Ken Jacobs
Born: 1933-05-25 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Died: 2025-10-05
Known For: Directing
Biography
A pioneer of the American film avant-garde of the 1960s and '70s, Ken Jacobs is a central figure in post-war experimental cinema. From his first films of the late 1950s to his recent experiments with digital video, his investigations and innovations have influenced countless artists. A New Yorker by birth, Jacobs graduated from City University to find himself in the midst of the downtown art scene of the 1960s, which included artists Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol, beat writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac; and the experimental theater troupes of Trisha Brown and Yvonne Rainer. Although Jacobs had studied painting with Hans Hoffman, he quickly gravitated to film, finding kindred spirits in radical filmmakers such as Jonas Mekas and Hollis Frampton. An early friendship with Jack Smith yielded several collaborations, including the seminal underground films Blonde Cobra (which Jonas Mekas dubbed "the masterpiece of Baudelairean cinema") and Little Stabs at Happiness, as well as a Provincetown beach-based live show, The Human Wreckage Review.
Filmography
2026
- Downtown Loft with Skylights ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43 ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42 ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41 ... (Director)
- A Date with Shirley ... (Director)
2025
- Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse as Self
- BMT ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40 ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 39 ... (Director)
2024
- Tourists of the Familiar 70 ... (Director)
- Riverbed ... (Director)
2023
- Up the Illusion
- Art-House America: Austin Film Society as Self
- Other Urban Lives ... (Director)
- From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight ... (Director)
- Spasm ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 8 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 20 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 5 ... (Director)
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ... (Director)
- Writhing City ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art as Self
- Book of Eternalisms 7 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 10 ... (Director)
- Hobgoblin Ball ... (Director)
- Manhattan is an Island ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 1 ... (Director)
- For James Otis ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 1-6 ... (Director)
- Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 15 ... (Director)
2022
- Fragments of Paradise as Self
- Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
- Buster Keaton Embossed ... (Director)
- Sergei Eisenstein Embossed ... (Director)
- When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves ... (Director)
- Eat the Rich: Aligning Perspectives and Other Challenges to Viewers ... (Director)
- America Lets Her Hair Down 1905 ... (Director)
- Real Action Figures ... (Director)
- One Dozen Roses ... (Director)
2021
- A Small Misunderstanding ... (Director)
- Abstract Eternalism ... (Director)
- Adventures of Cookie Truck ... (Director)
- Eternal Beach ... (Director)
- In Front of Anthology ... (Director)
- XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX ... (Editor)
- Cartoonish 1-10 ... (Director)
- Aspiring To Music ... (Director)
- Double Wow ... (Director)
- Hoffman Student ... (Director)
2020
- Roots of Manhattan ... (Director)
- Broadway Buildings II ... (Director)
- Halley’s Comet ... (Director)
- Rain Clouds ... (Director)
- Working Girls (short) ... (Director)
- Water Balloon ... (Director)
- Period Piece ... (Director)
- Flowers and Bike ... (Director)
- Doyer Street ... (Director)
- Resting Merchant ... (Director)
- Transparent Apartments ... (Director)
- Sleeping American ... (Director)
- Another Day in Days of Yore ... (Director)
- Broadway Building ... (Director)
- Reading Society ... (Director)
- Spiky ... (Director)
- Barber ... (Director)
- Fire Escape ... (Director)
- DR. TOOTHY ... (Director)
- Movie That Invites Pausing ... (Director)
- Street Commerce ... (Director)
- Clouds and Trees ... (Director)
- Spaceworks ... (Director)
- RECIPROCAL ... (Director)
- Duck ... (Director)
- Friendly Building ... (Director)
- Street Commerce II ... (Director)
- Ken and Flo ... (Director)
- Storefront ... (Director)
- Hubble II ... (Director)
- Rubble ... (Director)
- Natural Collage ... (Director)
- Whirlpool ... (Director)
- DeKooning Passed ... (Director)
- Chinese New Years II ... (Director)
- Neon Sign ... (Director)
- Waiting Room Window ... (Director)
- PAINTED POSTER ... (Director)
- City Foliage ... (Director)
- Facade with Face ... (Director)
- Foliage in Moving Car Window ... (Director)
- Bandit ... (Director)
- Municipal Building Passage ... (Director)
- Red Green ... (Director)
- Bargains ... (Director)
- Lazy City ... (Director)
- Broadway Buildings III ... (Director)
- Brick Building with Red and Green Windows ... (Director)
- Garage Wall ... (Director)
- Bison ... (Director)
- Chinese New Years ... (Director)
2019
- THE WHOLE SHEBANG ... (Director)
- Joan Mitchell: Departures ... (Director)
- Details of Pollock's White Light ... (Director)
- Figures I - V ... (Director)
- Things to Come ... (Director)
- PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO ... (Director)
- The Sky Socialist: The Environs ... (Director)
- Cartoon ... (Director)
- Dimsum and Dragons ... (Director)
- MOVING ROAD ... (Director)
- ABSTRACT ... (Director)
- Failure ... (Director)
- Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party ... (Director)
- Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes ... (Director)
- Above the Rain ... (Director)
- CRUSH ... (Director)
- Once Upon a Planet ... (Director)
- Chaos Is Order Misunderstood ... (Director)
2018
- Tree Stump ... (Director)
- The Moments: Evening Boat Ride ... (Director)
2017
- Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms ... (Director)
- Ulysses in the Subway ... (Director)
- A Spin Through Night City ... (Director)
- Get Up and Go ... (Director)
- Windbreaker ... (Director)
- Along the Elevated ... (Director)
- Beautiful Dreamer ... (Director)
- Capitalism Defeats Life on Earth, Cab in Rain ... (Director)
- Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl ... (Director)
2016
- Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
- Snow in Headlights II ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Reichstag 9/11 ... (Director)
- Central Park ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- BMT Canal Street ... (Director)
- Mosco Street 2 ... (Director)
- I'm Telling You ... (Director)
- Lurking ... (Director)
- Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3) ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Hydroelectric Dam ... (Director)
- Molten Landscape ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
2015
- Granular ... (Director)
- Chrysalis ... (Director)
- Batchellor’s Dog and Beach ... (Director)
- Floral ... (Director)
- The Lackadaisical Speed of Light ... (Director)
- Empty Seats ... (Director)
- Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul ... (Director)
- Zazie Learns About Money ... (Director)
- Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies ... (Director)
- Afternoon Tide ... (Director)
2014
- Pygmalion Cubed ... (Director)
- Wire Fence ... (Director)
- Canopy ... (Director)
- Celestial Bodies ... (Director)
- The Guests ... (Director)
- Popeye Sees 3-D ... (Director)
2013
- What Is Cinema? as Self
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2 ... (Director)
- The Eternal Courtship
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3 ... (Director)
- A Primer in Sky Socialism ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4 ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1 ... (Director)
2012
- 20 Little Films ... (Director)
- Blankets for Indians ... (Director)
- Street Vendor ... (Director)
- Emma's Dilemma as Himself
2011
- 60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero ... (Director)
- Sleepless Nights Stories as Self
- Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film as Himself
- Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
- Turbulent Waters ... (Director)
- The Roses ... (Director)
- Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin as Himself
- Another Occupation ... (Director)
- America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening ... (Director)
- The Green Wave ... (Director)
- Revolving Door ... (Director)
- DAY AND NIGHT ... (Director)
- Seeking the Monkey King ... (Director)
- OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN ... (Director)
- The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street ... (Director)
2010
- Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta? as Himself
- Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra ... (Director)
- Lavender as Self
- Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two ... (Director)
- A Loft ... (Editor)
- Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway ... (Director)
- The Near-Collision ... (Director)
2009
- "Slow is Beauty"-Rodin ... (Director)
- Walkway ... (Director)
- The Signing ... (Director)
- Gravity Is Tops ... (Director)
- Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days ... (Director)
- Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor ... (Director)
- Bob Fleischner Dying ... (Director)
- What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901 ... (Director)
- The Day Was a Scorcher ... (Director)
- Berkeley To San Francisco ... (Director)
- Hot Dogs At The Met ... (Director)
- Brook ... (Director)
- Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified ... (Director)
- Brain Operations ... (Director)
2008
- Momma's Man as Dad
- Alone at Last ... (Director)
- The Scenic Route ... (Director)
- Elbow Dance ... (Director)
- Love Story ... (Director)
- The Discovery ... (Director)
- Return to the Scene of the Crime ... (Director)
- Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks) ... (Director)
- Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception) ... (Director)
2007
- 365 Day Project as Self
- Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World ... (Director)
- Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis as Self
- Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World ... (Director)
- Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO ... (Director)
- Capitalism: Child Labor ... (Director)
- Titles ... (Director)
- Mosco Street Rapture ... (Director)
- Capitalism: Slavery ... (Director)
- Hanky Panky January 1902 ... (Director)
- We Are Charming ... (Director)
- Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival ... (Director)
- Nymph ... (Director)
- New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 ... (Director)
2006
- Monks of Cinema ... (Camera Operator)
- Two Wrenching Departures ... (Director)
- The Surging Sea of Humanity ... (Director)
- Pushcarts of Eternity Street ... (Director)
2005
- Krypton Is Doomed ... (Director)
- Insistent Clamor ... (Director)
- Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise ... (Director)
- Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly ... (Director)
- Spiral Nebula ... (Director)
- Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888 ... (Director)
- Let There Be Whistle Blowers ... (Director)
2004
- Star Spangled to Death as Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
- Mountaineer Spinning ... (Director)
2003
- Nervous Ken
- Keeping an Eye on Stan ... (Director)
- The Whirled ... (Director)
2002
- A Tom Tom Chaser ... (Director)
- Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence ... (Director)
- Shorts From the Underground as Self
- The Sky Socialist: Flight ... (Director)
2001
1999
- Flo Rounds a Corner ... (Director)
- New York Street Trolleys 1900 ... (Director)
1997
- Birth of a Nation as Self
1996
- The Georgetown Loop ... (Director)
- Disorient Express ... (Director)
1995
- Make Light On Film ... (Director)
- Looting For Rodney ... (Director)
1994
- Jonas in the Desert as Self
- Bitemporal Vision: The Sea ... (Director)
1991
- Quartet Number One
- Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896 ... (Director)
- Keaton's Cops ... (Director)
1990
- Chronometer ... (Director)
1986
- He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life as Self (archive footage)
- The Alps and The Jews ... (Director)
1985
- Home Movies 1971-81
- Perfect Film ... (Director)
1977
- Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance ... (Director)
- The Doctor's Dream ... (Director)
1976
- Lost, Lost, Lost as Self
- Spaghetti Aza ... (Director)
1975
- Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture ... (Director)
- Urban Peasants ... (Director)
1973
1970
- Binghamton, My India ... (Director)
1969
- Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son ... (Director)
- Nissan Ariana Window ... (Director)
- Globe ... (Director)
1968
- Diaries, Notes, and Sketches as Self
- Huge Pupils as Himself
- Soft Rain ... (Director)
1967
- For Life, Against the War ... (Director)
- Bill's Hat
- Airshaft ... (Director)
1966
- The Sky Socialist ... (Director)
1965
- Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness ... (Director)
- Lisa and Joey in Connecticut ... (Director)
1964
- Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures ... (Director)
- The Winter Footage ... (Director)
- Winter Sky ... (Director)
- We Stole Away ... (Director)
- 1st Window ... (Director)
- Window ... (Director)
1963
- Blonde Cobra
- TV Plug ... (Director)
- Little Stabs at Happiness ... (Director)
1962
- Scotch Tape
- Baud'larian Capers ... (Director)
1961
- The Death of P'town ... (Director)
1956
- Little Cobra Dance ... (Director)
- Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice ... (Director)
1955
- Orchard Street ... (Director)