From Faber & Faber's Projections: Tod Lippy's interview with Jonas Mekas
Tod Lippy: How did you meet Andy Warhol?
Jonas Mekas: Well, as I said, my loft became the Film-maker's Cooperative
office for a couple of years. It was a very, very busy place. Filmmakers
would come by to screen what they'd shot the day before, that kind of
thing. It became so talked about that everybody was there. Salvador Dali,
Allen Ginsberg, Robert Frank - everybody. And most of the time I didn't even
know who was there; they were just sitting on the floor and watching
movies and laughing. And then one day, Naomi Levine, a filmmaker and
painter, said to me, "Come to my birthday party. There'll be lots of
interesting people there, like Andy." I said, "I don't know Andy." And she
said, "You don't know Andy? But he's been sitting in your loft for months
watching movies!" Then of course when I met him, I recognized him. So my
loft was Andy's first movie university. Of course, he also saw Hollywood
movies. Soon after I met him he shot his first film, Sleep, and a series
of 3-minute Kisses which he called "leaders," or trailers. I showed them
all at the Film-maker's Showcase.
Projections 11
New York Film-Makers on Film-making
edited by Tod Lippy
faber and faber
© copyright Tod Lippy, 2000
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