Jonas Mekas was born December 24, 1922. He was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet and artist who has often been called 'the godfather of American avant-garde cinema.' His work has been exhibited in museums and festivals worldwide. He was co-founder of the Anthology Film Archives in New York City.
"This film originated from my readings of the One Thousand And One Nights. But unlike the Arabian tales, my stories are all from real life, though at times they too wander into somewhere else, beyond the everyday routine reality.
There are some twenty-five different stories in my movie. Their protagonists are all my good friends and I myself am an inseparable part of the stories. The storyteller of the Arabian Nights was also part of his or her tales.
Some of the people in the movie you'll recognize, some not. The fact that some of them you'll recognize has no bearing on the stories: after all, we all recognize John Wayne or Annette Bening, but in their stories they are no longer the people we know.
The subjects of the stories cover a wide range of emotions, geographies, personal anxieties, anecdotes. These are not very big stories, not for the Big Screen: these are all personal big stories... And yes, you'll also find some provocations... But that’s me, one ‘me’ of many. The very question 'What is a story?' is a provocative question." Jonas Mekas
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Extras
Includesa 24-page booklet with text by Hans Ulrich Obrist.
