Sleepless Nights Stories Director: Jonas Mekas With: Benn Northover, Louis Garrel, Marina Abramovic, Harmony Korine, Sebastian Mekas, Dalius Naujo, Carolee Schneemann, Ken Jacobs, Florence Jacobs, Louise Bourgeois, Yoko Ono, Phong Bui, Raimund Abraham, Nathlie Provosty, Rachel Korine-Simon, Lefty Korine, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Pip Chadorov, DoDo Jin Ming, Hopi Lebel, Kris Kucinskas, Thomas Boujut, Audrius Naujokaitis, Jonas Lozoraitis, Lee Stringer, Patti Smith, Diane Lewis, Simon Bryant, Adolfas Mekas, Oona Mekas, Björk Guðmundsdóttir.
USA 2011
"I can't sleep. It's 4 am. I just got back from London. It's jet lag, jet lag."
The father of the film diary, inspired by One Thousand and One Nights, traces some twenty-five stories from his present-day life with DVCam in hand and on tabletop, across time zones and at every time of the day and night.
Scenes from an abundant life, "full of suffering and of joy." Friends, a pony, a lizard. Residing above the great Greenpoint oil spill, dancing with Yoko Ono, catching a ride to Keflavik International with Björk, studying a post card from Hokkaido. People, animals, objects, familiar and unfamiliar, are and are not what they appear to be.
"The very question of what is a story, is a provocative question."
And the long evolution from 16mm Bolex to DVCam, leading to unknown places and as-yet-undiscovered media. "When there are new technologies, new ways of putting up images, something else is being revealed that we could not see before."
"Praise be to Allah!" indeed.
