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Jonas Mekas – Arrival in New York (28/135)

192 views · Published 30 August 2017 · 3:00 · Indexed 22 September 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · Entertainment

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Jonas Mekas (1922-2019), Lithuanian-born poet, philosopher and film-maker, has made hundreds of films and set up the Anthology Film Archive. He emigrated to American in 1949 where he earned the title of 'the godfather of American avant-garde cinema'. [Listener: Amy Taubin; date recorded: 2003]

TRANSCRIPT: We land on the pier at the end of 23rd Street somewhere, and there was some elevation that you could go a little bit up and have like a little view of the city. So we walked up there. I get our papers... a paper before going to the train. So let's go up and see it, and we looked at New York, and said, 'It's New York! that would be stupid not to, we are here in New York to go now to Chicago. You can't go there, we'd be really stupid'. So, we had a friend, one of our friends already was in New York in Brooklyn, Williamsburg, so we called him and said, please can we come and stay with you, we're staying in New York. So, of course, we stayed in New York. We did not go to Chicago and, of course, it was not easy. We had to, you know, find jobs and find apartments, but the second evening, already, we went to the New York Film Society run by Rudolf Arnheim...

[AT] Who was my teacher at Sarah Lawrence.

... and we saw Epstein's, 'The Fall of the House of Usher', and 'Dr Caligari'. And that was New York. And from there on there was no evening that, sometimes we had no money, that when we had no money we went to opera. Opera House is on the Orchard Street and 7th Avenue. We always missed the First Act because after the First Act they opened the side door and everybody goes in to smoke, and when they go in we go in. And we always, we saw most of the opera, repertory... repertoire of the first two years by missing the First Acts, but it was for us, because you could always stand in the back, or some people left their seats, so you know there were tricks to get in which we had mastered, and we did not miss any film opening, any film screening any... any ballet or music or theatre event... opening, we saw absolutely everything because we had... we were craving, we were so dry we needed it all, so for like two or three years it was very very intense.

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