▶あらすじ

吉増剛造（詩人・ 1939/2/22生まれ）が、盟友であった故ジョナス・メカス（1922/12/24〜2019/1/23）の幻影をマンハッタンとブルックリンに追いかける。時はコロナウイルスがNYCに襲いかかる直前の2020年1月末、間一髪の渡航だった。実験映画界の巨人と言われたメカスの一周忌にレクイエムとも言える詩が劇的に誕生する様子が描かれていく。

▶ジョナス・メカス Jonas Mekas（1922-2019)

リトアニアの農家に生まれる。戦時中、難民キャンプを転々とした後、ニューヨークに亡命。貧困と孤独のなか、中古の16ミリカメラを購入、身の回りの撮影を始め比類のない長年にわたる「日記映画」を残し、実験映画の盟主となる。数多の前衛芸術家を庇護、ジョン・レノン、オノヨーコ、ナム・ジュン・パイク、アンディ・ウォーホルからアル・パチーノまで友好関係があり、数々の作品や書籍などを残した。

▶吉増剛造（1939-）

日本現代詩の最前線を切り拓いてきた日本を代表する詩人。2023年は「西脇順三郎賞」初回受賞、「井上靖記念文化賞」など84歳にして吉増イヤーの趣きになっている。監督の井上春生とは前作「幻を見るひと」でタッグを組み国際映画祭10冠に輝き、本作では44冠37つの各種賞を受賞。日本芸術院会員、文化功労者。


▶Outline of the Film Memai Vertigo

Gozo Yoshimasu (born 2/22/1939), a pioneer of Japanese contemporary poetry, pursued the vision of his ally, the late Jonas Mekas (12/24/1922 - 1/23/2019), in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The time is the end of January 2020, just before the coronavirus strikes NYC, and the trip is just in time. The film depicts the dramatic birth of a poem that could be called a requiem on the first anniversary of the death of Mekas, who was considered a giant of experimental cinema.

“Why are your poems and films so shaky?” Someone asked this question to Jonas Mekas, the poet deemed the godfather of American avant-garde cinema. Mekas replied “My life is shaky.”

This film Memai Vertigo follows Gozo Yoshimasu (b. 1939), a pioneer of modern Japanese poetry, as he seeks memories of his friend Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) through Manhattan and Brooklyn one year after Mekas’ passing. The film depicts Gozo’s process as he works to craft a poetic requiem for his friend during his stay in America.

Yoshimasu Gozo emerged on the poetry scene in the 1960s as a flagbearer for a new form of verse with a wild linguistic sensibility and an explosive image. He continues to blaze new paths, producing poetry that heightens and fills the five senses. Jonas Mekas died on January 23rd of 2019 at the age of 96. He was born on a farm in Lithuania. In his youth, his homeland was taken over by the Nazis and then the Soviets, and Mekas fled to America. From the midst of despair, he worked to plant roots in his new soil and began to weave stories from his memories through the medium of film. He created many films that influenced the development of counterculture cinema, a contrast to Hollywood. Best known of his works are the so-called “diary films” that depict his daily life.

As Gozo travels to Kyoto, Tokyo, and New York, he laments the passing of his friend, and over time these fragmentary thoughts begin to take shape as poetry. The film depicts Brooklyn and Manhattan, where Mekas lived, in ways that bring to the senses the “shakiness” he described—that of the city and its people.

When Gozo meets Mekas’s son Sebastian, he undergoes a change. The meeting takes place just before vacating Jonas’s studio in Brooklyn. Sebastian explains how his father worked and lived in the studio without a bed, often sleeping on a mat on the floor or even in a chair. In the studio, Gozo is overtaken by a moment of vertigo. He lies down and is overtaken by a flood of images which he puts into words.

This film tells the story of how Gozo draws on his experiences to compose a requiem in verse to mark the one-year anniversary of the passing of his friend Jonas Mekas, in the process preserving something of Mekas’ spirit in a work of art. The works of Mekas and Gozo are introduced along with their treasured correspondence. This film marks the birth of a new style of documentary wherein images take form as poetry.

Enjoy this film about poets of East and West who became kindred spirits, moving together in the winds of life.