Jonas Mekas

Lithuanian-born Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) is regularly called the godfather of the American avant-garde. Mekas made several films, wrote poems and texts for The Village Voice and Film Culture, the magazine he started together with his brother. In addition to his texts and films, the importance of Mekas lies mainly in the context he created for other filmmakers. He organized several festivals and events, founded the New York Film-Makers’ Co-op and the Anthology Film Archives, one of the world’s largest and most important archives and screening sites for avant-garde cinema.