George - The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus

My works as a film maker have been the products of my personal life, and the influential life experiences that informed them, and given my life as an artist in and around Fluxus in NYC, I was very familiar with the person and myth surrounding George Maciunas. In 1966 I was introduced to George Maciunas at his apartment in Soho, and following that I was able to make a short film that was included in the first Fluxus Film Festival, as well as other works for Fluxus. George’s person was to me influential and inspiring, and served as a new direction in art making for me. 

It was 50 years later that I realized the idea of a documentary about George Maciunas. I strongly felt that such a film had yet to be made because I believe that the story of George Maciunas and Fluxus is still relevant in the complex world we live in today. My mission was to capture the stories of the living Fluxus artist as well as other essential figures, so that these would be preserved to inspire new generations. 

Since I am very well acquainted to most of the Fluxus-artists, the first steps were easily made. I began researching the dimensions of George's history with generous help from a younger generation of artists interested in the story of Fluxus. Years of travel and research resulted in 50 intimate interviews with the living Fluxus artists, as well as other essential figures. Jonas Mekas helped by donating virtually all of his 16mm film footage of George Maciunas to the project. Generosity from friends near and far came to build the wide and deep corpus of media and stories about George's life story. Much of the materials that I found and recorded had never been exposed to public view, in the body of a film about him, and of course my inspiration grew greater as the film project expanded. 

I found the artist Jessie Stead to edit the film like one finds a friend, by the happenstance of experience and intuition. She suggested the film should be a Fluxus piece in itself, while maintaining a familiar documentary structure. I believe that the spirit of Fluxus as a living thing is very much present in this film. Collectivity, immigration, utopia and freedom are themes that are very much present in 2018, which were also at the foundation of Fluxus. What I want to inspire with this film is stated in the manifesto from George Maciunas himself:: “To purge the world of bourgeois sickness, intellectual and commercialized culture. Promote a revolutionary flood and tide in art. Promote living art, anti-art, promote non-art reality to be fully grasped by all peoples, not only critics, dilettantes and professionals.”