An innovative retrospective of work by Jonas Mekas reveals the fundamental honesty of his “diary” films.
![Jonas Mekas, in his hometown, Semeniskiai, Lithuania, in a 1971 photograph by Antanas Sutkus.Credit...Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / LATGA-A, Vilnius](https://i0.wp.com/www.thepsychopath.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/merlin_203670798_7caa2ff0-a882-41a2-8d65-8a48ea201afe-superJumbo.webp?resize=660%2C660&ssl=1)
A Lithuanian refugee who landed in New York City in 1949 at the age of 27, Jonas Mekas became a founder of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, Film Culture magazine and Anthology Film Archives. He was the first full-time critic at The Village Voice, writing about film, and a widely published poet. But he also made scores of collagelike “diary” films that documented his busy, art-filled life.