important for Jonas, 459 00:46:15,728 --> 00:46:20,878 Maybe as representative of captive nation, 460 00:46:21,768 --> 00:46:25,038 which was stored out from reality, 461 00:46:26,418 --> 00:46:28,518 put into a cage of captivity. 462 00:46:33,738 --> 00:46:36,878 Who cannot understand it? 463 00:46:38,968 --> 00:46:46,558 Maybe those who have not been captive, enslaved, 464 00:46:48,898 --> 00:46:51,918 But those who don't have such experiences. 465 00:46:53,288 --> 00:46:56,318 Maybe they lose something. 466 00:46:58,988 --> 00:47:05,278 That terrible chance to have such a painful experience. 467 00:47:13,728 --> 00:47:16,798 Today, I was leaving. It was raining. 468 00:47:18,418 --> 00:47:22,998 The airport was wet, it was sad. 469 00:47:25,268 --> 00:47:26,608 Oh Mother, 470 00:47:28,368 --> 00:47:33,048 I hope the long gray road will 471 00:47:33,158 --> 00:47:36,248 lead me soon home again. 472 00:47:59,628 --> 00:48:02,188 Kreutzer Sonata, that's what I need. 473 00:48:12,758 --> 00:48:15,778 As I sit here in my editing room, 474 00:48:18,068 --> 00:48:22,418 splicing bits of my own past, 475 00:48:23,608 --> 00:48:27,098 putting all these pieces together. 476 00:48:31,198 --> 00:48:35,938 I'm looking at fragments of mine and 477 00:48:36,258 --> 00:48:39,158 your life. 478 00:48:40,308 --> 00:48:43,378 These are my memories. 479 00:48:44,118 --> 00:48:48,818 The way I saw it when I was filming it. 480 00:48:51,758 --> 00:48:54,931 I'm talking to you, Alice. 481 00:49:08,648 --> 00:49:10,258 When I met Jonas, 482 00:49:11,278 --> 00:49:14,898 it wasn't like the sparks and all of that cuz that's not the way 483 00:49:16,238 --> 00:49:18,778 he was. He wasn't like a sparky person. 484 00:49:19,478 --> 00:49:21,298 He was like slow and 485 00:49:24,038 --> 00:49:26,258 really charismatic and powerful. 486 00:49:29,878 --> 00:49:35,658 He was 22 years older than me and he was also Jonas Mekas, you know, 487 00:49:36,918 --> 00:49:40,018 And I was just a person who liked avant-garde film, 488 00:49:42,518 --> 00:49:45,298 But he really made me feel calm and he really made me feel, 489 00:49:47,928 --> 00:49:51,298 um, happy. 490 00:49:54,498 --> 00:49:58,218 I had seen Walden and Reminisces 491 00:49:59,518 --> 00:50:01,218 And I read Jonas's columns. 492 00:50:05,488 --> 00:50:06,978 It's like I had always known him 493 00:50:14,598 --> 00:50:17,858 And he came and lived with me, pretty quick. 494 00:50:20,638 --> 00:50:22,058 He brought his editing table. 495 00:50:32,278 --> 00:50:36,058 Hollis and me, the protagonist of this film. 496 00:50:37,138 --> 00:50:41,838 We decided to try to be like all the 497 00:50:42,338 --> 00:50:45,198 normal serious people. 498 00:50:46,018 --> 00:50:48,678 We decided to get married. 499 00:50:50,258 --> 00:50:53,398 And there is the man of the minute, 500 00:50:55,018 --> 00:50:56,998 and Hollis's father. 501 00:51:01,038 --> 00:51:05,398 I can still feel the happiness of that 502 00:51:05,818 --> 00:51:10,038 summer being in love. If there is beauty, 503 00:51:10,908 --> 00:51:13,758 that was beauty, my friend. 504 00:51:24,098 --> 00:51:27,318 It was magical and fun. 505 00:51:29,698 --> 00:51:31,598 He was a very free spirit. 506 00:51:33,228 --> 00:51:36,398 Like Jonas is one of the funniest people I have ever met. 507 00:51:44,738 --> 00:51:47,238 And yeah, he always had his camera with him. 508 00:51:48,719 --> 00:51:51,738 It was like his sidekick 509 00:51:51,962 --> 00:51:54,662 And it makes that click. I love that click. 510 00:52:27,058 --> 00:52:33,157 Peter, standing now at his window with the fireworks going off all around him is 511 00:52:33,158 --> 00:52:34,918 the tiny figure of the house 512 00:52:35,338 --> 00:52:37,638 What, what happened to you? 513 00:52:38,438 --> 00:52:42,598 I, I meant to darken my hair and it it darkened it a little too much. 514 00:52:43,508 --> 00:52:48,438 Yeah. Dark brown, but ended up being little... 515 00:52:48,838 --> 00:52:49,838 I have to fix that. 516 00:52:51,469 --> 00:52:55,398 Development. A liberal economy, free market. Put human rights.. 517 00:52:55,428 --> 00:52:58,198 518 00:52:58,578 --> 00:53:02,678 The time now is touched, according to Einstein. 519 00:53:03,888 --> 00:53:07,397 Seize the problems and the opportunities of this 520 00:53:07,698 --> 00:53:10,718 ever small planet we all call home. In short, 521 00:53:12,458 --> 00:53:16,798 If we want the story of the 21st century to be the triumph of peace 522 00:53:17,258 --> 00:53:20,758 and harmony, we must embrace our common humanity. 523 00:53:24,378 --> 00:53:30,798 It's about 17 minutes to the end of this millennium. 524 00:53:31,738 --> 00:53:36,318 New Year's, 1999 525 00:53:39,698 --> 00:53:41,918 As the world is celebrating the New Year 526 00:53:43,658 --> 00:53:48,398 I am celebrating 527 00:53:50,018 --> 00:53:54,958 the last quarter of the 20th century. 528 00:53:58,098 --> 00:54:02,918 It seems I was filming my own 529 00:54:03,188 --> 00:54:07,838 childhood as I was filming your chilhood. 530 00:54:08,568 --> 00:54:12,638 Oona and Sebastian. 531 00:54:27,748 --> 00:54:31,158 Formative years of being in front of a camera just became natural. 532 00:54:32,718 --> 00:54:37,318 I didn't love it or hate it, it was just totally normal 533 00:54:39,058 --> 00:54:40,058 up to a certain age. 534 00:54:40,198 --> 00:54:44,558 I think I was about 13 when I just started doing this and walking away. Um, 535 00:54:44,658 --> 00:54:48,918 cuz you know, 13 puberty and all of it, you're changing and you're just like, 536 00:54:49,268 --> 00:54:53,238 "Stop filming me. Like, just stop". Luckily I had 537 00:54:53,438 --> 00:54:57,638 a younger brother and then he ended up in all the films because he was smaller 538 00:54:57,698 --> 00:54:58,698 and didn't care. 539 00:54:59,098 --> 00:55:02,238 If you've only grown up with a, a camera, 540 00:55:04,178 --> 00:55:06,277 if you grew up your whole childhood with that, 541 00:55:06,278 --> 00:55:09,278 you don't think anything funny or strange of it. 542 00:55:10,778 --> 00:55:15,478 So I was aware that my birth was filmed. I didn't feel icky or weird about it. 543 00:55:16,018 --> 00:55:19,038 It was just something that was part of life. 544 00:55:23,138 --> 00:55:27,558 As I was watching you in that moment, 545 00:55:29,158 --> 00:55:30,158 I thought, 546 00:55:31,488 --> 00:55:35,798 There cannot be anything more beautiful 547 00:55:36,858 --> 00:55:42,968 or more important on this Earth. 548 00:55:47,238 --> 00:55:48,238 1974 549 00:55:49,679 --> 00:55:53,718 Really monumental year. In '74, we got married, 550 00:55:55,298 --> 00:55:58,598 We had Oona, and we moved into The Loft in SoHo. 551 00:55:59,838 --> 00:56:04,278 I still have dreams about that place. The Loft. 552 00:56:04,558 --> 00:56:08,318 I mean that's what everybody called it. It was this big meeting space. 553 00:56:10,338 --> 00:56:14,038 The long wooden table that we had in the house was a very busy space. 554 00:56:14,728 --> 00:56:18,358 Every week or so we had gatherings, just a few friends, 555 00:56:18,888 --> 00:56:21,598 Filmmakers, painters, poets. 556 00:56:22,218 --> 00:56:25,518 In the sunset over Manhattan aisle. 557 00:56:26,298 --> 00:56:30,478 Newark was my bright place, under the wing for a while. 558 00:56:31,048 --> 00:56:35,958 Green gas tanks of Kearney, smog brown in the west. 559 00:56:36,498 --> 00:56:40,918 In the lower East side, I'll go take my rest. 560 00:56:41,618 --> 00:56:45,958 I'm alone in the sky where there's nothing to lose. 561 00:56:46,738 --> 00:56:50,718 The sun's not eternal, that's why there's the blues. 562 00:56:51,378 --> 00:56:56,198 Majestical jailhouse, our joys in the cage. 563 00:56:57,178 --> 00:57:02,118 Hearts full of hatred will outlast my old age. 564 00:57:08,968 --> 00:57:10,918 There was always music in the house. 565 00:57:12,578 --> 00:57:14,358 He had this group of Lithuanian friends, 566 00:57:14,698 --> 00:57:18,358 people he arrived with, and they would play these 567 00:57:19,168 --> 00:57:23,838 incredibly sad songs. All Lithuanian folk songs are sad. 568 00:57:24,288 --> 00:57:25,318 Every single one of 'em. 569 00:58:57,028 --> 00:59:01,648 It appears to be, I mean, it was a good life if it wasn't an idyllic life, 570 00:59:01,868 --> 00:59:05,367 but it was a good life. I mean, 571 00:59:05,368 --> 00:59:08,368 the struggles were really real. Like money. 572 00:59:10,548 --> 00:59:13,608 An anthology film archive. It was a huge struggle. 573 00:59:15,238 --> 00:59:22,498 The Anthology Film Archive. This is where I sit and work 574 00:59:27,718 --> 00:59:32,237 on this fragile little table indicating the 575 00:59:32,238 --> 00:59:35,638 fragility of our existence 576 00:59:35,788 --> 00:59:38,888 and fragility of film 577 00:59:39,188 --> 00:59:43,478 That is falling to dust. Every minute as we are talking, 578 00:59:44,328 --> 00:59:47,078 Films are falling to dust. 579 00:59:52,458 --> 00:59:55,918 The idea of the Anthology Film Archives was 580 00:59:57,228 --> 01:00:00,418 that it'll establish a repertory of avantgarde, independent 581 01:00:00,738 --> 01:00:03,038 and classic cinema. 582 01:00:03,258 --> 01:00:08,197 We have about 6,000 titles So that those who want to know more or 583 01:00:08,198 --> 01:00:11,758 less what has been achieved in cinema as an art 584 01:00:13,008 --> 01:00:17,638 could have some idea by seeing what we called essential cinema 585 01:00:17,728 --> 01:00:21,078 collection. The film that we show quite often here.. 586 01:00:21,098 --> 01:00:26,078 Around 1970, five of us discussed 587 01:00:26,378 --> 01:00:30,278 and argued and prepared a list of essential cinema. 588 01:00:31,418 --> 01:00:35,958 And we began screening them on a repertory basis again and again. 589 01:00:36,578 --> 01:00:38,878 And we thought that will be our function. 590 01:00:39,658 --> 01:00:44,518 But that function changed soon because we discovered if we screen, 591 01:00:44,698 --> 01:00:49,238 we have to get the best possible prints. We discovered that the filmmaker died. 592 01:00:49,298 --> 01:00:53,838 Nobody knows where the originals are or the originals are fading or shrinking 593 01:00:53,978 --> 01:00:57,878 or are falling to pieces. So we established the preservation department 594 01:01:00,578 --> 01:01:04,878 And we did this out of necessity, not because we wanted to-- 595 01:01:04,888 --> 01:01:07,038 There was this need, we had to do it. 596 01:01:10,378 --> 01:01:15,237 I'd love to come here and see if I could catch him and go downstairs and talk 597 01:01:15,238 --> 01:01:17,518 to him about new things in the archives. 598 01:01:18,058 --> 01:01:20,158 And I remember things he'd tell me like, oh, 599 01:01:20,738 --> 01:01:25,518 We found these Russian industrial films in the dumpster 600 01:01:26,108 --> 01:01:30,918 that I now want to catalog. Like this excitement of like, what are they? 601 01:01:30,988 --> 01:01:35,757 Oh, they're footage of strange machinery and factories in the 602 01:01:35,758 --> 01:01:39,997 Soviet Union. You know, these kind of things. And, and we just found them. 603 01:01:39,998 --> 01:01:44,638 They've been thrown away. So we're seeing should we include them in the archive. 604 01:01:47,588 --> 01:01:51,678 Film is fragile and, and if you don't preserve it, it's gone. 605 01:01:52,908 --> 01:01:53,908 It's history. 606 01:01:54,608 --> 01:01:58,598 Every film is a kind of historical document of that particular 607 01:01:59,528 --> 01:02:01,238 story, that particular time. 608 01:02:03,078 --> 01:02:06,238 Eiseinstein, Russian, American, 609 01:02:07,178 --> 01:02:09,878 and the French and the Germans. 610 01:02:09,948 --> 01:02:12,918 Some of those films are ecstatically beautiful. 611 01:02:13,288 --> 01:02:18,237 These are fragments of paradise and they have to do everything to see that they 612 01:02:18,238 --> 01:02:19,238 don't disappear. 613 01:02:21,068 --> 01:02:24,238 This kind of obsession or craziness 614 01:02:25,248 --> 01:02:26,248 keeps me alive. 615 01:02:31,058 --> 01:02:35,958 He had such a pure vision of avant-garde film, anthology, cinema, 616 01:02:39,778 --> 01:02:44,438 But when he bought the Courthouse in 79, that was a really big leap 617 01:02:46,218 --> 01:02:48,358 For the Anthology Film Archive. 618 01:02:48,538 --> 01:02:52,718 You are struggling with a financial campaign to convert a magnificent building 619 01:02:52,948 --> 01:02:53,781 into a... 620 01:02:53,938 --> 01:02:57,718 A house building, uh, that has been closed for the last 10 years that we, 621 01:02:58,218 --> 01:02:59,638 we acquired from the city. 622 01:02:59,658 --> 01:03:03,278 And we will be transforming it into a film and video museum. 623 01:03:04,138 --> 01:03:07,478 We are now in the 72 seat theater. 624 01:03:07,828 --> 01:03:12,798 They were redoing the whole interior. When Saturday Night Live asked me, 625 01:03:13,728 --> 01:03:15,998 Would you make a a five minute film? 626 01:03:16,918 --> 01:03:21,418 I asked Jonas if I could shoot here. He said, yeah, "You can shoot here" 627 01:03:22,719 --> 01:03:26,557 I hope it's not disruptive that they'll be working around you. 628 01:03:26,558 --> 01:03:29,598 Nice to meet you. Nice To meet you too. Get away. 629 01:03:40,918 --> 01:03:44,728 They took 10 years to get The Courthouse to the place where we could open it. 630 01:03:45,788 --> 01:03:46,928 It took a lot of work. 631 01:03:47,718 --> 01:03:50,488 Good morning. Good morning, Jonas. How are you this morning? 632 01:03:50,668 --> 01:03:54,488 Are we gonna make the countdown? 12 days before we open. 633 01:03:55,558 --> 01:04:00,248 Five days before the opening. Four days before the opening. 634 01:04:01,398 --> 01:04:04,128 We'll be opening soon. I don't have the exact date. 635 01:04:04,308 --> 01:04:06,368 You'll have to see the man who's in charge of this. 636 01:04:06,948 --> 01:04:10,688 Two days before the opening, two hours before the show, 637 01:04:10,938 --> 01:04:14,088 40 minutes before the opening. 638 01:04:23,598 --> 01:04:27,608 Running Anthology was always a challenge. 639 01:04:28,828 --> 01:04:30,808 The main headache? The fundraising. 640 01:04:32,338 --> 01:04:34,768 Jonas knew a lot of people in the film world, 641 01:04:34,868 --> 01:04:38,048 in the art world that he could call on for help when it was really needed, 642 01:04:38,548 --> 01:04:43,008 but it still wasn't easy. Jonas used to call it a cathedral of cinema. 643 01:04:43,708 --> 01:04:45,648 He used to say that they're angels. 644 01:04:46,228 --> 01:04:50,368 The anthology has a guardian angel. I have at times found that to be true. 645 01:04:50,888 --> 01:04:55,647 I have also at times found that to be a very impractical answer to the 646 01:04:55,648 --> 01:04:56,648 problems that we face. 647 01:04:57,798 --> 01:05:02,448 Anthology was made by angels and miracles, 648 01:05:03,518 --> 01:05:06,328 luck and hard work. 649 01:05:07,788 --> 01:05:11,408 He worked in the day at Anthology. He worked all the time. 650 01:05:13,058 --> 01:05:16,528 Jonas worked more than any person I've ever known. 651 01:05:17,068 --> 01:05:18,408 He described his day. 652 01:05:18,888 --> 01:05:23,527 I go to the Anthology in the morning, and then I go home and I take care of the 653 01:05:23,528 --> 01:05:27,598 International Correspondent. I have time with my family 654 01:05:29,818 --> 01:05:34,037 And then I go into the editing room after midnight, and I stay in there as long 655 01:05:34,038 --> 01:05:36,158 as I can stay awake. Usually four hours. 656 01:05:39,248 --> 01:05:44,268 It's five minutes to two in the morning. 657 01:05:45,208 --> 01:05:47,748 The house is sleeping. 658 01:05:51,258 --> 01:05:54,188 Yeah, when everyone else would go to bed, he would, 659 01:05:54,328 --> 01:05:56,068 he would go to this editing room. 660 01:05:57,968 --> 01:06:01,188 He was always really productive. But I mean, 661 01:06:01,268 --> 01:06:03,228 I was definitely a backseat to the work. 662 01:06:09,848 --> 01:06:12,708 I'm not sure that I am taping right now. 663 01:06:20,718 --> 01:06:23,788 Hello. Is is a, is a rose. 664 01:06:25,528 --> 01:06:26,528 Is it really? 665 01:06:28,368 --> 01:06:33,228 Notice when I was around nine, that he got his first Sony video 666 01:06:33,248 --> 01:06:36,468 camera. He was very excited by the possibilities of video. 667 01:06:38,148 --> 01:06:39,148 The long takes 668 01:06:40,648 --> 01:06:43,308 And shooting synchronized sound for the first time. 669 01:06:44,828 --> 01:06:49,748 I want here to hear, are you pressing? Yes. And it says R-E-C? 670 01:06:50,288 --> 01:06:54,668 Yes. Good. That means it's recording. I can see they had, uh, light noise. 671 01:06:54,728 --> 01:06:59,668 So it's recording. So I'm waiting to your, uh, new book of poems, 672 01:06:59,918 --> 01:07:04,108 which is right here. 673 01:07:04,288 --> 01:07:05,468 Got that one wrong. 674 01:07:05,818 --> 01:07:07,028 Does it record this sound? 675 01:07:07,448 --> 01:07:10,908 Of course. Um, I will read a poem. 676 01:07:12,498 --> 01:07:14,708 That tree said, 677 01:07:15,148 --> 01:07:19,268 I don't like that white car under me 678 01:07:19,688 --> 01:07:23,268 It smells gasoline. You are neurotic 679 01:07:23,568 --> 01:07:25,988 You can see by the way 680 01:07:28,008 --> 01:07:32,188 You are bent over. You can see by the way.. 681 01:07:32,568 --> 01:07:35,128 "You're neurotic, you can see by the way you're bent over" 682 01:07:35,878 --> 01:07:38,858 You can see here 683 01:07:40,838 --> 01:07:44,458 You can see by the way, you're bend over. No, I'll read it to you. You take me. 684 01:07:44,568 --> 01:07:46,358 Yeah. That's, that's a better idea. 685 01:07:48,208 --> 01:07:52,178 That tree said, "I don't like this white car under me. It smells gasoline." 686 01:07:53,168 --> 01:07:57,137 That other tree next to it said, "Ah you're always complaining. You're a neurotic" 687 01:07:57,138 --> 01:08:00,898 You can see by the way, you're bent over. Get it? 688 01:08:01,568 --> 01:08:05,371 - This one... - You're not even listening! 689 01:08:05,578 --> 01:08:08,337 Sebastian, you weren't giving me any attention at all. 690 01:08:08,638 --> 01:08:11,998 I'm a guest here. I deserve attention. 691 01:08:12,698 --> 01:08:15,418 I seem to be making an inventory of your apartment. 692 01:08:19,058 --> 01:08:20,898 I don't suppose you've done this yet, have you? 693 01:08:21,798 --> 01:08:22,798 No. 694 01:08:23,048 --> 01:08:24,338 Well, this might be interesting. 695 01:08:30,378 --> 01:08:31,838 So we entered the secret room 696 01:08:36,978 --> 01:08:37,978 To my mother.. 697 01:08:38,948 --> 01:08:43,078 Holding my father and my mother when they just got married. 698 01:08:44,898 --> 01:08:45,898 Mm-hmm. 699 01:08:46,928 --> 01:08:51,757 There was a moment when filmmakers really were not interested in 700 01:08:51,758 --> 01:08:54,238 working in video. It has a different set of qualities. 701 01:08:54,258 --> 01:08:58,438 It doesn't have that beauty of celluloid. Jonas embraced it. 702 01:08:59,178 --> 01:09:03,757 It was less about whether it was film versus video as what were you trying to do 703 01:09:03,758 --> 01:09:04,758 with the medium? 704 01:09:05,328 --> 01:09:09,638 While I might not find them aesthetically pleasing, 705 01:09:11,348 --> 01:09:14,798 They are so brilliant in terms of portraiture 706 01:09:17,058 --> 01:09:20,398 No. I'm facing real disaster, he left. 707 01:09:20,778 --> 01:09:25,438 Why? Why? So what happened? Uh, the first, 708 01:09:25,508 --> 01:09:26,998 This is the first night of.. 709 01:09:27,378 --> 01:09:31,998 He left me. He's out of love. He want to be independent. 710 01:09:33,218 --> 01:09:38,198 Uh, I'm all shadowing. I have too much energy. I'm just too much. 711 01:09:38,338 --> 01:09:39,878 Not just for him, for everybody. 712 01:09:39,908 --> 01:09:43,438 Generally I'm too much and I don't know how to be less. 713 01:09:46,098 --> 01:09:47,098 Or maybe... 714 01:09:48,418 --> 01:09:50,578 I'm always deeply emotionally touched by his movies. 715 01:09:52,378 --> 01:09:53,878 And I always discover beauty in it. 716 01:09:54,098 --> 01:09:58,918 And you really never know where it takes you to next second, because it's always, 717 01:09:59,568 --> 01:10:02,157 Every time you look at the movie, you discover something new, 718 01:10:02,158 --> 01:10:04,518 something surprising and something true. 719 01:10:35,608 --> 01:10:39,198 Those years in the eighties, nineties, he was doing so many things, 720 01:10:39,388 --> 01:10:42,997 balancing so many roles, wearing many hats, 721 01:10:42,998 --> 01:10:44,958 riding different horses, as he says. 722 01:10:45,498 --> 01:10:48,958 And he struggled at times to find time for his own work. 723 01:10:49,328 --> 01:10:52,598 Jerry, maybe the only print actually is at the Co-op. 724 01:10:52,938 --> 01:10:55,398 So he have to borrow from the Filmmakers Co-op. 725 01:10:56,618 --> 01:10:58,318 He weathered everything. I mean, 726 01:10:58,378 --> 01:11:03,238 he could have utter chaos spinning around him 727 01:11:04,298 --> 01:11:05,318 and he would weather it, 728 01:11:07,208 --> 01:11:10,078 which was hard for the people around him. 729 01:11:11,338 --> 01:11:15,638 Cuz chaos is really hard to deal with. I mean, especially when it's constant 730 01:11:18,788 --> 01:11:23,438 So like just, the film, the Anthology 731 01:11:24,828 --> 01:11:27,478 When you're married to someone who's a little bit famous, 732 01:11:29,428 --> 01:11:30,838 it's like you're an appendage. 733 01:11:33,038 --> 01:11:35,518 I decided after 30 years of that 734 01:11:39,598 --> 01:11:43,398 I need, I just needed to be me, be free. 735 01:11:57,788 --> 01:12:01,718 Somewhere around this time without 736 01:12:02,628 --> 01:12:06,958 protagonists, life collapsed. 737 01:12:10,158 --> 01:12:16,158 Suddenly, his life collapsed. 738 01:12:21,668 --> 01:12:24,567 My parents were separated in the late nineties, 739 01:12:24,568 --> 01:12:28,688 but they still lived in the same place, just lived on opposite sides of the, 740 01:12:28,948 --> 01:12:29,948 of The Loft. 741 01:12:36,268 --> 01:12:38,408 We got divorced in 2001. 742 01:12:39,468 --> 01:12:43,448 It wasn't until 2004 that we actually split 743 01:12:44,278 --> 01:12:48,288 because neither of us had enough money to strike out and get their own place. 744 01:12:51,788 --> 01:12:53,488 We were like distant roommates. 745 01:12:56,768 --> 01:12:58,048 I mean, we were, we were polite. 746 01:13:00,708 --> 01:13:04,488 It was disappointing and sad, 747 01:13:04,588 --> 01:13:09,288 but at the same time I knew that they would both be happier 748 01:13:09,468 --> 01:13:10,468 not living together. 749 01:13:13,748 --> 01:13:16,248 The biggest devastation was getting rid of The Loft. 750 01:13:18,198 --> 01:13:19,768 It's a lot of stuff to move. 751 01:13:20,328 --> 01:13:24,328 I would say that was the lowest point of our relationship. 752 01:13:25,108 --> 01:13:29,528 Moving, packing up all our stuff and moving out. It was hard. 753 01:13:53,278 --> 01:13:55,008 That looks interesting. 754 01:13:55,628 --> 01:13:58,568 The secret strength of depression. 755 01:13:59,968 --> 01:14:00,968 I may read that one 756 01:14:30,238 --> 01:14:33,198 I have to admit, I feel... 757 01:14:35,268 --> 01:14:39,598 Lost. Lost again. 758 01:14:41,758 --> 01:14:46,598 I have lost the sense why I'm here. 759 01:14:48,978 --> 01:14:49,978 I'm lost. 760 01:14:53,898 --> 01:14:55,638 I'm trying to find myself here 761 01:14:58,058 --> 01:14:59,058 This damned.. 762 01:15:02,578 --> 01:15:04,898 Questioning of myself all the time. 763 01:15:19,448 --> 01:15:23,018 Here I am! In this empty space 764 01:15:25,608 --> 01:15:29,778 Impregnated with 30 years of life. 765 01:15:30,028 --> 01:15:35,398 Every wall, floor, ceiling, space itself 766 01:15:37,958 --> 01:15:40,298 There must be... 767 01:15:40,638 --> 01:15:44,138 A lot of little atoms of.. 768 01:15:45,678 --> 01:15:47,658 Myself, Hollis, Sebastian, 769 01:15:49,578 --> 01:15:53,858 Oona, attached to it. Somewhere floating in the air. 770 01:15:55,758 --> 01:15:57,248 Totally invisible. 771 01:16:10,088 --> 01:16:14,558 A glimpse of my new home. 772 01:16:18,768 --> 01:16:23,287 I would spend a lot of time with Jonas, sometimes three nights a week. 773 01:16:23,288 --> 01:16:25,848 Disappointed, Richard. Humanity. 774 01:16:26,108 --> 01:16:27,108 He needed a friend. 775 01:16:27,628 --> 01:16:32,488 And I think he saw me as he himself when he was my age. 776 01:16:32,628 --> 01:16:35,688 You know, when you are an immigrant, 777 01:16:36,198 --> 01:16:39,528 Forever caught in that in-between space, 778 01:16:40,878 --> 01:16:45,568 It's intense because you essentially don't have any home. 779 01:16:47,118 --> 01:16:48,198 You never feel comfortable. 780 01:16:51,798 --> 01:16:56,698 Anyone who knew him should have known how deep the 781 01:16:56,768 --> 01:17:00,618 traumas of his early life were in him, 782 01:17:02,438 --> 01:17:08,658 and the degree to which he refused to give into them. 783 01:17:09,918 --> 01:17:14,258 And the degree to which he kept that invisible 784 01:17:15,038 --> 01:17:18,258 and allowed it to come out in the films. 785 01:17:18,748 --> 01:17:21,038 Only in the form of melancholy, 786 01:17:22,618 --> 01:17:28,878 not in the form of the extremity of loss and anger 787 01:17:30,588 --> 01:17:35,438 that I just saw in every gesture and every 788 01:17:36,138 --> 01:17:39,438 facial movement. You know, I mean, 789 01:17:39,938 --> 01:17:44,878 You know how clowns are the most tragic figures 790 01:17:49,368 --> 01:17:51,758 Jonas worked very hard at being a clown 791 01:17:53,858 --> 01:17:54,858 for other people. 792 01:18:04,298 --> 01:18:08,468 Here I am on February 6th, 793 01:18:09,778 --> 01:18:13,908 here is my room, my table, my glass of wine. 794 01:18:15,408 --> 01:18:16,548 And here is me, 795 01:18:19,768 --> 01:18:20,768 By myself. 796 01:18:24,498 --> 01:18:28,308 Here is my hand, here is my face, 797 01:18:30,048 --> 01:18:33,708 my hair, my heart. 798 01:18:34,458 --> 01:18:39,428 Here is my heart. Somewhere there. Here I am. 799 01:18:40,968 --> 01:18:42,708 Me, me. 800 01:18:46,038 --> 01:18:50,348 Where is me? What is me? 801 01:18:53,578 --> 01:18:56,508 What was my life all about? 802 01:19:07,288 --> 01:19:08,388 Do I still have time 803 01:19:10,648 --> 01:19:13,468 to do something about my life? 804 01:19:16,508 --> 01:19:17,508 I really don't know 805 01:19:22,288 --> 01:19:26,588 God, angels, help me. 806 01:19:35,388 --> 01:19:40,268 I have nobody but this camera, 807 01:19:42,458 --> 01:19:43,458 This camera.. 808 01:19:47,658 --> 01:19:48,658 This camera.. 809 01:19:53,348 --> 01:19:54,588 I threw it on the floor. 810 01:19:55,868 --> 01:19:59,228 I picked it up and it still works. 811 01:20:01,938 --> 01:20:06,388 This piece of metal here in front of me is my only friend. 812 01:20:08,048 --> 01:20:12,348 So here I am. I'm not, 813 01:20:12,648 --> 01:20:14,828 I don't know what to do.. 814 01:20:16,758 --> 01:20:17,798 I don't know what to do.. 815 01:20:27,838 --> 01:20:30,518 I dont' know why I'm taping this. 816 01:20:33,098 --> 01:20:34,098 But I'm taping it. 817 01:20:40,178 --> 01:20:41,178 That's my.. 818 01:21:15,378 --> 01:21:16,438 Midnight. 819 01:21:20,438 --> 01:21:21,438 I can't sleep. 820 01:21:53,518 --> 01:21:54,518 I can't sleep. 821 01:22:08,658 --> 01:22:13,517 One of the ways my father dealt with the ending of that part of his life 822 01:22:13,518 --> 01:22:17,318 was to make, As I was Moving Ahead, I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty 823 01:22:23,788 --> 01:22:28,438 When I began now to put all 824 01:22:29,328 --> 01:22:33,918 these rolls of film together 825 01:22:34,978 --> 01:22:38,678 and just put them together by chance, 826 01:22:39,338 --> 01:22:41,838 the way that I found them on the shelf, 827 01:22:43,948 --> 01:22:48,798 because I really don't know where any piece of 828 01:22:48,858 --> 01:22:52,078 my life really belongs. 829 01:22:57,268 --> 01:23:00,678 Yeah, this is one of my favorite films to watch. 830 01:23:02,068 --> 01:23:06,638 This goes back to what he was doing in 16 mm. Walden, his Diaries, 831 01:23:06,648 --> 01:23:10,478 Notes and Sketches. And they're all sort of stitched together. 832 01:23:46,768 --> 01:23:51,108 My filmmaking saves me. It saves me, 833 01:23:52,868 --> 01:23:54,028 I don't know what I would do. 834 01:23:57,648 --> 01:24:02,098 Sunlight, some sun in my life. 835 01:24:09,468 --> 01:24:14,467 There are moments that I fall into. Those kinds 836 01:24:14,468 --> 01:24:18,548 of moods, moments that don't last very long. 837 01:24:19,448 --> 01:24:23,228 But I'm very miserable when those moments come. 838 01:24:28,718 --> 01:24:31,658 But I'm out of it, out of it. 839 01:24:35,318 --> 01:24:36,698 Hey, what are you doing there? 840 01:24:53,698 --> 01:24:58,578 It's always going somewhere... 841 01:25:01,168 --> 01:25:06,097 That symbolizes our own human mind when we think we 842 01:25:06,098 --> 01:25:10,018 are going somewhere. But we are going nowhere. 843 01:25:19,598 --> 01:25:23,778 He was very sad about parting away with, you know, Hollis. 844 01:25:24,478 --> 01:25:27,098 But what came out is a 365 day project, 845 01:25:27,108 --> 01:25:30,058 which is about celebration of life for that one year 846 01:25:33,858 --> 01:25:35,978 365 day project. 847 01:25:37,008 --> 01:25:40,858 That was one of the most challenging. I mean, 848 01:25:41,098 --> 01:25:45,858 I made a film every day, a film between five to 10 minutes long, 849 01:25:46,248 --> 01:25:50,778 Came to 38 hours of finished film, which is no joke. 850 01:25:54,688 --> 01:25:57,778 It's one of his greatest creation of the late years. 851 01:25:58,278 --> 01:26:00,818 I'm not going to do the dishes tomorrow. 852 01:26:09,878 --> 01:26:12,378 Should I leave this just as an empty day? 853 01:26:13,928 --> 01:26:16,078 Under which St. Mary appeared 854 01:26:20,678 --> 01:26:22,278 December 23rd, 2007. 855 01:26:22,748 --> 01:26:26,478 It's a very special night because it's an alignment of planets. Nine, I believe. 856 01:26:27,098 --> 01:26:31,077 And winter soltice that we're just kind of coming out of.. 857 01:26:31,078 --> 01:26:34,238 And full moon. And um, and your birthday. 858 01:26:43,778 --> 01:26:48,308 That was a time also when my father started to get very interested and very busy 859 01:26:48,338 --> 01:26:51,828 with exhibitions and showing his work in new ways, 860 01:26:54,968 --> 01:26:56,108 It was all very exciting. 861 01:27:01,318 --> 01:27:05,188 Jonas blossomed. He was celebrated all over the world. 862 01:27:07,868 --> 01:27:10,748 I don't know whether that would've happened if we had stayed together. 863 01:27:12,568 --> 01:27:15,068 I'm writing a book about you, my PhD. 864 01:27:16,818 --> 01:27:18,828 It's all about the life work of Jonas Mekas. 865 01:27:19,438 --> 01:27:21,888 Sorry, you had to do so much work. 866 01:27:24,208 --> 01:27:25,628 He recreated a new Jonas. 867 01:27:26,278 --> 01:27:30,468 Never before you have encountered an artist with that 868 01:27:30,798 --> 01:27:33,868 incredible new discovered energy. 869 01:27:37,288 --> 01:27:40,988 The pain created this titanic energy. 870 01:27:42,508 --> 01:27:45,428 Profound tragedy in life. Also energy. 871 01:27:46,368 --> 01:27:49,748 It depends how you turn that into energy. 872 01:27:50,658 --> 01:27:54,588 This is like a new premier of Jonas Mekas as a personality. 873 01:27:55,718 --> 01:28:00,688 More and more Jonas films came into gallery and 874 01:28:00,758 --> 01:28:05,647 museums and the format of presenting them in the 875 01:28:05,648 --> 01:28:10,528 gallery, it had to be invented because some of these films are very long, 876 01:28:11,158 --> 01:28:12,528 some of them are quite short. 877 01:28:13,428 --> 01:28:18,328 He was a curator himself who knew how to construct 878 01:28:18,488 --> 01:28:22,128 a narrative not only in a piece of poetry or a film, 879 01:28:22,708 --> 01:28:26,768 but also in a film program, you know, in a festival. 880 01:28:27,449 --> 01:28:29,497 I dunno if we would have independent cinema 881 01:28:29,521 --> 01:28:31,969 If it wasn't for Jonas Mekas. 882 01:28:40,278 --> 01:28:44,848 When you think about the artist in late years, is about the incredible last 883 01:28:44,868 --> 01:28:46,768 breath of mortality. 884 01:28:47,828 --> 01:28:50,648 And I think Jonas knew that it was fleeting. 885 01:28:57,538 --> 01:29:02,467 I've referred to him as being a kind of poetic equivalent of a kung-fu 886 01:29:02,468 --> 01:29:07,388 master. And I want to talk with Jonas about this, 887 01:29:07,458 --> 01:29:12,077 that maybe the secret of the universe is don't go 888 01:29:12,078 --> 01:29:13,238 against the grain. 889 01:29:14,048 --> 01:29:18,398 Learn how things flow and you don't have to hit against them. 890 01:29:18,978 --> 01:29:23,878 The flow of energy and of life and of expression, ideas is something 891 01:29:23,988 --> 01:29:25,598 very mysterious and magical. 892 01:29:28,188 --> 01:29:31,718 He created a sort of new art, 893 01:29:32,488 --> 01:29:34,158 which is more than film, 894 01:29:36,258 --> 01:29:39,158 The art of being in a creative joy. 895 01:29:55,278 --> 01:29:58,598 Sebastian, I lived with him the last.. 896 01:30:00,438 --> 01:30:01,438 I dunno, eight years. 897 01:30:05,458 --> 01:30:08,478 He, he worked with him, he traveled with him. 898 01:30:09,338 --> 01:30:13,118 He took care of him when he was sick. That was so beautiful. 899 01:30:23,858 --> 01:30:27,678 My father was getting older and it was also nice. I mean, 900 01:30:27,798 --> 01:30:30,278 I found sort of a new relationship with my father, 901 01:30:31,388 --> 01:30:33,068 very different from when I was a teenager. 902 01:30:33,338 --> 01:30:37,158 So we certainly became even closer and more like friends. 903 01:30:37,618 --> 01:30:39,838 We would travel together and go dancing. 904 01:30:43,298 --> 01:30:48,118 My father, I told him that I was pregnant and he didn't really like, 905 01:30:48,218 --> 01:30:51,878 he wasn't boisterous about it, but he was very happy 906 01:30:53,978 --> 01:30:55,718 and I'm just glad he got to meet her. 907 01:30:57,098 --> 01:31:01,358 Oh, oh look, she can play! 908 01:31:10,108 --> 01:31:11,718 Very good. More, more, more. 909 01:31:19,458 --> 01:31:20,738 She doesn't wanna do it anymore. 910 01:31:21,798 --> 01:31:23,358 Then I'm not going to film. 911 01:31:24,988 --> 01:31:25,988 Okay. 912 01:31:29,978 --> 01:31:34,518 He was uniquely fit for catching people in their moments. 913 01:31:51,348 --> 01:31:55,958 It's all little daily scenes, 914 01:31:58,078 --> 01:32:02,478 personal little celebrations, choices 915 01:32:04,258 --> 01:32:05,518 and miracles. 916 01:32:07,098 --> 01:32:11,638 The little moments of paradise that are here 917 01:32:12,098 --> 01:32:14,678 now, next moment, 918 01:32:15,008 --> 01:32:17,438 Maybe they're gone. 919 01:32:18,758 --> 01:32:20,478 I didn't get to go through all of those yet. 920 01:32:23,478 --> 01:32:24,478 I think there's one.. 921 01:32:24,858 --> 01:32:26,766 I'm almost done, 922 01:32:26,790 --> 01:32:29,358 I'm missing one box of Christmas decorations that I can see. 923 01:32:29,538 --> 01:32:31,078 Oh, I, I know where they are. 924 01:32:31,978 --> 01:32:33,718 Let me label really quickly. 925 01:32:34,538 --> 01:32:36,038 And put it there. 926 01:32:38,678 --> 01:32:39,878 Whatever you want to take. 927 01:32:46,698 --> 01:32:51,718 Oh, my comic books. You found my comic books! 928 01:32:53,548 --> 01:32:55,958 I've been looking for these since you moved out of The Loft. 929 01:33:01,228 --> 01:33:04,918 It's a beautiful thing to be able to see your family life 930 01:33:05,908 --> 01:33:08,878 through somebody else's eyes. And not everybody gets that. 931 01:33:09,818 --> 01:33:10,878 So I'm super grateful. 932 01:33:14,218 --> 01:33:18,278 Oh, Oona. Let the images run. 933 01:33:19,498 --> 01:33:20,838 Let the images run. 934 01:33:23,388 --> 01:33:26,198 Very little of what you see, 935 01:33:28,218 --> 01:33:29,218 you remember 936 01:33:34,818 --> 01:33:38,478 He talks about those fragments of paradise and 937 01:33:39,628 --> 01:33:43,918 it's how I live my life. Like no matter how bad stuff is, 938 01:33:44,658 --> 01:33:48,798 you can always fight just a little fragment. 939 01:33:51,258 --> 01:33:52,998 And that's what the diary film is, 940 01:33:53,098 --> 01:33:56,598 It's like sharing these intimate 941 01:33:59,378 --> 01:34:03,838 Things fom his heart, and his soul and the poetry. 942 01:34:06,318 --> 01:34:07,938 That's poetry in film. 943 01:34:28,248 --> 01:34:29,248 I did it. 944 01:34:30,608 --> 01:34:34,608 I managed to catch some of the beauty, 945 01:34:35,438 --> 01:34:37,688 some of the happiness. 946 01:34:43,148 --> 01:34:46,528 That's all I care... To catch 947 01:34:48,598 --> 01:34:50,248 some of the beauty 948 01:34:54,068 --> 01:34:55,068 around. 949 01:34:58,508 --> 01:35:02,528 And it's there. It's there. 950 01:35:04,608 --> 01:35:05,608 I did it.