CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/10/2020

Anthology Film Archives launch event for Jonas Mekas's 'I Seem to Live' NY Diaries

Sunday, January 26 at 3 PM, Anthology Film Archives presents the New York City launch of Jonas Mekas's I Seem to Live: The New York Diaries, 1950–1969, Volume 1, published by Spector Books. A group of special guests will read from the diaries, including poet and writer Vyt Bakaitis, who worked with Mekas on his seminal book I Had Nowhere to Go; Florence and Ken Jacobs, filmmakers and colleagues for many years; filmmaker Chuck Smith; and others. Introduced by editor Anne König, the reading will precede a screenings of Anthology’s new restoration of Mekas’s first feature film, Guns of the Trees (1961).

I Seem to Live is Jonas Mekas’s key literary work. The first volume of this magnum opus, covering the period from 1950–69, appears posthumously one year after his death. It stands on an equal footing with his cinematic oeuvre, which he initially developed together with his brother Adolfas after their arrival in New York. In 1954, the two brothers founded Film Culture magazine, and in 1958 Mekas began writing a weekly column for The Village Voice. It was in this period that his writing, films and unflagging commitment to art began to establish him as a pioneer of American avant-garde cinema and the barometer of the New York art scene.

“Jonas Mekas was a force of nature — an untiring artistic energy field. He disregarded genres and broke all the rules, always favoring pure expression and experimentation over formulas and expectations. He was / is one of the most inspiring artists I’ve ever encountered — the poets’ version of a Kung Fu Master. Long live Jonas Mekas!”
—Jim Jarmusch

Book Release: 'I Seem to Live. The New York Diaries, 1950-2014'
Sunday, January 26 at 3 PM
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Ave, New York City