Jonas Mekas
Remembering Chris Marker, famed French filmmaker [Updated]
French president Francois Hollande said in a statement that Marker's most famous film, La Jetée, “will be remembered by history," while the Greek filmmaker Costa-Gavras told the French newspaper Le Monde Monday that Marker “was a profoundly honest man, both politically and cinematographically.” In an email, Karen Cooper, the director of Film Forum, where many of Marker’s films have been screened throughout his career, called Marker a "genius." “He was one of the first documentary-essayists who could make seemingly casual personal musings the subject of his movies," she wrote. "But what musings! Sans Soleil is but one example of his brilliance, originality, humor, and humanity. A great light has gone out.” More
(1)After a half century, the Film-Makers' Coop is the little archive that could
Tom Jarmusch, brother of Jim, joined this spring. He praised what he said were “50 years of people making what they want to make and not being concerned with commercial constraints and not being concerned with the art world and the gallery world. You can put things on YouTube or Vimeo or this so-called video-on-demand platforms, but it’s a tricky thing to exploit, and it’s just a funny time. Like, I think in some ways more and more is possible and in some ways, less is. And I think for that reason, the Film Coop is more important and relevant.” More
(2)The 'Empire' state of mind
About 25 brave, possibly foolish people had gathered there to watch Empire, Andy Warhol's rarely shown, stubbornly meditative eight-hour mindfuck: a single, silent shot of the Empire State Building, filmed in black and white almost exactly 36 years ago and lasting—well, we'll get to that, but, several hours at least. (Here is a trailer, of sorts.) The screening kicked off Anthology artistic director Jonas Mekas' new series, "Boring Masterpieces," which continues in August with The Human Condition, the nearly 10-hour Japanese epic, and what Mekas refers to as Robert Kramer's "hypnotically boring" Ice in September.
Mekas isn't exactly a detached curator—he was the madman whose newsreel camera shot Empire—but Anthology's programming notes preempted any claims about conflict of interest: "Who could argue that it doesn't belong here?"
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