Jonas Mekas is committed to making the Anthology Film Archives an archive of International importance.
Mekas was born in Lithuania, fled the Nazi invasion as a teenager, was captured and spent eight months in Germany with his brother in a work camp. After the war he spent four years as a displaced person until finally, in 1949, he arrived in New York.
Two weeks after he arrived, he bought a Bolex camera and was on the front lines of what would be a revolution in film making in the US. Because of Robert Redford and Martin Scorsese, people know of the US independent film movement. But there would be no independent film movement if there had not been first an avant-garde underground cinema in the US.
It began to coalesce in the mid-to-late ’50’s. Cheaper cameras like the 8mm and Super 8 started a revolution in personal filmmaking. In addition to being a filmmaker, Jonas was also a critic and a programmer. He is considered the person most responsible for the preservation and screening of experimental films in the US.
In 1954 he co-founded the journal Film Comment. In 1962, he co-founded the Film-Maker’s Cooperative, and the Filmmakers’ Cinematheque in 1964. A community of filmmakers emerged including Peter Emanuel Goldman (Echoes of Silence), Ron Rice (Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man starring Big Winnie and Taylor Mead), Gregory Markopoulos, Maya Deren, Michael Snow, Marie Menken, Jack Smith, Barbara Rubin, Stan Brakhage, Shirley Clarke, and later Andy Warhol and Carolee Schneemann.
In 1970, Jonas opened the Anthology Film Archives as a film museum, screening space, and a library, with himself as its director. Originally opening at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, it later moved to Wooster Street, then finally to its current location. In the late 1970’s, the father of our own George Capsis, WestView Publisher and Editor, negotiated the contract for the old Courthouse at the corner of 2nd Ave and 2nd street where the Anthology sits today.
It has served as the most critical research and exhibition space on the American avant-garde/experimental cinema ever since. I remember attending in 1964 a screening Jonas organized in a small space on McDougal Street of Chant d’Amour, a short film by the French writer Jean Genet. The screening was raided by the police. Jonas and the projectionist were arrested for showing pornography. Chant d’Amour was like Genet’s writing—a lyrical, poetic fantasy placed in a prison. The case was a censorship landmark.
In 1970 Mekas, along with Stan Brakhage, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, James Broughton, and P. Adams Sitney, began the ambitious Essential Cinema project at the Anthology to establish a canon of important cinematic works. Today it remains an essential archive complete with public screenings and a researcher’s treasure trove.
In his 90’s and still as sharp as a tack, Mekas has big plans to give the Anthology a renovated building with space for a new neighborhood cafe for pre- and post-screening discussions, an event roof, a new bookstore and a gallery space. He also wants to add a floor for a researcher’s library as well as a secure place to hold all the collections and historical documentation he has gathered—including artists personal papers, filmmaker’s journals, and ephemera. All these items help places events that happened in their proper historical context. Some of the artists represented in this collection are Harry Smith, Joseph Cornell, Kenneth Anger, Jerome Hill and Marie Menken.
The noted architectural firm Bone/Levine Architects has redesigned the current space creating a respectful design that blends in with existing buildings and the history of the neighborhood. Mekas has secured some matching funds to kick start the project. He needs to raise six million. Hopefully foundations and directors like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and the new tech giants will understand the importance of this kind of preservation and climb on board.
Jonas Mekas has never put down his camera. He is working on his 61st film.
FYI: Please google the filmmakers’ names I have listed. They are the canon of US experimental film. You will be amazed.
