Lost, Lost, Lost

Jonas Mekas's 1976 film is made from footage he shot between 1949 and 1963. Mekas came to America from Lithuania after the war and recorded the immigrant community settling in Brooklyn in those first years; the film is that material arranged years later. The repetition in the title gives the subject. A lost country, a lost language and lost early years lie on top of each other; Mekas's voiceover was added afterwards and often contradicts what we see. In the second half the camera turns to the New York art scene; poetry readings, demonstrations and the experimental film world appear in the same diary. The form throughout is handheld, short takes and jump-cut editing. Who it's for: those who like experimental cinema and the diary film tradition. Who it's not for: viewers looking for narrative; the film runs close to three hours and builds no story.