Walden: Diaries, Notes & Sketches

Octogenarian filmmaker Jonas Mekas is one of the founders of American avant-garde cinema. During the 1950s, Mekas edited Film Culture and wrote the “Movie Journal” for The Village Voice, while in the ‘60s he co-founded the Film-Makers' Cooperative and the Filmmaker's Cinemathique (which became the Anthology Film Archives, a priceless repository of experimental films). Starting in the ‘40s, Mekas began recording his own life with a Bolex 16mm camera in short autobiographical pieces that would later evolve into his so-called “diary films,” of which 1969's Walden was the first. Walden covers the years 1964-68, with entries lasting from just a few seconds to 10 minutes or so, strung together in roughly chronological order onto six “reels”—essentially a compilation of home movies—featuring weddings, dinners with friends, vacations with family, outings to events like a circus or the John Lennon-Yoko Ono “sleep-in,” street demonstrations, parties, gallery and club openings, and snapshots of urban life. Offering striking images, while also exhibiting continuous technical experimentation, the resulting whole provides a rich kaleidoscopic view of the artistic milieu in New York City during a vibrant and turbulent time (with appearances by Stan Brakhage, Shirley Clarke, Carl T. Dreyer, Baba Ram Dass, Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Nico, Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol, and the Velvet Underground, among others). Boxed with a poster and a lavish 150-page book providing extensive context and commentary, this set is recommended for serious cinema history collections. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)