Adolfas Mekas Centennial

“They say that Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did but she had to do it backwards and in high heels. The same could be said about Adolfas Mekas, though maybe not in high heels. Adolfas accompanied his older brother Jonas on their escape from Lithuania during World War II and throughout their first fifteen years of life in America. They were roommates and creative partners, founding the review Film Culture in 1954, the New America Cinema Group and the NY Filmmakers’ Cooperative in 1961, still active today. They made their first four feature films together. However, Adolfas pursued a career in more narrative filmmaking than Jonas. His directorial debut Hallelujah the Hills was featured in Cannes, Locarno, and the first New York Film Festival. His one-hour diary film Going Home (1972) documented his trip back to Lithuania in the summer of 1971 and is a companion piece to Jonas’ film of the same trip. Adolfas founded the film department at Bard College in 1971 and became a full-time professor. His comic timing, his irreverence and his skill as an actor allowed him to inspire generations of young filmmakers. Adolfas liked to say: When you die and go to heaven, they put you in a room and show you all the films you made in a loop for eternity, so you had better make films that you like and are prepared to watch for an eternity!” – Pip Chodorov

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Hallelujah the Hills
Adolfas Mekas, 1963, 82 min

“Both an art film in its own right and a parody of the genre of the European art film, Hallelujah the Hills details in nonlinear fashion the story of a romantic triangle set in rural Vermont. Jack (Beard) and Leo (Greenbaum) both love Vera, whom Mekas has cast with two different actresses to capture each man’s image of the “ideal woman.” Filled with cinematic homages to silent comedy, the work of the New Wave, and even the samurai cycle of Kurosawa’s cinema, the film parallels the romantic pursuits with a critical portrait of western machismo. While Mekas was a Lithuanian émigré, his film was recognized by the British film journal Sight and Sound as “one of the most completely American films ever made.”” – Harvard Film Archive

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Going Home
Adolfas Mekas, 1972, 61 min

“In 1971, after a nearly 30-year absence, Adolfas and his brother Jonas Mekas returned to their birthplace in Lithuania. They had left Lithuania as young men, destined for a German labour camp. After they came home, Adolfas with his wife, the singer Pola Chapelle, “sang and walked across golden fields and feasted at crowded tables with family and friends. There are flowers for the dead and for the living in this film; it is full of flowers and songs.” – The Film-Makers’ Cooperative

Preceded by:
An Interview with the Ambassador from Lapland, 1969, 4 min
How to Draw a Cat, 1973, 3 min

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We'd like to thank Pip Chodorov and Juliius Ziz for making this programme possible