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Quote by Jonas Mekas

“I make home movies-therefore I live. I live - therefore I make home movies.”

Quote by Jonas Mekas

Author

Jonas Mekas is a Lithuanian-American filmmaker known for his surrealistic and poetic documentaries. His works often explore personal memory, family, and the life of New York City. Born on December 24, 1922, Mekas is one of the pioneers of the Direct Cinema movement. more

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“Since 1950 I have been keeping a film diary. I have been walking around with my Bolex and reacting to the immediate reality: situations, friends, New York, seasons of the year. On some days I shoot ten frames, on others ten seconds, still on others ten minutes. Or I shoot nothing. Walden contains material from the years 1964-1968 strung together in chronological order.”

Years Has Beens Stills Reality Together Film Order Situation Minutes New York Materials Walking Ten Seasons Seconds Diaries Reacting

Author:Jonas Mekas

“In Lithuania, I am known as a poet, and they don’t care about my cinema. In Europe they don’t know my poetry; in Europe, I am a filmmaker. But here, in the United States, I am only a maverick!”

Knows States Care United Known United States Poet Europe Don't Care Cinema Filmmaker Maverick Lithuania

Author:Jonas Mekas

“Myth is the facts of the mind made manifest in a fiction of matter.”

Mind Made Matter Facts Fiction Myth Manifest

Book:Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti

Source: Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti

“I make my pictures for what Hollywood spends on lipstick.”

Hollywood Lipstick

Author:Maya Deren

“The task of cinema or any other art form is not to translate hidden messages of the unconscious soul into art but to experiment with the effects contemporary technical devices have on nerves, minds, or souls.”

Mind Art Soul Form Effects Messages Tasks Experiments Contemporary Cinema Unconscious Devices Nerves Translate Hidden Messages

Author:Maya Deren

“And what more could I possibly ask as an artist than that your most precious visions, however rare, assume sometimes the forms of my images.”

Art Sometimes Form Artist Asks Vision Assuming Filmmaker

Author:Maya Deren

“Art is actually based on the notion that if you would really celebrate an idea or a principle, you must think, you must plan, you must put yourself completely in the state of devotion, and not simply give the first thing that comes to your head”

Ifs Thinking Giving Firsts Art Ideas States Principles Plans Art Is Notion Planning Devotion Celebrate Filmmaker

Author:Maya Deren

“The poet is stepping out of the airplane.”

Book:My Vocabulary Did this to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer

Source: My Vocabulary Did this to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer

“And I think that it is certainly possible that the objective universe can be affected by the poet. I mean, you recall Orpheus made the trees and the stones dance and so forth, and this is something which is in almost all primitive cultures. I think it has some definite basis to it. I'm not sure what. It's like telekinesis, which I know very well on a pinball machine is perfectly possible.”

Source: The House That Jack Built: The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer

“A poet is a time mechanic not an embalmer.”

Book:My Vocabulary Did this to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer

Source: My Vocabulary Did this to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer