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 MekasOnce you change the technology - from a film camera to a video camera, or from an 8-mm camera to 16 mm - you change completely the content. With 8 mm, a leaf on a tree will be made up of maybe four grains. So it's very impressionistic, almost like Seurat. If you switch to 16 mm, the technology gives you hundreds of grains on that leaf.
Jonas MekasMost of my videos consist of fragments, one or two minutes long. They are haikus or sketches. I have thousands.
Jonas Mekas