In Lithuania, I am known as a poet, and they donโt care about my cinema. In Europe they donโt know my poetry; in Europe, I am a filmmaker. But here, in the United States, I am only a maverick!
Jonas MekasI brought Yoko Ono to New York and gave her her first job there. I was editing a magazine called Film Culture.
Jonas MekasAn adventurer can always return home; an exile cannot. So I decided that my home would be culture.
Jonas MekasJust as in writing, there are novelistic and sort of pedestrian ways of telling a story, to write a postcard with your little pocket camera and put it on websites. I think that's where the most exciting kind of imagery and content is being recorded and exchanged today.
Jonas MekasI'm a filmmaker, but my working procedures are different. All my basic structuring is done during the filming. You know, how long I keep the shot, the exposure or the speed - slower or faster, etc. That's structuring. And then there is a second stage of structuring that comes later when I begin to put those pieces together.
Jonas Mekas