This month we are delighted to be presenting Walden, a major work of the late 60's by Jonas Mekas, widely regarded as one of the central figures of the American underground movement and more recently recognised further afield with major retrospectives at galleries and institutions worldwide.

Walden: Diaries, Notes, and Sketches is in many ways a quintessential Mekas film, taking it's energy and spirit from the celebration of life in the present moment, through homages and portraits of close friends and colleagues (including many familiar names from avant guard cinema and the arts in general). Within this outward looking eye and heartfelt sentiment, at the centre of all its flux and energy is the inner life of the poet, reflecting in solitude on both the inherent beauty and the essentially transitory and temporary nature of all things.

Microscope Gallery is extremely pleased to announce the screening of Part Two “February” from the “365 Day Project” by Jonas Mekas. This is the second of 12 monthly programs taking place this year as part of the screening premiere of the complete and nearly 38-hour video project.

Part Two (Days 32 – 59) highlights include: a visit to La Ciotat where the Lumière brothers filmed their first movie, a Nina Hagen concert, Jonas in the snow of his native Lithuanian, news of Britney Spears shaving her head, Ornette Coleman practicing in his studio, the set of Scorsese’s “Departed” and much dancing and singing. Mekas will hold a Q&A after the screening.

The diversity of thought with cinema. Thus the text as an image, the relations between image and sound, are part of personal films with an autobiographical dimension. Themes such as the contemporary consumer society, advertising, representation of women and neocolonialism are the focus of several sessions. While others show the film in a situation where celluloid and video speak their differences through the film as sculpture. The issue of the media, placing film and video in different sites, ranging from theater to the gallery, will also be addressed in the sessions. The films will be screened with subtitles in Portuguese and those will be available for filmmakers, and / or distributors.