Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas de Jonas Mekas
États-Unis, 1992, 16mm, 34’, nb et coul., vostf
avec George Maciunas, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Andy Warhol…
« Zefiro torna e di soavi accenti
L’aer fa grato e’l pie discoglie e l’onde,
é mormorando tra le verdi fronde…»
Monteverdi, Madrigaux, livre IX, 1651
« La vie de George Maciunas, ses parents, ses amis ; de 1952 à 1978, divers événements de Fluxus : rencontres, réunions d’amis (Yoko Ono, Peter Moore, John Lennon, Andy Warhol, Almus Salcius, etc.). Des images de son mariage et de lui à l’hôpital de Boston, trois jours avant sa mort. Bande-son : musique de Monteverdi (Zefiro Torna), moi-même lisant les parties de mon journal concernant la dernière année de la vie de Maciunas. Méditation sur la Mort et le Néant. »
Jonas Mekas
« À l’opposé de la monumentalité froide et pétrifiée du tombeau, Zefiro Torna, le film comme le madrigal, nous enseigne qu’avec la dispersion des cendres, tout peut revenir, tout peut reverdir pour qui est capable de les disséminer, de les abandonner au caprice de la brise ou au fil inconstant de l’eau. […] Étrange histoire de cendres et de souffrance, de retour au pays natal, de flux et de reflux que cet ultime geste qui n’est pas sans m’évoquer, pour finir, une image qui hante, elle, depuis toujours l’écriture et le cinéma de Mekas […], celle, rémanente, d’une pluie d’infimes fragments de paradis qui retombent lentement sur terre. Un paradis jamais perdu pour qui sait les recueillir sous toutes leurs formes, ici et maintenant, au sein d’une communauté d’amis. »
Patrice Rollet, « Zefiro Torna de Jonas Mekas », Trafic n°80, hiver 2011

Drawn from footage shot between 1949 and 1963, Jonas Mekas’s autobiographical diary film chronicles his early years in exile, capturing the struggle to build a new life in New York and his gradual discovery of a vibrant artistic community.

A 1971–72 documentary film by Jonas Mekas. It revolves around Mekas' trip back to Semeniškiai, the village of his birth.

The personal film archives of Yoko Ono were utilized for this feature-length documentary on the life of John Lennon. Predictably, it downplays Lennon's association with the Beatles and concentrates on his years with Ono. The film spends a lot of time recounting Lennon's anti-war activities, highlighted by a confrontation on a talk show hosted by conservative cartoonist Al Capp. The title of the documentary is, of course, taken from Lennon's idyllic ballad about a world free of hatred and discord. Imagine: John Lennon is a reverent but ultimately depressing chronicle of an artist who died the untimeliest of deaths.

A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.

Also known as Walden, Jonas Mekas’s first diary film is a six-reel chronicle of his life in 1960s New York, interweaving moments with family, friends, lovers, and artistic idols. Blending everyday encounters with portraits of the avant-garde art scene, it forms an epic, personal meditation on community, creativity, and the passage of time.

“A motion picture composed of brief diaristic scenes not used in completed films from the years 1960-2000; and self-referential video footage taped during the editing. Brief glimpses of family, friends, girl-friends, the City, seasons of the year, travels. Occasionally I talk, reminisce, or play music I taped during those earlier years, plus more recent piano improvisations by Auguste Varkalis. It’s a kind of autobiographical, diaristic poem, celebration of happiness and life. I consider myself a happy man.” –J.M.
“In a film of amazing delicacy and poetic insight, Mekas celebrates the beauty of imperfect images…” –Amy Taubin
“OUT-TAKES starts with Mekas alone at night while the city sleeps, editing his old films. As he looks back over his life he starts to talk, insisting that his life’s work amounts to ‘just images, some fragments of this world’ that he will bring together for himself and a few friends. But as images of the people who brought joy into his life pass by, we realize that most of them are no longer alive. Mekas sees them again, but he is seeing them alone. As much as it is about his happy life, the film is also about emptiness, loss, and a longing for some sort of spiritual consolation. At one moment the cover of St John of the Cross’s MEDITATIONS appears on screen. This is Mekas’s long dark night of the soul.” – Richard Dorment, THE TELEGRAPH
Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man, Jonas Mekas
USA/UK, 2012, 68 min, 16mm&video, color, mono