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
- A Date with Shirley ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41 ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42 ... (Director)
- Downtown Loft with Skylights ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43 ... (Director)
2025
- Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse as Self
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40 ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 39 ... (Director)
- BMT ... (Director)
2024
- Riverbed ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 70 ... (Director)
2023
- Art-House America: Austin Film Society as Self
- Up the Illusion
- From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 5 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 15 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 20 ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 8 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 1 ... (Director)
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 10 ... (Director)
- Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 1-6 ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 7 ... (Director)
- Manhattan is an Island ... (Director)
- Spasm ... (Director)
- Other Urban Lives ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art as Self
- For James Otis ... (Director)
- Writhing City ... (Director)
- Hobgoblin Ball ... (Director)
2022
- Fragments of Paradise as Self
- Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
- When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves ... (Director)
- America Lets Her Hair Down 1905 ... (Director)
- Eat the Rich: Aligning Perspectives and Other Challenges to Viewers ... (Director)
- Real Action Figures ... (Director)
- Buster Keaton Embossed ... (Director)
- Sergei Eisenstein Embossed ... (Director)
- One Dozen Roses ... (Director)
2021
- Cartoonish 1-10 ... (Director)
- Eternal Beach ... (Director)
- In Front of Anthology ... (Director)
- Hoffman Student ... (Director)
- Double Wow ... (Director)
- Adventures of Cookie Truck ... (Director)
- Aspiring To Music ... (Director)
- A Small Misunderstanding ... (Director)
- Abstract Eternalism ... (Director)
- XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX ... (Editor)
2020
- Movie That Invites Pausing ... (Director)
- Rain Clouds ... (Director)
- Period Piece ... (Director)
- Another Day in Days of Yore ... (Director)
- Barber ... (Director)
- RECIPROCAL ... (Director)
- Foliage in Moving Car Window ... (Director)
- Working Girls (short) ... (Director)
- Chinese New Years II ... (Director)
- Garage Wall ... (Director)
- Facade with Face ... (Director)
- Red Green ... (Director)
- Ken and Flo ... (Director)
- Brick Building with Red and Green Windows ... (Director)
- Doyer Street ... (Director)
- Halley’s Comet ... (Director)
- Street Commerce II ... (Director)
- Friendly Building ... (Director)
- Reading Society ... (Director)
- DeKooning Passed ... (Director)
- Storefront ... (Director)
- Broadway Building ... (Director)
- Water Balloon ... (Director)
- PAINTED POSTER ... (Director)
- Bison ... (Director)
- Clouds and Trees ... (Director)
- Municipal Building Passage ... (Director)
- Hubble II ... (Director)
- Natural Collage ... (Director)
- Resting Merchant ... (Director)
- Neon Sign ... (Director)
- Chinese New Years ... (Director)
- Flowers and Bike ... (Director)
- Street Commerce ... (Director)
- Transparent Apartments ... (Director)
- Broadway Buildings III ... (Director)
- Whirlpool ... (Director)
- Waiting Room Window ... (Director)
- Sleeping American ... (Director)
- Bargains ... (Director)
- Spaceworks ... (Director)
- Spiky ... (Director)
- Fire Escape ... (Director)
- DR. TOOTHY ... (Director)
- Rubble ... (Director)
- City Foliage ... (Director)
- Roots of Manhattan ... (Director)
- Bandit ... (Director)
- Lazy City ... (Director)
- Duck ... (Director)
- Broadway Buildings II ... (Director)
2019
- Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party ... (Director)
- The Sky Socialist: The Environs ... (Director)
- Details of Pollock's White Light ... (Director)
- PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO ... (Director)
- Once Upon a Planet ... (Director)
- Chaos Is Order Misunderstood ... (Director)
- Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes ... (Director)
- Things to Come ... (Director)
- Joan Mitchell: Departures ... (Director)
- Dimsum and Dragons ... (Director)
- MOVING ROAD ... (Director)
- Above the Rain ... (Director)
- Figures I - V ... (Director)
- ABSTRACT ... (Director)
- THE WHOLE SHEBANG ... (Director)
- Failure ... (Director)
- CRUSH ... (Director)
- Cartoon ... (Director)
2018
- The Moments: Evening Boat Ride ... (Director)
- Tree Stump ... (Director)
2017
- Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl ... (Director)
- Ulysses in the Subway ... (Director)
- Get Up and Go ... (Director)
- A Spin Through Night City ... (Director)
- Capitalism Defeats Life on Earth, Cab in Rain ... (Director)
- Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms ... (Director)
- Windbreaker ... (Director)
- Along the Elevated ... (Director)
- Beautiful Dreamer ... (Director)
2016
- Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
- Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Snow in Headlights II ... (Director)
- Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3) ... (Director)
- I'm Telling You ... (Director)
- Central Park ... (Director)
- Molten Landscape ... (Director)
- BMT Canal Street ... (Director)
- Hydroelectric Dam ... (Director)
- Mosco Street 2 ... (Director)
- Lurking ... (Director)
- Reichstag 9/11 ... (Director)
2015
- Zazie Learns About Money ... (Director)
- The Lackadaisical Speed of Light ... (Director)
- Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies ... (Writer)
- Batchellor’s Dog and Beach ... (Director)
- Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul ... (Director)
- Afternoon Tide ... (Director)
- Granular ... (Director)
- Floral ... (Director)
- Chrysalis ... (Director)
- Empty Seats ... (Director)
2014
- Popeye Sees 3-D ... (Director)
- Celestial Bodies ... (Director)
- Pygmalion Cubed ... (Director)
- The Guests ... (Director)
- Wire Fence ... (Director)
- Canopy ... (Director)
2013
- What Is Cinema? as Self
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4 ... (Director)
- A Primer in Sky Socialism ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3 ... (Director)
- The Eternal Courtship
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1 ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2 ... (Technical Supervisor)
2012
- 20 Little Films ... (Director)
- Emma's Dilemma as Himself
- Street Vendor ... (Director)
- Blankets for Indians ... (Director)
2011
- 60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero ... (Director)
- Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film as Himself
- Sleepless Nights Stories as Self
- Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
- Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin as Himself
- Seeking the Monkey King ... (Director)
- The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street ... (Writer)
- OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN ... (Director)
- America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening ... (Director)
- The Green Wave ... (Director)
- The Roses ... (Director)
- Another Occupation ... (Director)
- Revolving Door ... (Director)
- DAY AND NIGHT ... (Director)
- Turbulent Waters ... (Director)
2010
- Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta? as Himself
- Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two ... (Director)
- Lavender as Self
- Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra ... (Director)
- Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway ... (Director)
- The Near-Collision ... (Director)
- A Loft ... (Editor)
2009
- Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days ... (Director)
- "Slow is Beauty"-Rodin ... (Director)
- The Day Was a Scorcher ... (Director)
- What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901 ... (Director)
- Berkeley To San Francisco ... (Director)
- The Signing ... (Director)
- Bob Fleischner Dying ... (Director)
- Hot Dogs At The Met ... (Director)
- Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified ... (Director)
- Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor ... (Director)
- Brain Operations ... (Director)
- Walkway ... (Director)
- Brook ... (Director)
- Gravity Is Tops ... (Director)
2008
- Momma's Man as Dad
- 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)
- Elbow Dance ... (Director)
- Alone at Last ... (Director)
- The Discovery ... (Director)
- Love Story ... (Director)
- The Scenic Route ... (Director)
2007
- 365 Day Project as Self
- Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis as Self
- New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 ... (Director)
- Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World ... (Director)
- Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World ... (Director)
- Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO ... (Director)
- Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival ... (Director)
- Hanky Panky January 1902 ... (Director)
- We Are Charming ... (Director)
- Nymph ... (Director)
- Titles ... (Director)
- Mosco Street Rapture ... (Director)
- Capitalism: Slavery ... (Director)
- Capitalism: Child Labor ... (Director)
2006
- Monks of Cinema ... (Camera Operator)
- Pushcarts of Eternity Street ... (Director)
- Two Wrenching Departures ... (Director)
- The Surging Sea of Humanity ... (Director)
2005
- Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise ... (Director)
- Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly ... (Director)
- Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888 ... (Director)
- Let There Be Whistle Blowers ... (Director)
- Krypton Is Doomed ... (Director)
- Spiral Nebula ... (Director)
- Insistent Clamor ... (Director)
2004
- Star Spangled to Death as Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
- Mountaineer Spinning ... (Director)
2003
- Keeping an Eye on Stan ... (Director)
- Nervous Ken
- The Whirled ... (Director)
2002
- Shorts From the Underground as Self
- A Tom Tom Chaser ... (Director)
- The Sky Socialist: Flight ... (Director)
- Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence ... (Director)
2001
1999
- Laboratorium Anthology
- 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
- Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896 ... (Director)
- Quartet Number One
- Keaton's Cops ... (Writer)
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
- Soft Rain ... (Director)
- Huge Pupils as Himself
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
- Window ... (Cinematography)
- Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures ... (Director)
- 1st Window ... (Director)
- Winter Sky ... (Director)
- The Winter Footage ... (Director)
- We Stole Away ... (Director)
1963
- Blonde Cobra
- Little Stabs at Happiness ... (Director)
- Scotch Tape
- TV Plug ... (Director)
1962
- Baud'larian Capers ... (Director)
1961
- The Death of P'town ... (Director)
1956
- Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice ... (Director)
- Little Cobra Dance ... (Director)
1955
- Orchard Street ... (Director)