I Seem to Live

Jonas Mekas made the first experimental films with his brother in New York from 1950. He developed a form of diary film in which he recorded his everyday observations. In 1954 the brothers founded the magazine Film Culture, and from 1958 Mekas published weekly in the Village Voice. He had conversations with Andy Warhol, Susan Sontag and many others. With his writing, films and tireless commitment, he became a seismograph of the New York art scene and a mastermind of American avant-garde cinema. In his diaries, enriched with personal visual material, he provides an insight into the life of an author and filmmaker who founded and codified the underground in New York. His diaries I Had Nowhere to Go (1944-1955) were published by Spector Books in 2017. I Seem to Live is the sequel to it and is published in two volumes: Volume I (1950-1971), Volume II (1972-2004).