Jonas Mekas is a filmmaker, artist, poet and writer. He remains one of the most influential figures in independent and underground cinema. Born in Lithuania in 1922, he arrived in 1949 in New York where he co-founded the legendary Film-Makers Cooperative, Film Culture Magazine and Anthology Film Archives, as well as supporting emerging independent voices of the New American Cinema in his column in the Village Voice. He also pioneered the diary form of filmmaking, documenting many of the leading figures and events of the New York art and culture scenes of the 1950s and 60s. These films comprised his Diaries Notes and Sketches project. Walden (1969), Mekas' first completed diary film, is an epic portrait of the New York avant-garde arts scene of the 1960s, featuring many of Mekas' friends of that period, including Andy Warhol, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and The Velvet Underground. Lost Lost Lost (1976), comprised of fourteen years of foot- age, documents Mekas' early years in New York as he and his brother Adolfas build their new life in America, discovering the city and the burgeoning film and arts community of the 1950s and 60s downtown scene.