Guns of the Trees

16mm, black and white, sound, 75 min
scans not available
Jonas Mekas wrote, produced, directed, and photographed this arty experimental study of the beatnik movement in America. A bleak portrait of modern existentialism and despair, Guns of the Trees tells ...
Rental formats: 16mm, 35mm
Available for sale: DVD PAL

Stills

About

Jonas Mekas wrote, produced, directed, and photographed this arty experimental study of the beatnik movement in America. A bleak portrait of modern existentialism and despair, Guns of the Trees tells the story of young Barbara (Francis Stillman), who is desperately trying to find some value in her life but is weighed down by depression. She seeks solace in the church but instead is met by Gregory (Adolfas Mekas), an intellectual who seems to have an even worse opinion of life than she does. For a time, she seems close to rescue by Ben and Argus (Ben Carruthers and Argus Carruthers) a married couple who seem to have found genuine value in life through each other. Ultimately, they cannot save her from her own despair. This beat portrayal of angst is interspersed with poetry readings and rather blatant symbology. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide Four young people are trying to understand why their friend, a young woman, committed a suicide. A film made up of disconnected scenes weaving between past and present. The title of the film comes from a poem by Stuart Perkoff which tells that some young people felt (around 1960) that everything is against them, so much that even the trees in the parks and streets seemed to them like guns pointing at their very existence. - J. M. Guns of the Trees deals with the thoughts, feelings, and anguished strivings of my generation, faced with the moral perplexity of our times. Conceived as an episodic, horizontal film, there is no apparent direct story connection between one scene and the next. The scenes act like pieces of a larger, timed, emotional mosaic. Where the direct word, or the direct image, fails - when we come to more essential things-the indirectness of the poet will seize the essence and the truth. - J. M. It is a bitter but lyric work. It is also revolutionary in form, being unlike, in its technique, anything you ever saw. It is a poster declaration, a manifesto. I regard Guns of The Trees as the most important film by far of the American "New Wave." - Herman G. Weinberg, New York Film-Makers' Cooperative Catalogue n6, 1975 It may be one of the most personal and revealing films of the intellectual, beat and hip fringe of society of America today. - Gene Moskowitz, Cahiers du cinema, N119, May 1961

Films

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    Film Magazine of the Arts
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    Film Magazine of the Arts
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    Visions of Warhol
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    Jonas Mekas Box Set
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    Jonas Mekas Box Set
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    Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
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    Award Presentation to Andy Warhol
    Jonas Mekas

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    Rental format: 16mm
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    The Brig
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    Report From Millbrook
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    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color, sound, 12 min
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    Cassis
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    Cassis
    Jonas Mekas

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    Rental format: 16mm
    • Landscape / Architecture
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    Hare Krishna
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    Hare Krishna
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    16mm, color, sound, 4 min
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    • Spiritual / Mystical
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    Notes On The Circus
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    Notes On The Circus
    Jonas Mekas

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    The Italian Notebook
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    The Italian Notebook
    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color, silent, 14.75 min
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    Time & Fortune Vietnam Newsreel
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    Time & Fortune Vietnam Newsreel
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    16mm, color, sound, 4 min
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    • Political / Social Activism
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    Walden: Reel 1
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    Walden: Reel 1
    Jonas Mekas

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    Walden
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    Walden
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    Walden: Reel 4
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    Walden: Reel 4
    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color, sound, 45 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Walden: Reel 3
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    Walden: Reel 3
    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color, sound, 49 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Walden: Reel 2
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    Walden: Reel 2
    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color, sound, 40 min
    Rental format: 16mm
    • Personal / Diary / Journal
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    Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
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    Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color, sound, 82 min
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 6
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 6
    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 27 min
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 5
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 5
    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 29 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 4
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 4
    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 25 min
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 2
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 2
    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 30 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Lost, Lost, Lost
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    Lost, Lost, Lost
    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 178 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 1
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 1
    Jonas Mekas

    16mm, color and b/w, sound, 32 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 3
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    Lost, Lost, Lost: Reel 3
    Jonas Mekas

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    Rental format: 16mm
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    In Between: 1964-68
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    In Between: 1964-68
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    16mm, color, sound, 52 min
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    Notes For Jerome
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    Notes For Jerome
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    Paradise Not Yet Lost (a/k/a Oona's Third Year)
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    Paradise Not Yet Lost (a/k/a Oona's Third Year)
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    Scenes of the Life Of Andy Warhol
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    Scenes of the Life Of Andy Warhol
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    Cup/Saucer/Two Dancers/Radio
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    Street Songs
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    He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
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    He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
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    Mob of Angels: Baptism
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    Mob of Angels: Baptism
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    The Sixties Quartet
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    Zefiro Torna or Scenes From the Life of George Maciunas
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    Happy Birthday to John
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    Birth of a Nation
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    Notes on the Factory
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    Notes on the Factory
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    This Side of Paradise
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    This Side of Paradise
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    A Letter to Penny Arcade
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    A Letter to Penny Arcade
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    Diary Entry: Father and Daughter
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    Diary Entry: Father and Daughter
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    Williamsburg, Brooklyn
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    Williamsburg, Brooklyn
    Jonas Mekas

    color and b/w, silent, 15 min
    Rental format: 16mm
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    Notes on Utopia
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    Notes on Utopia
    Jonas Mekas

    color, sound, 55 min
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    Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR
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    Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR
    Jonas Mekas

    color, sound, 286 min
    Rental format: DVD NTSC
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    Sleepless Nights Stories
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    Sleepless Nights Stories
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    Reminiszenzen aus Deutschland
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    Reminiszenzen aus Deutschland
    Jonas Mekas

    color, sound, 22 min
    Rental format: DVD NTSC
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    Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
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    Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man
    Jonas Mekas

    color, sound, 68 min
    Rental format: DVD NTSC
    • Biography / Autobiography
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