Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas (born December 23, 1922 in the village of Semeniškiai, near Biržai) is a Lithuania filmmaker, writer, and curator who has often been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema." Prior to the Second World War, Mekas set up a theatre with his brother Adolfas Mekas. After the Second World War, he was held in displaced persons camps, in one of which he studied with a teacher of the Stanislavsky System. The brothers emigrated to the United States in 1949 and studied with Hans Richter before establishing Film Culture magazine in 1955. Jonas Mekas has written film reviews for the Village Voice since 1958. He was a founder of The Film Makers Cooperative (1962) and the Anthology Film Archives (1970). He was heavily involved with artists such as Andy Warhol, Nico, Allen Ginsberg, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Salvador Dalí, and fellow Lithuanian George Maciunas. Though his narrative films and documentaries are still highly regarded, he is best known for his diary films,... full article at wikipedia