Jonas Mekas, one of the key figures in experimental film, visits the CCCB to meet in person a virtual friend, a friend he has known through the Internet: José Luis Guerín. The two filmmakers have exchanged filmed correspondence in recent months, small pieces of video about everyday life. Their correspondence, as well as the correspondence of another five pairs of contemporary creators, can be seen at the CCCB at the exhibition: “The Complete Letters. Filmed Correspondences.”
We talk with Mekas about how he sees the world through his cameras and about how he understands film and the art of capturing images in motion. He explains to us that he can only film what he has before him: New York, Brooklyn, his son, his friends. He talks about the Occupy Wall Street movement and the citizens’ protests in New York in which he has actively participated.
He reflects on film, an art which, according to him, is very much alive everywhere thanks to new technologies. We are surprised by the simplicity and lack of orthodoxy of his words.
This interview is an advance of a longer conversation that will be viewable on different CCCB channels: on the “Soy Cámara” programme, which will devote a special episode to him, in the XCÈNTRIC ARCHIVE, where we will be able to see an introduction by the filmmaker to all his works acquired by the CCCB, and the virtual platform “Global Screen”, where Mekas will reflect on the end of cinema and the future of screens.
