Jonas Mekas, a forerun­ner and represen­tative of the American avant-​garde film receives the Dragon of Dragons Award in recognition of his con­tribution to the world cinema . The artist has accep­ted our invitation and he will visit Krakow in May to receive the award during the jubilee 50^th edition of the Festival. This will be his first visit in Poland!

The Dragon of Dragons Awards, gran­ted since 1998, ack­now­led­ges the out­stan­ding creators of documen­tary films and animation. Among past win­ners are: Boh­dan Kosin­ski, Jan Lenica, Raymond Depar­don, Jan Svank­majer, Wer­ner Herzog, Stephen and Timothy Quay, Albert Maysles, Yuri Nor­stein, Kazimierz Karabasz, Raoul Servais, Allan King, and last year — Jerzy Kucia.

Jonas Mekas is one of the leading figures of Indepen­dent and Avant­garde cinema. As a film­maker, critic, editor, distributor, archivist and poet, Mekas has con­tributed heavily to the creation of the modern avant-​garde and indepen­dent Film movements, which he con­tinues to expand today.

Mekas’ own out­put as a film­maker ran­ges from nar­rative films (Guns of the Trees, 1961 & The Brig, 1963) to “diary films” inc­luding Wal­den (1969); Lost, Lost, Lost, (1975); Reminiscen­ces of a Voyage to Lithuania, (1972); Zefiro torna, (1992) Birth of a Nation (1997) As I was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I saw Brief Glimp­ses of Beauty (2001) and A let­ter from Green­Point (2005) and documen­tary diary films inc­luding Notes on an American Film Direc­tor: Mar­tin Scor­sese (2008) and Lithuania And The Col­lapse Of The USSR (2009)
His work has been screened exten­sively at festivals and museums around the world such as the Venice Bien­nale, The Tate Modern, The Ser­pen­tine Gal­lery, The Whit­ney museum and The Museum of Modern art, NewYork .

In 2006 the Direc­tors Guild of America awar­ded Anthology Film Archives and Mekas the DGA Honours award, recognizing Mekas’ dedication to preserving the art of cinema. Later that year Mekas was honoured at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s award ceremony for his significant con­tribution to American film cul­ture.
In its annual selec­tion of 25 films, the United States National Film Preservation Board selec­ted Mekas’ film Reminiscen­ces of a Jour­ney to Lithuania, for preservation at the Library of Con­gress’ National Film Registry.

The Dragon of Dragons Awards ceremony will be held on 1^st June 2010. Also retrospec­tive of films and an exhibition of artistic works of Mekas and his meetings with the audience are plan­ned.

More infor­mation on the festival’s website. (12.02.2010)