Jonas Mekas: The director Abel Ferrara called the heart and soul of independent cinema
Existing on the fringes of mainstream cinema is a place where many filmmakers have deliberately positioned themselves without any intention of going anywhere else, which has kept Abel Ferrara busy for over 45 years and counting.
If anything, his outsider status should have been obvious from the start considering he made his feature-length directorial debut on a porno movie and then followed it up with ‘video nasty’ black comedy slasher The Driller Killer, which ended up banned in the United Kingdom in its original and uncut iteration for 23 years following its 1979 release.
Controversially unhinged cult classic Bad Lieutenant, grisly sci-fi horror remake Body Snatchers, vengeful crime thriller King of New York, sexually charged cyberpunk outing New Rose Hotel, spiritual drama Mary , and improvisational black comedy Go Go Tales have seen Ferrara refuse to be constrained by genre while maintaining as much autonomy as possible as an independent auteur.
Being able to call upon heavy hitters like Christopher Walken, Harvey Keitel, and Willem Dafoe as regular collaborators certainly helps. His three most trusted on-camera partners are recognisable and respected names who probably make funding at least a little easier than it usually would be.
Ferrara will always be a maverick at heart, but he’s adamant that one of his influences has been so pivotal in his professional life that their shadow was looming before he was even born. His tongue was planted partway into his cheek, obviously, but his admiration and appreciation for avant-garde trailblazer Jonas Mekas is about as real as it gets.
“Yeah, Jonas has been my hero since before I was born,” he told Filmmaker Magazine. “He’s the heart and soul of fucking independent cinema. How he’s kept that building, what he’s achieved shows who the real independent producer is in town. Those guys keep the prints to all of my films. They’re a solid place through all the ups and downs and ins and outs of what film distribution has become in the last 30 years in New York.”
The “guys” Ferrara refers to is Anthology Film Archives, the independent entity that preserves and exhibits independent, experimental, and avant-garde movies. The organisation was founded in 1970 when Mekas – who was then head of the Filmmakers Cinematheque group – devised plans for a museum dedicated to smaller-scale cinema.
The Lithuanian was regularly referred to as the godfather of the American avant-garde despite being born in Europe, and Ferrara couldn’t be more grateful for his assistance. The Anthology Film Archives has become increasingly important for overseeing the preservation of films that otherwise may have been lost in the shuffle and consumed by the sands of time, including several of Ferrara’s, so it’s an important legacy to maintain in generations to come.
