7/10
More from the Mekas retrospective, this was a compilation of 4 half-hour-ish short films from Mekas shot in the 1960's and released in the 90's. The first was "Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships and Intersections". The first half or so was dubbed over with live audio of a static-filled, droning VU performance of "I'll Be Your Mirror" that I enjoyed quite a bit. Much of the footage was Warhol at home, on vacation, and occasionally at work.
The second film was "Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas" and was probably the one I was least interested in, not knowing much of George Maciunas. There was some cool footage from early Fluxus happenings though and seeing the likes of George Brecht, Nam June Paik, Yoshi Wada and even John and Yoko was fun.
The latter were the stars of the next one, "Happy Birthday to John, with John Lennon and Yoko Ono" and the title is very self-descriptive, featuring footage shot of a birthday party thrown for Lennon. It was cool to see some rare, casual footage of monstrously famous people, and wondering at the discourse taking place between John and Miles Davis in the garden at John's birthday party was a treat.
"This Side of Paradise with Jackie, Caroline and John Kennedy Jr." (aka "Scenes from an Unfinished Biography") was the last film, featuring footage shot from a vacation Jackie Onassis took shortly after John Kennedy's death as something of memoriam for Jackie and John's children. The idyllic vacation footage from a beautiful place featuring more hugely famous people being themselves was exhilarating, even if much of the footage here was repeated from the Warhol film. Glad I got to see these, they were a treat.
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