10+ hours of a dead man's home videos. Art or narcissism? You decide.
The tapes in the program consist of some of Mekas’ earliest cassettes from the 1990s not long after he first began working with video as well as more recent mini-DV tapes from 2010s. The contents of the tapes have not been previously seen in their entirety. The footage provides rare insight into aspects of Mekas’ video-making practice, as well as his activities, thoughts, dreams, and concerns, especially during the later years of his life.
Direction
Mekas invented this form. You're watching godfather footage.
Editing
No editing. That's the whole point. Infuriating and liberating.
Director
Jonas Mekas
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Mekas basically invented the video diary as art form; without him, no vloggers, no TikTok confessional culture, no 'authentic' self-documentation industry.
The cassettes sat in his loft for decades—he never intended this as a 'film,' making Tapes a posthumous construction by archivists debating what the artist 'would have wanted.'
US
