Scott Hammen

A Companion to Mekas Walden: A Guide to Jonas Mekas's Diaries, Notes and Sketches Scott Hammen

A Companion to Mekas Walden is an in-depth guide to Jonas Mekas's film masterpiece. It is designed to enrich the viewer's journey through the cultural ferment of New York City in the 1960s explored by Mekas's film.




When Mekas's Diaries, Notes and Sketches also known as Walden, premiered in New York in 1969, it opened a new chapter in the history of artists' film. A new generation suddenly discovered that the film medium was not reserved for the commercial entertainment industry. but could be used by individual artists and poets too.




And at the same time Walden was also an invaluable record of a time and place that was the nexus of multiple forms of American art - including music, painting, dance, theater, and poetry. As critic Amy Taubin wrote: "Whenever people ask me what it was like to live in New York in the '60s, I refer them to Mekas's Walden..."




A Companion to Mekas Walden provides a wealth of information on the film's subjects, not just those, like John Lennon and Andy Warhol, who were already world famous, but also many who have been undeservedly forgotten.