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how one experiences it. The film is "dedicated to LUMIÈRE," dramatizing Mekas's rejection of conventional theatrical narrative and its highly determined rhetoric, in favor of what he perceived as a return to cinematic basics and origins.
Since 1968, Mekas has completed a series of films that articulate the style and approach of
Walden
.
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
(1972) chronicles his first visit to Lithuania since 1944, framing his dramatic reunion with family with imagery shot soon after he arrived in the United States, andafter a "parenthesis" during which he and Adolfas visit the site of the forced labor camp near Hamburgwith then-recent imagery of his new "art-family," Peter Kubelka, Annette Michelson, Ken and Flo Jacobs. Mekas's loss of a homeland and his subsequent discovery of an "aesthetic homeland" where he could again live creatively within a community is also the theme of
Lost Lost Lost
(1975, two hours, fifty-eight minutes). The beautiful opening reels focus on the early years in the United States, particularly Mekas's involvement with the displaced Lithuanian community in Brooklyn. The middle pair of reels recall the first, lonely years in Manhattan; and the final two reels document his discovery of a world of friends and fellow artists who ultimately allow him to emerge, reborn, as a personal filmmaker and "warrior" for film art: in the final reel Mekas, Ken and Flo Jacobs, and Tony Conrad invade the Flaherty Film Seminar in Vermont on behalf of the New American Cinema.
In Between
(1978) presents imagery and sound recorded from 1964 to 1968, but not included in
Walden
.
Notes for Jerome
(1978) recounts Mekas's visits with filmmaker/friend Jerome Hill (
Albert Schweitzer
[1957],
Film Portrait
[1970]), whose inheritance has been a major source of support for Anthology Film Archives and other organizations devoted to independent film.
Paradise Not Yet Lost
(
a/k/a Oona's Third Year
) (1979) focuses on 1977, the third year of Mekas's first child, Oona.
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
(1985) chronicles the years 19691984, by means of 124 brief sketches: "portraits of people I have spent time with [including Hans Richter, Roberto Rossellini, Marcel Hanoun, Henri Langlois, Alberto Cavalcanti, Kenneth Anger, the Kuchar brothers, Robert Breer, Hollis Frampton, John Lennon, Jackie Onassis, the Kennedy children, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, and George Maciunas], places, seasons of the year, weather," as Mekas explains in the Film-makers' Cooperative Catalogue, No. 7. Other films document performances by the Living Theater (
Street Songs,
filmed in 1966, completed 1983), by Erick Hawkins and Lucia Dlugoszewski (
Erick Hawkins: Excerpts from "Here and Now with Watchers"/Lucia Dlugoszewski Performs,
filmed in 1963, completed 1983), and by Kenneth King and Phoebe Neville (
Cup/Saucer/Two Dancers/Radio,
filmed