Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas
(1992, 37min)

In Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas, Mekas reads from his diary encounters with his friend and fellow Lithuanian émigré, George Maciunas, during the years when Maciunas' health was in rapid decline. The footage shown, however, rarely depicts Maciunas' illness, but rather his vitality and humour at Fluxus events and performances. Mekas talks of Maciunas' favorite composer, Monteverdi, and at the end of the film, his voice gives way to Monteverdi's jubilate madrigal, "Zefiro Torna". As it plays, Maciunas is seen for the first and only time on a hospital bed, smiling. (UbuWeb)

Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
(1972, 81min)

“This film consists of three parts. The first part is made up of footage I shot with my first Bolex during my first years in America, mostly from 1950-1953. It shows me and my brother Adolfas, how we looked in those days; miscellaneous footage of immigrants in Brooklyn, picnicking, dancing, singing; the streets of Williamsburg.
The second part was shot in August 1971, in Lithuania. Almost all of the footage come from Semeniskiai, the village I was born in. You see the old house, my mother (born 1887), all the brothers, goofing, celebrating our home-coming; you see it only through the memories of a Displaced Person back home for the first time in twenty five years.
The third part begins with a parenthesis in Elmshorn, a suburb of Hambourg, where we spent a year in forced labor camp during the war. After the parenthesis closes, we are in Vienna where we see some of my best friend- Peter Kubelka, Hermann Nitsch, Annette Michelson, Ken Jacobs. You also see the Monastery of Kremsmuenster, the Stammdorff castel of Nitsch, the hous of Wittgenstein, etc. The film ends with the burning of the Vienna fruit market, August 1971.” (Jonas Mekas)

Jonas Mekas, born December 24, 1922, Semeniskiai, Birzai, Lithuania, was a director, cinematographer, editor, writer, actor, poet, artist and publicist. More than 60 years of tireless work in film, arts and media has earned him the epithet “The Godfather of American Avant-Garde Cinema”.