This film originated from my readings of the One Thousand And One Nights. But unlike the Arabian tales, my stories are all from real life, though at times they too wander into somewhere else, beyond the everyday routine reality.

This film originated from my readings of the One Thousand And One Nights. But unlike the Arabian tales, my stories are all from real life, though at times they too wander into somewhere else, beyond the everyday routine reality.

There are some twenty-five different stories in my movie. Their protagonists are all my good friends and I myself am an inseparable part of the stories. The storyteller of the Arabian Nights was also part of his or her tales.

Some of the people in the movie you’ll recognize, some not. The fact that some of them you’ll recognize has no bearing on the stories: after all, we all recognize John Wayne or Annette Bening, but in their stories they are no longer the people we know.

The subjects of the stories cover a wide range of emotions, geographies, personal anxieties, anecdotes. These are not very big stories, not for the Big Screen: these are all personal big stories... And yes, you’ll also find some provocations... But that’s me, one ‘me’ of many. The very question “What is a story?” is a provoca- tive question.

Contains a 24-page booklet by Hans Ulrich Olbrist.

Jonas Mekas, Sleepless Nights Stories, video, color, 114 minutes, 2011
(DVD PAL interzone, subtitles français / deutsch / lietuviskais) 24,00 euros

Edited by / Montage de : Jonas Mekas, Elle Burchill. Additional Cameras / Caméras sup- plémentaires : Thomas Boujut, Jonas Lozoraitis, Benn Northover, Louis Garrel. With / Avec : Raimund Abraham, Marina Abramovic, Thomas Boujut, Louise Bourgeois, Simon Bryant, Phong Bui, Pip Chodorov, Louis Garrel, Björk Gudmundsdottir, Flo Jacobs, Ken Jacobs, Harmony Korine, Lefty Korine, Rachel Korine-Simon, Kris Kucinskas, Hopi Lebel, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Diane Lewis, Jonas Lozoraitis, Adolfas Mekas, Oona Mekas, Sebastian Mekas, DoDo Jin Ming, Dalius Naujokaitis, Benn Northover, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Yoko Ono, Nathalie Provosty, Carolee Schneeman, Patti Smith, Lee Stringer.