"In the midst of his rapture of remembering, Mekas remains carefully attuned to his viewer. He keeps a running commentary on the images that float by, reminding us constantly of the viewing experience. It is a kind of diary, less about the film's subjects and more about filmmaking itself. Mekas speaks to his viewer almost plaintively, as if wishing to reveal all: 'You expect to find out more about the protagonist, who is me. All I want to tell you, it's all here. I am in every image in this film. I am in every frame in this film.'
[...]

"Peter Kubelka once said of his friend, 'Jonas has realised that, whatever paradise there is, it should be here and now. Loving care is a key to it.' As I Was Moving Ahead is a loving portrait of Mekas' early family life, a song of beauty and a testament to the possibility of Paradise. Appropriately, Mekas concludes the film in song, accompanied by his tireless accordion:

I do not know where I am, and going to, where I am coming from. I have seen some beauty. Glimpses of beauty and happiness. Yes, la beauté. And it is still beautiful in my memory. And it is real, as real as this film.

-Genevieve Yue, Senses of Cinema

***DVD Published by ReVoir and Agnès B. Potemkine***