Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR (2009)

Synopsis: Forces of time, memory, change, and human will collide in Mekas’s new film. The work’s title refers to the historical time when the world watched as Mekas’s home country of Lithuania fought for... Forces of time, memory, change, and human will collide in Mekas’s new film. The work’s title refers to the historical time when the world watched as Mekas’s home country of Lithuania fought for independence from the stronghold of Soviet rule. With a video camera, Mekas recorded newscasts that played daily in 1991 on his television set at home. Footage includes reports of the Soviet Union’s use of ‘aggressive actions’ that called for Lithuania to back down, freedom demonstrations, interviews and statements made by top politicians, journalists, and analysts including Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis, Deputy Prime Minister Kazimiera Prunskiene, Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, and United States President George H.W. Bush among others, as well as moving portraits of the Lithuanian people who were directly affected by the conflict. Mekas’s account, reported by news outlets in the United States, also reveals the shaping and shifting of political, economic, and social relations between Eastern Europe and the West at the time.--© Anthology Film Archives [More]

Director: Jonas Mekas

Director: Jonas Mekas
Studio: Anthology Archives