About and Through Oneself

Paulina Haratyk

paulina.haratyk@gmail.com
Jagiellonian University (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7055-308X

Abstract

Andrzej Pitrus’s book Przebłyski piękna. Spotkania z Jonasem Mekasem [Glimpses of Beauty: Encounters with Jonas Mekas] (2022) is the first Polish monograph of the Lithuanian filmmaker’s output. It is a guide to the artist’s work, intended to encourage the readers to ‘immerse’ themselves in his films and engage subjectively in searching for their meanings. Pitrus’s basic premise is to read Mekas’s cinema through himself. He seeks parallels between their experiences and refers to his own memories, which he uses to ‘get a feel’ for the filmmaker’s world. The form of the book is based on a dialogue with Mekas’s words. Its first part is Pitrus’s study of the artist’s film output, from his first and less-known films, through the most emblematic works, to late films created on video, art installations, and internet projects. The second part is a selection of the filmmaker’s writings – diaries, critical texts, interviews, and poems – that correspond to and extend Pitrus’s interpretations.


Keywords:

Jonas Mekas, avant-garde cinema, autobiography

Pitrus, A. (2022). Przebłyski piękna. Spotkania z Jonasem Mekasem. Warszawa – Gdańsk: Stowarzyszenie Nowe Horyzonty – Wydawnictwo w Podwórku.
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Published
2023-06-30

Cited by

Haratyk, P. (2023) “About and Through Oneself”, Kwartalnik Filmowy, (122), pp. 197–202. doi: 10.36744/kf.1606.

Authors

Paulina Haratyk 
paulina.haratyk@gmail.com
Jagiellonian University Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7055-308X

Film and literary scholar, graduate of the Jagiellonian University. In 2022, at the Jagiellonian University, she defended her doctoral thesis entitled Film amatorski w Polsce 1956-1989 w świetle badań archiwalnych oraz relacji członków ruchu Amatorskich Klubów Filmowych [Amateur Film in Poland 1956-1989 in the Light of Archival Research and Accounts of Members of the Amateur Film Clubs Movement]. In her research, she focuses on amateur, independent, and avant-garde cinema, as well as on film and visual archives. She collaborates with cultural institutions. Her achievements include establishing the collection of amateur films at The National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute. She published articles in Kwartalnik FilmowyPrzegląd Kulturoznawczy, and Ekrany.



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