Mob of angels

The legendary film-maker, chronicler, critic and poet Jonas Mekas has for decades abolished the distinction between professionalism and amateurism (in the original sense of disinterested hobby). With films like Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972), to be screened in this programme, Lost Lost Lost (1975) and He Stands in a Desert Counting theSeconds of His Life (1985) Mekas brings together his activities as a diary film-maker in a monumental way. The secret of Mekas would appear to be that all his activities are undertaken in parallel and hence serve to reinforce each other. For instance, his activities as defender and organiser of the New American Cinema (underground film-making in the sixties and seventies) make him the ideal film chronicler of this movement.For decades Mekas recorded his experiences with a 16mm camera, but in recent years he has also worked with the more manageable medium of video. In this programme his work as a video-maker will be seen for the first time. He will personally present his latest video He Travels. In Search of... (1994). Mekas: 'the author/maker travels through the different cities, different countries and himself, in search of something he can not define but needs for his essential survival'. This programme also includes an earlier video by him, Mob of Angels (1991). Mekas: 'the author/maker goes to a concert/performance of a group of women drummers, in Brooklyn, New York'.