The
Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center in Vilnius is named in his honor, but there was
a time when the icon of avant-garde cinema was not so welcome in Lithuania. He
and his brother had fled likely arrest by the Germans during WWII, but their émigré
status made them suspect in their native land. However, Mekas was able to
return to his home village in 1972 for a family reunion he duly documented in Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania,
the second in a twofer of Lithuanian-related films programmed by MUBI.
In
some ways, Reminiscences is a
perfectly representative Mekas film, but it can also be considered an outlier.
It is not, strictly speaking, one of his “diary” films, but it is acutely
personal. It features his rather idiosyncratic (and sporadic) narration, which
also makes more of an exception within his oeuvre.
Although
he briefly touches on his time in Williamsburg (which is like a foreign country)
and Vienna, the core of Reminiscences consists
of “100 Glimpses of Lithuania.” Instead of a smooth narrative structure, they
provide and series of telling images and episodes, much like the fragmented memory
of an exile.
Viewers
watching Reminiscences who know Mekas
by reputation might be struck by how easily “Mr. Anthology Film Archives,” the living
dean of living experimental filmmakers, re-acclimated himself to life in rural
Semeniškiai village. In 1972, his mother still did the cooking outside, over an
open fire. Yet, Mekas is clearly nostalgic for his old home.
Inducted
into the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry, Reminiscences is sort of the thin edge of the wedge for avant-garde
film. Even if Mekas and “Saint” Peter Kubelka (who joins Mekas in the final ten
minutes) mean nothing to you, the film serves as a time capsule of early 1970s life
in rural Lithuania, including the collective farms. Mekas has an eye for both
significant and mundane details that together really paint a full, immersive picture.
It
is hard to imagine the Semeniškiai Mekas visits could remain frozen in time all
these years. In most ways that is probably a good thing (starting with the
country’s political independence from their Soviet oppressors), but the hearty
peasants performing traditional dances most likely also represent a rarity
today. Mekas edits it all together with a rather sly sense of humor. His
aesthetic is an acquired taste, but if you only see one of his films, this is
the one to choose. Recommended for viewers receptive to the intimate and the
experimental, Reminiscences of a Journey
to Lithuania starts its 30-day MUBI rotation this Monday (Christmas Eve).
