Walden (1968 film)

After several years of filming everyday scenes from his life, Mekas was commissioned by the Albright–Knox Art Gallery to make Walden.

It was his first major diary film,[2] and he named it after Henry David Thoreau's 1854 memoir Walden.

It shows a chronicle of events in Mekas's life, with intertitles describing the images that precede or follow them.

Where most hobbyists aim to replicate the look and feel of conventional studio movies, Mekas's camera work is aggressive and unstable, moving erratically in wild gestures.

[2] The improvisational rhythms of Marie Menken's camera work were a major influence on his style.

[1] Mekas continued editing the film after the premiere and added additional material, using about a third of all the footage he had shot.

Mekas also references cinema's past through his use of intertitles, associated with the silent era after they were largely abandoned in the transition to sound.

[2] Before the invitation from the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Mekas began distributing four short films based on the same footage: Cassis, Notes on the Circus, Report from Millbrook, and Hare Krishna.

This led to a project, later abandoned, in which Mekas would have documented her life through home movies and family photos.

[8] Anthology Film Archives added Walden to its Essential Cinema Repertory collection.

"[14] Critic Dave Kehr said that Walden "radiates sociability and warmth…Innocent of technique, it overflows with truth.