Fragments of Paradise review – moving account of legendary radical Jonas Mekas
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KD Davison’s hagiography of the ‘godfather of American avant garde cinema’ says much about his profound influence, but glosses over uncomfortable details about his early life
Hailed as “the godfather of American avant garde cinema”, Jonas Mekas led an extraordinary, multi-hyphenated career whose wide-ranging influence must have proved a challenge for a documentary to encompass. When Mekas arrived in New York as a Lithuanian exile in 1949, the first thing he bought was a Bolex camera. For the displaced immigrant, when language faltered images became a means of communication.
As Fragments of Paradise charts Mekas’s professional milestones – a critic, a film-maker, a curator, and so on – what emerges most movingly is his philosophy of creative togetherness. In founding Film Culture magazine, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, and later on the Anthology Film Archives, Mekas succeeded in building a nurturing space for those forgotten by the mainstream. It’s the kind of community-oriented work reflecting the belief that, for him, the home is the cinema.
Continue reading...from Film | The Guardian https://ift.tt/RAd1ZyI
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