Jonas Mekas e la nazione del cinema indipendente. Modellizzazione e analisi critica del film Birth of a Nation.

This essay proposes an intermedial reading of Jonas Mekas' artistic and critical practice through a specific case study: the film "Birth of a Nation" (1997). Dedicated to the "invisible but essential nation of cinema" by its director, the feature film collects 163 portraits of American and European independent filmmakers and activists shot between the 1950s and 1990s. The network of personalities, places, and situations underlying the Avant-Garde cinema movement is retraced and described through the transcription of the filmic text into a decoupage. Starting from this modeling operation, a critical analysis brings to light the thematic nodes of the movie, focusing on the mythology of Parsifal and the rising practices of Expanded Cinema. The connective tension that animates Mekas' diary is thus highlighted. Following the trail of "Birth of a Nation," the author's diaristic practice is framed in its transition from the written page to film, and from film to video, environmental installation, and the Internet. The research lets emerge not only the convergence of life, filmmaking, poetry and curating in Mekas' production but also the pioneering of the interactive function of personal storytelling in the information society.