Lithuania-born filmmaker Jonas Mekas has died aged 96

Lithuania-born filmmaker Jonas Mekas, widely regarded as the godfather of underground cinema, has died aged 96.

One of the most inspiring artists of this generation started Film Culture Magazine and the organization that become New York’s Anthology Film Archives. The director made some 60 films, usually with an impressionistic, diaristic style in which flickering images revealed quiet, intimate moments rather than a grand narrative.

He told the Observer’s Sean O’Hagan in 2012: “It is important to know that what I do is not artistic. I am just a film-maker. I live how I live and I do what I do, which is recording moments of my life as I move ahead. And I do it because I am compelled to. Necessity, not artistry, is the true line you can follow in my life and work.”

Our thoughts are with family and friends. Jonas Mekas light and legacy will live on in film community and the history of avant-garde film.