Jonas Mekas, often described as the godfather of American avant-garde cinema, died aged 96 in his New York City home on Wednesday.
“Dear friends, Jonas passed away quietly and peacefully early this morning,” said a post on Mekas’s Facebook page. “He was at home with family. He will be greatly missed but his light shines on.”
Born in Lithuania on December 24, 1922, Mekas was taken along with his brother to a forced labour camp in Germany in 1944 during the Nazi occupation of Lithuania.
In 1949, he came to the United States of America. He started doing odd jobs to survive in Brooklyn, New York City, and a few months later, he borrowed money to buy a Bolex 16mm camera and began recording his life.
He started curating experimental film screenings, going on to collaborate with artists such as Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Nico, John Lennon, Salvador Dali and George Maciunas.
Mekas had about 60 productions to his credit and pioneered the diary film, which involved accounts of his life narrated in dramatized form. His credits include “Lost, Lost, Lost (1975),” “Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972),” “Zefiro Torna (1992),” “As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)” and “Out-takes from the Life of a Happy Man (2012).”
This article was first published on Scroll. in, and is being republished under special arrangements