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“Some called him the godfather of underground film.” “My guest tonight is Jonas Mekas, who was first of all a poet before he was a filmmaker.” “His name is Jonas Mekas, a man who I think more than almost anybody in the world epitomizes the meaning and significance of independent filmmaking.”

Those are some of the TV news voiceover soundbites that open Kd Davison’s documentary about the great ringleader of American avant-garde cinema. It’s not an auspicious beginning. How can a doc about someone who championed pushing the boundaries of filmmaking to their limit get such a prosaic and obvious introduction for a film about his life? Certainly his 96 years were more than a sum of media reports from broadcasters who barely grasped his work. Not to mention, if you’re devoting the time to watch a documentary about the Lithuanian-born curator, poet, and filmmaker, you probably already know the basics about him,...

This is an article about the second issue of the avant-garde arts zine Idiolects. An article on the first issue can be read here.

For a small publication with no advertising to support it, publishing on a quarterly basis was an ambitious and impressive achievement for Idiolects. This second issue covers avant-garde happenings in New York City from August to November 1976, primarily film, but not exclusively.

While again there is special thanks given to the Collective for Living Cinema in issue #2’s indicia, there’s no indication that the Collective was providing financial support. The first issue had a cover price of 10 cents, but the second issue has no price and offers a complicated subscription scheme where potential subscribers are invited to send in whatever amount they want that Idiolects would deduct the price for each issue until subscribers’ accounts reach zero.

This issue also actively encourages submissions from authors...