On July 31, 1997, filmmaker Jonas Mekas described how the burgeoning art scene of New York City in the 1960s bore great artists, including Andy Warhol and Lou Reed of The Velvet Underground. Interview conducted by director Timothy Greenfield-Sanders for Lou Reed: Rock And Roll Heart (1998).
Chapters:
00:00 How Mekas’ 28th Street loft and theater became an epicenter for New York’s burgeoning art scene in the early 1960s
01:54 Describing the films of the early Filmmakers’ Cinematheque and the new energy it brought the scene
02:48 Mekas recalls getting introduced to theater regular Andy Warhol and how the began collaboration
05:00 Warhol’s factory as a massive psychiatrist’s couch that attracted lost souls from all walks of life
06:20 How the special closed environment of the Factory scene allowed for the unique brilliance of Warhol’s film work
09:04 The process behind Warhol’s famous screen tests and their importance as cultural documents
11:03 Appreciating the role of Barbara Rubin in cultivating the New York scene and introducing Mekas and Warhol to the Velvet Underground
12:11 How the Underground’s music was an especially perfect fit for complementing the films at the Filmmakers’ Cinematheque
18:48 On the Underground’s infamous debut at an annual meeting of New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry
The American Masters Digital Archive includes over 1,000 hours of never-before-seen, raw interviews: a treasure trove of the movers and shakers of American culture, including Maya Angelou, Patti Smith, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Matthew Broderick, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Dionne Warwick, Lee Grant, Sidney Lumet, Betty White and many others.