REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNEY TO LITHUANIA (US, 1972, Jonas Mekas)

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AN EXCERPT FRO JONAS MEKAS' REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNEY TO LITHUANIA (1972). SOURCE: YOUTUBE.

 

“Jonas and Adolfas Mekas arrived in America in 1949 as displaced persons, former prisoners of German labor camps, exiled from their native Lithuanian farming village. Wanted by the Soviet police, they had been forced to leave home years earlier, not to return for 27 years. REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNEY TO LITHUANIA is the compelling document of a divided family and their long-delayed reunion.” —Re:Voir Video

“The film consists of three parts. The first part is made up of footage I shot with my first Bolex, during my first years in America, mostly from 1950 [to] 1953. It shows me and my brother Adolfas, how we looked in those days; miscellaneous footage of immigrants in Brooklyn, picnicking, dancing, singing; the streets of Williamsburg. The second part was shot in August 1971, in Lithuania. Almost all of the footage comes from Semeniskiai, the village I was born in. You see the old house, my mother (born 1887), all the brothers, goofing, celebrating our homecoming. You don't really see how Lithuania is today: you see it only through the memories of a Displaced Person back home for the first time in twenty-five years. The third part begins with a parenthesis in Elmshorn, a suburb of Manburg, where we spent a year in a forced labor camp during the war. After the parenthesis closes, we are in Vienna where we see some of my best friends — Peter Kubelka, Hermann Nitsch, Annette Michelson, Ken Jacobs. The film ends with the burning of the Vienna fruit market, August, 1971.” —Jonas Mekas

“Successively moving, indulgent, beautiful, poetic, banal, repetitious and bravely, heedlessly personal.” —Vincent Canby, New York Times

The DVD release of Jonas Mekas’ REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNEY TO LITHUANIA is accompanied by his films THE BRIG (1964), WALDEN: DIARIES, NOTES, AND SKETCHES (1969), LOST LOST LOST (1976), and AS I WAS MOVING AHEAD OCCASIONALLY I SAW BRIEF GLIMPSES OF BEAUTY (2000). His shorts CASSIS (1966), NOTES ON THE CIRCUS (1966), HARE KRISHNA (1966), REPORT FROM MILLBROOK (1965—66), TRAVEL SONGS (1967—81), TIME AND FORTUNE VIETNAM NEWSREEL (1968), QUARTET NUMBER ONE (1991), IMPERFECT THREE-IMAGE FILMS (1995), SONG OF AVIGNON (1998), MOZART, WIEN, & ELVIS (2000), and WILLIAMSBURG (1949—2002) are also featured in this publication.

REMINISCENCES OF A JOURNEY TO LITHUANIA
(US, 1972)

Director: Jonas Mekas

  • 82 minutes
  • 16mm
  • Color
  • Sound
Distribution Format/s: DVD, DSL/Downloadable 1080p .mp4 file on server

Published By: Re:Voir Video

Institutional Price: DVD Boxset: $800, Single Film DSL Title: $160

To order call: 212.280.8654 or click here for information on ordering by fax, e-mail or post.