Jonas Mekas
Ma Vie nocturne
Author(s) Jonas Mekas
Format hardcover book
Year 2007
Language(s) French, English
Pages 124 pages
Publisher Les éditions Baltos Lankos/RE:VOIR
Description
The Lithuanian filmmaker and chronicler of the American underground movement, Jonas Mekas, recorded his dreams from August 1978 to June 1979. It was a very turbulent period in New York: he was in the process of acquiring the courthouse that would become the current Anthology Film Archives in the East Village; he was writing a film criticism column in the Village Voice on the latest films by Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage, and Peter Kubelka; he was taking care of his daughter Oona, then three years old, and was editing his film in her honor "Paradise Not Yet Lost (Oona's Third year)". Alongside all these activities, he was grieving the death of his friend George Maciunas, the founder of the Fluxus movement.
All these events and all these personalities appear in his dreams, as does his childhood spent in the Lithuanian fields, where the absurdities and adventures so particular to dreams intermingle.
The book gathering the dreams transcribed by Jonas Mekas is accompanied by numerous illustrations by Auguste Varkalis, painter, musician, filmmaker, and close friend of the author. Auguste Varkalis notably composed the music for Jonas Mekas's last great 16mm opus, "As I Was Moving Ahead".