Jonas Mekas

Source: Dogwoof

Jonas Mekas

Documentary sales outfit Dogwoof has acquired KD Davison’s Fragments Of Paradise for world sales, excluding North America.

A portrait of the ‘godfather’ of avant garde cinema Jonas Mekas, Fragments Of Paradise won the best documentary prize last month in the Venice Film Festival’s Classics section. It recently had its North American premiere at Telluride and has its UK premiere today (October 7) at the BFI London Film Festival, where it will screen as part of the Documentary Competition

Fragments Of Paradise assembles thousands of hours of Jonas Mekas’ personal footage, films, video diaries and letters to paint an intimate portrait of the life and career of the pioneering filmmaker, poet and critic who was born in Lithuania and moved to New York in the wake of World War II.

The doc’s interviewees include Amy Taubin, Peter Bogdanovich, John Waters, Martin Scorsese, as well as Jonas’s children Sebastian and Oona Mekas.

Fragments Of Paradise is a Kunhardt Films production, directed and produced by KD Davison, produced by Elyse Frenchman, Leanne Cherundolo and Matthew O. Henderson, and executive produced by George, Peter and Teddy Kunhardt and Sebastian and Oona Mekas.

The world sales deal was brokered between Teddy Kunhardt of Kunhardt Films, on behalf of the filmmakers, and Oli Harbottle, Dogwoof’s chief content officer.

It is the second collaboration between Kunhardt Films and Dogwoof, with the sales agent representing the Kunhardt Films production Jim: The James Foley Story for international sales.

Harbottle said: “KD has delivered a treat for anyone interested in both cinema and counterculture, which will surely inspire a whole new generation of artists and filmmakers to add to those he inspired throughout his lifetime.”

Kunhardt added: “This film is a poignant story about the journey of a displaced person, set in the avant garde art scene of the 60’s in NYC and spanning throughout Jonas’ video-chronicled life that lasted until 2019. It’s an emotional story based on Mekas’ personal archive of never-before-seen footage.”