This Side of Paradise Fragments of An Unfinished Biography, Jonas Mekas, 1999

Unpredictably, as most of my lifes key events have been, for a period of several years of the late sixties and early seventies, I had the fortune to spend some time, mostly during the summers, with Jackie Kennedys and her sister Lee Radziwills families and children. Cinema was an integral, inseparable, as a matter of fact, a key part of our friendship. The time was still very close to the untimely, tragic death of John F. Kennedy. Jackie wanted to give something to her children to do, to help to ease the transition, life without a father. One of her thoughts was that a movie camera would be fun for children. Peter Beard, who was at that time tutoring John Jr. and Caroline in art history, suggested to Jackie that I was the man to introduce the children to the cinema. Jackie said yes. And thats how it all began