The Jonas Mekas Diary Film Project is a workshop programme intended as an introduction to working with the diary form as a cinema of free and poetic self-expression. It is aimed at young people with little to no experience of working with film and video and encourages the students to explore the relationship between themselves and the medium, engaging with their past and present, their friends and families and their immediate environment, putting ordinary lives into the frame, exploring the beauty and the poetry of the every day.

The workshop will take place in London, England and will be led by one of the true pioneers of the diary film, Jonas Mekas, a Lithuanian-born New Yorker who has been a tireless champion of independent cinema for over 60 years. It coincides with twin retrospectives of his work at BFI Southbank and the Serpentine Gallery.

This site is a resource that will chronicle the workshop – a diary of the diaries, as they evolve – and will form a legacy for the project, allowing all you young students around the world who are hungry for creative development, but who are unable to participate, to also get something out of the workshop. We hope it will encourage you too to go out there with a video or film camera and make something personal, honest and truthful.

The workshop is a partnership of the BFI, Serpentine Gallery, no.w.here lab, University of the Arts, London and Anthology Film Archives. Find out more about BFI Education here at our blog site.

This site is in development so please check back soon for updates.