Interesting, overlooked, and significant obituaries from around the world, as they happen, emphasizing the positive achievements of those who have died. Member, Society of Professional Obituary Writers.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Jonas Mekas
The godfather of American avant-garde cinema. As a legendary filmmaker, a curator, a writer, an editor, as a visual artist, a teacher, a poet, he evangelized for new and radical art. He was the gatekeeper who opened the door for so many of us! He was the first film critic for the Village Voice. He introduced Lou Reed to Andy Warhol. He co-founded the Anthology Film Archives, helped to start the magazine Film Culture in 1954, long before many were hip to film as an art form. He fought the censors to show films by Jack Smith and Jean Genet; he showed films and sowed films wherever he could.
As a filmmaker, he influenced everyone with his casual, intimate, warm, non-narrative approach, getting a huge amount of beauty out of a very lo-tech approach. He demystified the process and made young filmmakers understand that they could do it, too. Via the Guardian.
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