JONAS MEKAS, founder of Anthology Film Archives and non-fiction filmmaker — ‘This Side of Paradise’, (1999).
From The Guardian – Jonas Mekas: ‘the godfather of avant-garde cinema’, talks to Sean O’Hagan about working with Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali and Jackie Kennedy.
Jonas Mekas, who will be 90 on Christmas Eve, has an intense memory of sitting on his father’s bed, aged six, singing a strange little song about daily life in the village in which he grew up in Lithuania.
“It was late in the evening and suddenly I was recounting everything I had seen on the farm that day. It was a very simple, very realistic recitation of small, everyday events. Nothing was invented. I remember the reception from my mother and father, which was very good. But I also remember the feeling of intensity I experienced just from describing the actual details of what my father did every day. I have been trying to find that intensity in my work ever since.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/dec/01/jonas-mekas-avant-garde-film-interview
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