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Jonas Mekas (1922-2019), Lithuanian-born poet, philosopher and film-maker, has made hundreds of films and set up the Anthology Film Archive. He emigrated to American in 1949 where he earned the title of 'the godfather of American avant-garde cinema'. [Listener: Amy Taubin; date recorded: 2003]

TRANSCRIPT: When I lived in Williamsburg, Ken Jacobs lived in Williamsburg also. And we lived right there and maybe even met and passed, you know, each other many times, we don't know. But the first time I met him was around '52 or '53, maybe '52. At the same time as I was connecting with the film community I was connecting with the literary community. And that was a part of, and there was a little literary sort of private home club run by a certain, by a poet, Robert Stock was his name, somewhere around 45th Street and like 10th Avenue, every weekend. So, I went there to listen, you know, Jackson McLow used to hang around there, Frank Kuenstler, a lot of other poets that became very well-known later.

And one day this guy comes and says, 'I will show you, I will show a movie'. And of course, that was Ken Jacobs. And he shows some documentary, some footage unedited but, you know, that's on Orchard Street, Orchard Street, footage that he shot on Orchard Street. And I was there, okay, my brother, no Adolfas was in the army, but I came with this French, Polish guy, Edouard de Laurot, who then jumped on him, he attacked, you know. 'What is some theory, this has no political significance in these footage!' Boy, poor Ken! He was, I don't remember how he defended it, you know, Edouard was very usual, very politically violent and... So, that was our first meeting with Ken Jacobs.

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