BOUTIQUE
This film is included in the following DVD:

THE SIXTIES QUARTET
by Jonas MEKAS

THIS SIDE OF PARADISE (FRAGMENTS OF AN UNFINISHED BIOGRAPHY)

by Jonas MEKAS
1999 / 16mm / color-b&w / sound / 1S / 35' 00

Unpredictably, as most of my life's key events have been, for a
period of several years of late sixties and early seventies, I had
the fortune to spend some time, mostly during the summers, with
Jackie Kennedy's and her sister Lee Radziwill's families and
children. Cinema was an integral, inseparable, as a matter of fact, a
key part of our friendship. The time was still very close to the
untimely, tragic death of John F. Kennedy. Jackie wanted to give
something to her children to do, to help to ease the transition, life
without a father. One of her thoughts was that a movie camera would
be fun for children. Peter Beard, who was at that time tutoring John
Jr. and Caroline in art history, suggested to Jackie that I was the
man to introduce the children to cinema. Jackie said yes. And that's
how it all began.

The images in this film, with a few exceptions, all come from the
summers Caroline and John Jr. spent in Montauk, with their cousins
Anthony and Tina Radziwill, in an old house Lee had rented from Andy
Warhol, for a few summers. Andy himself spent many of his weekends
there, in one of the cottages, as did Peter Beard, whom the children
had adopted almost like their older brother or a father they missed.
These were summers of happiness, joy and continuous celebrations of
life and friendships. These were days of Little Fragments of Paradise.

- Jonas Mekas

1 PRINT IN DISTRIBUTION


distribution format 16mm
screen 1,37 - Standard (single screen)
speed 24 fps
sound optical sound
original language English
rental fee 136,00 €