Francesco Urbano Ragazzi
Jonas Mekas
This Side of Paradise
Auditorium Parco della Musica, Roma
May 3, 2018
talk and screening curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi
in the framework of Flux – Lithuanian Art Festival in Rome
Jonas Mekas, the Lithuanian poet and filmmaker who initiated the New American Cinema Group in the 60s, tells his own experience as a displaced person in New York through four staggering short films. Scenes from the life of Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Jackie Kennedy and the compatriot George Maciunas follow one another in a kaleidoscopic visual diary accompanied by reflections on happiness and friendship. In the foreground, the cultural ferment of Fluxus and the Factory, of which Mekas was a protagonist and a witness; in the background, the loner condition of a refugee who survived the Second World War. At a frenetic pace, the soundtrack ranges from Monteverdi to the Velvet Underground.
Before the screening, Jonas Mekas in person will introduce his movies during a Skype conversation from Brooklyn with the curatorial duo Francesco Urbano Ragazzi.
The film program includes:
SCENES FROM THE LIFE Of ANDY WARHOL: FRIENDSHIPS AND INTERSECTIONS, 1990, 35’
ZEFIRO TORNA OR SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF GEORGE MACIUNAs, 1992, 35’
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOHN, 1995, 24’
THIS SIDE OF PARADISE, 1999, 35’
