Jonas Mekas - Reminiscences Of A Journey To Lit... Jun 2026

The first decade in America was brutal. Mekas worked menial jobs, learned English by going to the movies (watching up to six films a day), and began to write film criticism. By the 1960s, he had co-founded Film Culture magazine, organized the first avant-garde film screenings at the Guggenheim, and declared the death of "Hollywood cinema." He became a central figure in the New American Cinema movement, championing artists like Andy Warhol, John Cassavetes, and Kenneth Anger.

But beneath the bohemian success, a wound festered. Mekas had not returned to Lithuania since 1944. In 1971, thanks to a cultural exchange, he finally received permission to visit his homeland. The camera that had been documenting New York street life—the Fluxus happenings, the Velvet Underground concerts, the snow-covered avenues of SoHo—now turned toward the landscapes of his childhood. Jonas Mekas - Reminiscences of a journey to Lit...