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
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43 ... (Director)
- Downtown Loft with Skylights ... (Director)
- A Date with Shirley ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41 ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42 ... (Director)
2025
- Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse as Self
- Book of Eternalisms 39 ... (Director)
- BMT ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40 ... (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)
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ... (Director)
- Hobgoblin Ball ... (Director)
- Writhing City ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 10 ... (Director)
- Spasm ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 15 ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 8 ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 7 ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 1-6 ... (Director)
- Other Urban Lives ... (Director)
- Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 1 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 20 ... (Director)
- Manhattan is an Island ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 5 ... (Director)
- For James Otis ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art as Self
2022
- Fragments of Paradise as Self
- Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
- Eat the Rich: Aligning Perspectives and Other Challenges to Viewers ... (Director)
- Sergei Eisenstein Embossed ... (Director)
- When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves ... (Director)
- Buster Keaton Embossed ... (Director)
- One Dozen Roses ... (Director)
- Real Action Figures ... (Director)
- America Lets Her Hair Down 1905 ... (Director)
2021
- XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX ... (Editor)
- Eternal Beach ... (Director)
- In Front of Anthology ... (Director)
- Double Wow ... (Director)
- Abstract Eternalism ... (Director)
- Hoffman Student ... (Director)
- Aspiring To Music ... (Director)
- A Small Misunderstanding ... (Director)
- Cartoonish 1-10 ... (Director)
- Adventures of Cookie Truck ... (Director)
2020
- Period Piece ... (Director)
- Chinese New Years II ... (Director)
- Whirlpool ... (Director)
- Working Girls (short) ... (Director)
- Storefront ... (Director)
- Chinese New Years ... (Director)
- Ken and Flo ... (Director)
- Garage Wall ... (Director)
- Clouds and Trees ... (Director)
- Spaceworks ... (Director)
- Movie That Invites Pausing ... (Director)
- Rain Clouds ... (Director)
- Resting Merchant ... (Director)
- Barber ... (Director)
- Water Balloon ... (Director)
- Bargains ... (Director)
- Hubble II ... (Director)
- Bison ... (Director)
- Broadway Building ... (Director)
- RECIPROCAL ... (Director)
- Bandit ... (Director)
- Natural Collage ... (Director)
- Reading Society ... (Director)
- Halley’s Comet ... (Director)
- Red Green ... (Director)
- Doyer Street ... (Director)
- Neon Sign ... (Director)
- PAINTED POSTER ... (Director)
- Facade with Face ... (Director)
- Brick Building with Red and Green Windows ... (Director)
- Spiky ... (Director)
- Another Day in Days of Yore ... (Director)
- Fire Escape ... (Director)
- Duck ... (Director)
- Rubble ... (Director)
- Transparent Apartments ... (Director)
- City Foliage ... (Director)
- Sleeping American ... (Director)
- Waiting Room Window ... (Director)
- Lazy City ... (Director)
- Flowers and Bike ... (Director)
- DeKooning Passed ... (Director)
- Municipal Building Passage ... (Director)
- Friendly Building ... (Director)
- DR. TOOTHY ... (Director)
- Roots of Manhattan ... (Director)
- Broadway Buildings III ... (Director)
- Street Commerce ... (Director)
- Broadway Buildings II ... (Director)
- Foliage in Moving Car Window ... (Director)
- Street Commerce II ... (Director)
2019
- Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party ... (Director)
- MOVING ROAD ... (Director)
- Things to Come ... (Director)
- Above the Rain ... (Director)
- THE WHOLE SHEBANG ... (Director)
- Chaos Is Order Misunderstood ... (Director)
- Figures I - V ... (Director)
- Joan Mitchell: Departures ... (Director)
- Cartoon ... (Director)
- CRUSH ... (Director)
- The Sky Socialist: The Environs ... (Director)
- Details of Pollock's White Light ... (Director)
- ABSTRACT ... (Director)
- Failure ... (Director)
- Once Upon a Planet ... (Director)
- PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO ... (Director)
- Dimsum and Dragons ... (Director)
- Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes ... (Director)
2018
- The Moments: Evening Boat Ride ... (Director)
- Tree Stump ... (Director)
2017
- Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl ... (Director)
- Windbreaker ... (Director)
- Get Up and Go ... (Director)
- Ulysses in the Subway ... (Director)
- Along the Elevated ... (Director)
- Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms ... (Director)
- Beautiful Dreamer ... (Director)
- A Spin Through Night City ... (Director)
- Capitalism Defeats Life on Earth, Cab in Rain ... (Director)
2016
- Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
- Molten Landscape ... (Director)
- Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3) ... (Director)
- Mosco Street 2 ... (Director)
- Central Park ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Lurking ... (Director)
- Snow in Headlights II ... (Director)
- I'm Telling You ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- BMT Canal Street ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Reichstag 9/11 ... (Director)
- Hydroelectric Dam ... (Director)
2015
- Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul ... (Director)
- Granular ... (Director)
- Floral ... (Director)
- The Lackadaisical Speed of Light ... (Director)
- Chrysalis ... (Director)
- Afternoon Tide ... (Director)
- Empty Seats ... (Director)
- Batchellor’s Dog and Beach ... (Director)
- Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies ... (Director)
- Zazie Learns About Money ... (Director)
2014
- Celestial Bodies ... (Director)
- The Guests ... (Director)
- Canopy ... (Director)
- Pygmalion Cubed ... (Director)
- Wire Fence ... (Director)
- Popeye Sees 3-D ... (Director)
2013
- What Is Cinema? as Self
- The Eternal Courtship
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1 ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3 ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2 ... (Director)
- A Primer in Sky Socialism ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4 ... (Director)
2012
- 20 Little Films ... (Director)
- Emma's Dilemma as Himself
- Blankets for Indians ... (Director)
- Street Vendor ... (Director)
2011
- Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film as Himself
- 60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero ... (Director)
- Sleepless Nights Stories as Self
- Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin as Himself
- Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
- Seeking the Monkey King ... (Director)
- The Green Wave ... (Director)
- The Roses ... (Director)
- America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening ... (Director)
- DAY AND NIGHT ... (Director)
- The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street ... (Director)
- Another Occupation ... (Director)
- Revolving Door ... (Director)
- Turbulent Waters ... (Director)
- OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN ... (Director)
2010
- Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta? as Himself
- Lavender as Self
- A Loft ... (Editor)
- Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two ... (Director)
- Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway ... (Director)
- The Near-Collision ... (Director)
- Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra ... (Director)
2009
- Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days ... (Director)
- The Signing ... (Director)
- Berkeley To San Francisco ... (Director)
- Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified ... (Director)
- Brain Operations ... (Director)
- Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor ... (Director)
- "Slow is Beauty"-Rodin ... (Director)
- Walkway ... (Director)
- Brook ... (Director)
- The Day Was a Scorcher ... (Director)
- Gravity Is Tops ... (Director)
- What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901 ... (Director)
- Hot Dogs At The Met ... (Director)
- Bob Fleischner Dying ... (Director)
2008
- Momma's Man as Dad
- Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks) ... (Director)
- The Discovery ... (Director)
- Return to the Scene of the Crime ... (Director)
- Love Story ... (Director)
- The Scenic Route ... (Director)
- Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception) ... (Director)
- Elbow Dance ... (Director)
- Alone at Last ... (Director)
2007
- 365 Day Project as Self
- Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis as Self
- New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 ... (Director)
- We Are Charming ... (Director)
- Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival ... (Director)
- Nymph ... (Director)
- Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World ... (Director)
- Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO ... (Director)
- Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World ... (Director)
- Capitalism: Slavery ... (Director)
- Mosco Street Rapture ... (Director)
- Titles ... (Director)
- Hanky Panky January 1902 ... (Director)
- Capitalism: Child Labor ... (Director)
2006
- Monks of Cinema ... (Camera Operator)
- Two Wrenching Departures ... (Director)
- Pushcarts of Eternity Street ... (Director)
- The Surging Sea of Humanity ... (Director)
2005
- Let There Be Whistle Blowers ... (Director)
- Krypton Is Doomed ... (Director)
- Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise ... (Director)
- Insistent Clamor ... (Director)
- Spiral Nebula ... (Director)
- Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly ... (Director)
- Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888 ... (Director)
2004
- Star Spangled to Death as Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
- Mountaineer Spinning ... (Director)
2003
- Keeping an Eye on Stan ... (Director)
- The Whirled ... (Director)
- Nervous Ken
2002
- A Tom Tom Chaser ... (Director)
- Shorts From the Underground as Self
- The Sky Socialist: Flight ... (Director)
- Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence ... (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 ... (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
- The Doctor's Dream ... (Director)
- Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance ... (Director)
1976
- Lost, Lost, Lost as Self
- Spaghetti Aza ... (Director)
1975
- Urban Peasants ... (Director)
- Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture ... (Director)
1973
1970
- Binghamton, My India ... (Director)
1969
- Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son ... (Director)
- Globe ... (Director)
- Nissan Ariana Window ... (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
- Window ... (Cinematography)
- 1st Window ... (Director)
- We Stole Away ... (Director)
- The Winter Footage ... (Director)
- Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures ... (Director)
- Winter Sky ... (Director)
1963
- Blonde Cobra
- Scotch Tape
- Little Stabs at Happiness ... (Director)
- TV Plug ... (Director)
1962
- 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)