R.I.P. Jonas Mekas

The avant-garde filmmaker has just died at the age of 96. I haven’t seen any obituaries yet, and will add links as they come in. (My NYFF colleague Bilge Ebiri interviewed Mekas in 2017 for the Village Voice – where Mekas had served as the paper’s first film critic.)

But for my purposes, here on this personal blog, it’s gotta be about Elvis. Because Elvis is everywhere.

In 1972, Mekas attended the final show of Elvis Presley’s 4-show gig at Madison Square Garden. He brought with him a 16mm camera. He shot what he could. It’s wild footage. Chaotic. He did not record the sound. He did not try to sync anything up. He said, “Some of it was filmed normal 24fps speed, some not.”

Decades later, in 2001, the Viennale International Film Festival asked Jonas Mekas to prepare a trailer for the festival. He could do whatever he wanted with the trailer, obviously. He’s Jonas Mekas.

He spoke later about why he created the trailer in the way that he did:

I was lucky enough to see Elvis Presley’s final concert at Madison Square Garden in June 1972. Usually, you are not allowed to bring a camera to a concert. But the audience and the entire event were so wild that no one paid any attention to me. Over the years I watched the footage again and again. Then the Viennale called and I immediately thought of my Elvis material. The only problem was that I didn’t know what kind of musical soundtrack to use. I tried everything and was close to giving up when I happened to hear a Viennese waltz on the radio. That was it! What could be better – or funnier – than Elvis and Strauss?

It’s beautiful.

Thank you, Jonas Mekas. Your career has meant so much to so many and I have barely touched on the scope of what you have done. But here’s a small portion of gratitude to you from a hardcore Elvis fan.