Allen Ginsberg: Hustler for Life, Save the Children und Jonas in the Desert

Allen Ginsberg: Hustler for Life, Save the Children (G 1997, 15 min.)

The documentary film about Allen Ginsberg shows him in his apartment in the East Village. He talks about politics, poetry, and religion. Accompanying himself on harmonium, he sings the song "September On Jessore Road" and reads from his book "The Fall Of America".
The film celebrated its world premiere at the International Film Festival in Berlin in 1998.
 

Jonas in the Desert (G 1994, 94 min.)

(with Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Anger, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese, Peter Beard, Blixa Bargeld, Nick Cave, and many others)

In 1991 Allen Ginsberg said to Peter Sempel: "It’s about time someone makes a film about Jonas".

No sooner said than done: The film handles the life of Jonas Mekas, film director, writer, and curator. After fleeing Lithuania during World War II, Mekas was at first put in a labor camp in Hamburg and finally wound up in a detention center for refugees near Mainz. In 1949 Mekas emigrated to the U.S. and a short time later was able to buy a Bolex camera with which he captured moments of his life. Having witnessed several events, he discovered avant-garde film and in 1953 he began to make films – and in a short time became a key figure in the New American Cinema.
He is the founder of the magazine Film Culture, writes columns for "The Village Voice", a New York weekly, and he called to life the project "Anthology Film Archives" – the world’s largest collection of avant-garde film art.
Today, at age 90, Mekas lives in New York and enjoys worldwide renown. Since its premiere at the Berlinale, the 1994 film has been screened frequently, most recently in 2012 in Paris at Centre Pompidou.
 

Peter Sempel

For the first years of his life, Peter Sempel (*1954 in Hamburg) lived in the Australian Outback. After his return to Germany, he studied literature and physics at the University of Hamburg. He wrote for music magazines such as "Spex" and "Fanzines" and since 1981 he has made music and dance films. His themes and protagonists in this are broadly diverse: He thematizes underground music as often as he does classical, tells of extraordinary artists of the underground scene as much as those from Hollywood. Many of his films are supported by grants from the culture department of the city of Hamburg.
Sempel is also successful as a photographer, and has presented his photography at numerous exhibitions.