(Potential spoilers below.)

For preserving the history of independent, underground, experimental (insert your word here) cinema, Jonas Mekas remains one of the most important figures to the art. Because that it is his premier vocation, his own career as a filmmaker is secondary. His filming style -"diary cinema"- is necessitated by his life. Most of his filmography consists of works which are collections of the snippets of footage he has managed to shoot over the years.

REMINISCES... is a wonderful semi-autobiography using footage of Jonas and his brother Adolphus (who coincidentally, made a similar film at the same time) during their arrival in America in 1950, as well as valuable documentation of the Lithuanian American community during this period.

The brothers finally decide to journey home to see their mother for the first time in years. What unveils is a totally charming celebration of "the good life", as the Mekas family still adheres to their simple "old world" values of doing day-to-day things. By the same token, the film itself is totally charming in its simplicity-- for example, the soundtrack is very minimal, and unobtrusive.

The film ends with a fire in a Lithuanian city which they visit. This is a subtle reminder of the fact that they cannot completely go home again, except in the movies. Therefore their three-decade collection of footage is a moving preservation of their history.

Although for the foreign viewer this film can appear somewhat too personal and hence narrow in scope, I see Mekas capturing the emotion of coming home to the countryside and the general zeitgeist of Lithuania of the 70ies as he did with Williamsburg.It hgave me the same emotion as seeing some marbling from overripe berries from past summers at the bottom of an old woven basket. Uogos uogos uogos

I am sitting here thinking of what this film did to make me so very drawn to it. Perhaps it gives enough time for you to think about what Jonas thinks of. Think about all the people you've met and all the places you've been, and where they are now. Think about all your past decisions, choices, and actions and how you might be different without them. This is a question I seldom think to myself and I think that is the reason why this feels special. It isn't made for you to be reflective of Jonas' life entirely, but rather your own. It gives you time to think of the aspects of life that are given to you from a different point of view and translate it to your own. It almost feels like a car ride driving past all your memories, good and bad, and just lets them pass on until the next ones come along.

Jonas does not loathe his past, he finds the happier memories amongst the sad, yet you can hear his pain in the way he speaks. Riding through his own recollections of running from the war, running for his life, and running away from the people he once called friends, all the joyful things he recalls from his childhood fade into the dreadful, and the way he manages to blend them together is why I was so drawn to this.