Jonas Mekas, Underground Filmmaker Who Cast A Long Shadow, Dies At 96
The Lithuanian-born director, poet, archivist and critic, who died Wednesday, not only made dozens of experimental films — he helped carve a place for countless other filmmakers to do the same.
Jonas Mekas, an underground filmmaker whose influence looms as large as the archives he helped create, died Wednesday morning at the age of 96. The Lithuanian-born director, critic, archivist and poet died "peacefully at home, with family at his side," according to the Anthology Film Archives that he co-founded.
The organization did not specify the cause of his death.
Mekas "helped to lead American cinema out of the boardrooms and back into the streets — and knew that. He , who directed dozens of movies and published more than 20 books — in addition to writing a prominent column on cinema — as "one of the crucial, and one of the best, film critics — and chroniclers."
