Wien & Mozart

On July 19, 1944, my brother Adolfas and I boarded a train that was to take us to Vienna. Instead, we ended up in a forced labor camp near Hamburg. In 1971, the Soviets permitted me to visit my mother in Lithuania. After visiting her, I decided to travel to Vienna. It was a very important moment in my life when I finally arrived in Vienna. There I met my new friends Peter Kubelka, Hermann Nitsch and Arnulf Rainer. During this journey in August 1971, I shot this footage. I kept it, waiting for the right moment to release it. I’m not in any hurry with my films. Then I received a message from Hans Hurch: Can you send us a trailer? And I thought, now I can finally show my Vienna film. (Jonas Mekas)