José Luis Guerin and Jonas Mekas, in conversation

For over two years, José Luis Guerin and Jonas Mekas have corresponded by means of filmed letters, forging a friendship in cinema. They actually met only twice, very briefly, before undertaking the letter exchange. They decided not to meet again, preferring to conduct this intimate relationship by means of film, using the dialogue of the filmed letters seen as a reaction to life.

Initially, Guerin chose Mekas as his ideal correspondent for this exchange; Mekas agreed to take part in a project that invited him to experiment in a new format, which, as he himself said, he wanted never to end. As a mark of his admiration, Guerin says: “Before watching his films, I read them and dreamt about them on the basis of his texts. Mekas is a Franciscan, an agitator in every sense; it’s as though, in French cinema, Godard, André Bazin and Langlois were all rolled into one.”

At last, as planned, it is time for them to come face to face, in a conversation moderated by Jordi Balló between two fundamental filmmakers who have a strong mutual regard.

This conversation takes place in the framework of the exhibition “All the Letters. Filmed Correspondence”, which will run at the CCCB until 19 February 2012.