For two hours (or more) we stroll with Jonas Mekas through New York nights, through apartments, studios, backstage rooms, galleries, bars and clubs. We meet old acquaintances like Ken and Flo Jacobs, Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Carolee Schneemann, Marina Abramovic, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Pip Chodorov, friends, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, and we also make many new acquaintances. The father of the diary film begins a film with the words “I can't sleep”. Who hasn’t been in this situation: you lie awake in bed until you finally give up, get up, get dressed and go out. Sleepy and yet wide awake at the same time, you find yourself in the world of those exhausted from the day’s exertions, the drunk, the relaxed, the dancing, the brooding, the mourning, the pensive, the partiers. In Sleepless Nights Stories Jonas Mekas dives into a time vacuum. We witness (approximately) 25 stories from a thousand and one nights, and it becomes increasingly unclear whether we really did get up and go out – or whether what we’re seeing are remnants of the day that we’re remembering, or remnants of films by one of the greatest avant-garde filmmakers whose life wrote film history. (Stefanie Schulte Strathaus)
Production: A Film by Jonas Mekas
Additional Camera: Thomas Boujut, Jonas Lozoraitis, Benn Northover, Louis Garrel
Format: DigiBeta, color
Running time: 114 min.
Language: English
