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Jonas Mekas: An Interview

Jordi Torrent

1985 00:21:00 United StatesEnglishColor4:3Video
Tags:
Experimental Film, Independently Produced Interviews

Description

An intimate interview with filmmaker, videomaker, film critic, poet, lecturer, and curator Jonas Mekas. Born into a farming family in Lithuania on December 24, 1922, Mekas was imprisoned in a forced labor camp in Nazi Germany from 1944 to 1945, studied philosophy at the University of Mainz from 1946 to 1948, and relocated to the U. S. in 1949. In 1954, Mekas became editor-in-chief of Film Culture magazine and wrote a film column in The Village Voice from 1958 to 1975. He was President of New American Cinema Group (Film-makers’ Cooperative) from 1961 to 1980 and has been program director of Anthology Film Archives since 1970. In this tape Mekas discusses his background, the art of moving images, the history of avant-garde film, and Film Culture magazine.

About Jordi Torrent

After obtaining a degree in Philosophy at the University of Barcelona, Jordi Torrent followed graduate studies in Paris at the Sorbonne University (Film Esthetics) and at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Anthropology Filmmaking). 

In addition to his extensive career as writer, producer and director in the film and  television industry, Jordi was a Media Consultant for the Department of Education of  New York City from 1990 to 2006.  There he created a Media Literacy Education  program that was implemented in over twenty five NYC schools; he also conducted media education workshops for teachers and parents.  Jordi was Media Curator of Exit Art (New York) from 1985 to 1990 where he developed and presented a wide range of film and video programs. From 1980 to 1983 Jordi was the Paris­based correspondent for the film magazine Casablanca and the video and technology magazine Video Actualidad. 

In addition, Jordi has also published in Liberation, El Pais, the CNTV magazine and at OETI’s journal. Jordi is co­director of Media: Overseas Conversations, a series of annual conferences on media, youth and education held in New York since 2004. Currently he is Project Manager for the Media Literacy Education program of the United Nations­ Alliance of Civilizations