Film Department was [Mekas's] theater of hijinks; he surprised even himself with his enormous didactic gifts, his startling administrative skill and his unceasing fount of comic invention. His own fractured education and his nearly total disregard for academic decorum made him the ideal professor. Nowhere in the archive of film is there an invented character who could come near the brilliant, lovable, outrageous mischief that consistently turned his classrooms into arenas of magic. He taught generations how to see and act." In the summer of 1971, while visiting Italy after his first trip back to the home he had left behind in Lithuania, Mekas had a vision of St. Tula. In Porto Santo Stefano, when he first saw her representation, it was clear that she was the Patron Saint of Cinema. He had no name for her at the time, but took a photo and displayed it in the Film Department. Shortly after, written under her photo in the Carriage House, was seen "St. Tula loves your film. Even if no one else does." The name stuck and an altar was built. Sometime later the "Sayings of St. Tula" was published. In addition to chairing the Film Department and teaching film courses until 2004, in 1981 he co-founded the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College and directed the MFA program from '83 to '89. He also taught film courses at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and was a visiting lecturer at many institutions around the country. Adolfas Mekas died in the early morning of 31 May 2011. By his bedside was his treatment for the fantasy docudrama he would make on the life and death by fire of the Neapolitan poet, philosopher, and so-called heretic Giordano Bruno. He called Bruno the first Beatnik. Partial filmography Lost, Lost, Lost (1950) with brother Jonas, unfinished Grand Street (1951) with brother Jonas, unfinished Silent Journey (1953) with brother Jonas, unfinished Antifilm #2 (1953) Inca (1954) lost Film Essay (1955) with brother Jonas, unfinished Sunday Junction (1958) with brother Jonas, unfinished Guns of the Trees (1961) Hallelujah The Hills (1963) Goldstein (1964) editor The Brig (1964) The Double Barreled Detective Story (1965) Skyscraper (1965) The Swap and How They Make It (1966) editor, post production coordinator & trailers ("hot" & "cool" versions) The Love Merchant (1966) editor Mimi Benzell (1966) Building for the Future (1966) A