MATINEE WITH JONAS MEKAS
Conversation with Jonas Mekas and Douglas Gordon
DFF in cooperation with B3 Biennale des bewegten Bildes, 3.12.2017 at the DFF cinema.
Mekas, born 1922 in Semeniskiai, Lithuania, is one of the most important filmmakers and film critics of the 20th century. At DFF, Jonas Mekas and the Scottish director and video artist Douglas Gordon talked about their joint film I HAD NOWHERE TO GO (DE 2016), based on Mekas’ literary diary of the same name.
Film: I HAD NOWHERE TO GO: A PORTRAIT OF A DISPLACED PERSON
Germany 2016.
Directors: Douglas Gordon With Jonas Mekas. 100 mins. DCP. OV
Jonas Mekas’ autobiographical novel I Had Nowhere to Go, which begins in a German labour camp in Elmshorn, served Scottish video artist Douglas Gordon as the basis for a cinematic journey. The film is dedicated entirely to the director’s voice and takes him seriously as a writer and poet: in minute-long passages in which the screen remains dark, the film is carried exclusively by the soundtrack. I HAD NOWHERE TO GO deals primarily with the director’s childhood and youth, which is marked by uprooting, flight and migration in a world shaken by war.
