Split Screen 2000: Episode #60 - Projections: Jonas Mekas

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


Split Screen: Projections - Jonas Mekas Credits





Disclaimer: Do not send scripts! We won't read them because we don't produce films from the script stage.

© 1997-2000 Grainy Pictures, Inc.