“Since 1950 I have been keeping a film diary. I have been walking around with my Bolex and reacting to the immediate reality: situations, friends, New York, seasons of the year. WALDEN contains material from the years 1964-68, strung together in chronological order. For the soundtrack I used some of the sounds that I collected during the same (…) They tell me, I should be always searching; but I’m only celebrating what I see.”

biografia

Jonas Mekas was born in 1922 in Lithuania. In 1944, he and his brother Adolfas were taken to a Nazi labour camp. After the War he studied philosophy at the University of Mainz, Germany. In 1949 both brothers landed in New York, where they settled down in Brooklyn. Soon after Mekas got deeply involved in the American Avant-Garde film movement. He is largely credited for developing the diaristic forms of cinema. He continues to write poetry and making films and he is active as an academic. Since 2000, Mekas has expanded his work into the area of film installations.

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