Sleepless Nights Stories

Date: 24 January 2013 | Season: Jonas Mekas

SLEEPLESS NIGHTS STORIES
Thursday 24 January 2013, at 6:10pm
London BFI Southbank NFT2

Mekas’ opening confession that he suffers from insomnia will come as no surprise to anyone aware of his singular contribution to cinema. Eating, drinking, singing and dancing with friends, the tireless octogenarian is full of life and wonder, casually weaving together contemporary folk tales collected during travels across the globe. Treating significant and inconsequential moments with equal import, this modern day saga presents the first episodes from a proposed ‘1001 Nights’ project.

Jonas Mekas, Sleepless Nights Stories, USA, 2011, 114 min
with Marina Abramovic, Louis Garrel, Harmony Korine, Patti Smith

Also screening Saturday 26 January at 8:40pm.


Anthology Programme 4

Date: 28 January 2013 | Season: Anthology Film Archives, Jonas Mekas

ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES AND ESSENTIAL CINEMA PROGRAMME 4
Monday 28 January 2013, at 8:30pm
London BFI Southbank NFT2

Surrealism and the poetic sensibility were amongst the defining traits of the post-war avant-garde. In 1947, the teenage Kenneth Anger drew inspiration from Jean Cocteau to make Fireworks, a bold, astounding, homoerotic vision. Pull My Daisy was narrated by Jack Kerouac and includes Allen Ginsberg, Alice Neel and Delphine Seyrig among its illustrious cast. The programme concludes with fragments from Harry Smith’s abandoned Wizard of Oz project.

Willard Maas, Geography of the Body, 1943, 7 min
Douglas Crockwell, Glen Falls Sequence, 1937-46, 8 min
Kenneth Anger, Fireworks, 1947, 20 min
Ed Emshwiller, Thanatopsis, 1962, 5 min
Robert Frank & Alfred Leslie, Pull My Daisy, 1959, 28 min
Harry Smith, Oz: The Tin Woodman’s Dream, 1967, 15 min