Can­did pho­tos from Jonas Mekas’ amaz­ing new memoir

There is no oth­er word for it: Jones Mekas is a leg­end. And he’s a leg­end who oper­ates in many dif­fer­ent cir­cles. He’s one of the world’s great exper­i­men­tal film­mak­ers, with works such as the sub­lime Walden (Diaries, Notes, and Sketch­es) and Rem­i­nis­cences of a Jour­ney to Lithua­nia as part of a vaunt­ed fil­mog­ra­phy. He was also a not­ed film crit­ic, lend­ing his redoubtable pen­man­ship and fer­vent cinephil­ia to the pages of the Vil­lage Voice. But Mekas has also made a rep­u­ta­tion for him­self as a hoard­er of per­son­al affects and an archivist of the mag­i­cal­ly mundane.

A new book by Anthol­o­gy Edi­tions, enti­tled ​‘A Dance With Fred Astaire’, is an eccen­tric mem­oir pow­ered by tall tales, amus­ing anec­dotes, brief encoun­ters and lots and lots of great pho­tographs cap­tur­ing each pre­cious moment. The title refers to a moment where Mekas was invit­ed by Yoko Ono to fea­ture in a film called Imag­ine. When he arrived, he was told by Ono that he would be danc­ing with Fred Astaire. And he did. When his friend Ken Jacobs saw the film on TV, he not­ed that Mekas was actu­al­ly more impres­sive than Astaire. The book is packed with such delight­ful tidbits.

Mekas with his friend Andy Warhol tak­en at The Fac­to­ry. It accom­pa­nies a bizarre sto­ry about a woman attempt­ing to sell him a kiss-and-tell tale involv­ing Warhol’s antics in Miami.

Mekas, Yoko Ono and John Lennon try­ing out their per­son­alised seats in the Invis­i­ble Cin­e­ma at Anthol­o­gy Film Archives, the New York rep house which Mekas also helps to programme.

The author with Dustin Hoff­man and his son, Sebas­t­ian Mekas.

Nag­isa Oshi­ma, the great Japan­ese direc­tor behind In the Realm of the Sens­es and Mer­ry Christ­mas, Mr Lawrence, shares a glass with Mekas at an art auc­tion for the ben­e­fit of the Anthol­o­gy Film Archives.

The sto­ry goes that Mekas went to see a pri­vate screen­ing of The Local Stig­mat­ic, host­ed by Al Paci­no. At a recep­tion after the screen­ing he began talk­ing to a man about the qual­i­ty of Pacino’s per­for­mance, and how he should win an Acad­e­my Award. The man leaves, and Mekas asks the event organ­is­er when Paci­no is arriv­ing as he real­ly wants to talk to him about the movie. ​“But Jonas,” the organ­is­er says, ​“you were just talk­ing to him.”

Mekas tak­ing a break from film­ing his debut fea­ture Guns of the Trees from 1961. The oth­er man is his broth­er Adol­fas, who is the star of the film.

‘From A Dance With Fred Astaire’ is pub­lished by Anthol­o­gy Edi­tions and avail­able at anthol​o​gyedi​tions​.com