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)
- A Date with Shirley ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41 ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42 ... (Director)
- BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43 ... (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
- Art-House America: Austin Film Society as Self
- From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight ... (Director)
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ... (Director)
- Manhattan is an Island ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art as Self
- Spasm ... (Director)
- Writhing City ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 15 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 1 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 20 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 10 ... (Director)
- Other Urban Lives ... (Director)
- Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 5 ... (Director)
- For James Otis ... (Director)
- Up the Illusion
- Book of Eternalisms 1-6 ... (Director)
- Hobgoblin Ball ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 7 ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 8 ... (Director)
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)
- Buster Keaton Embossed ... (Director)
- One Dozen Roses ... (Director)
- America Lets Her Hair Down 1905 ... (Director)
- When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves ... (Director)
- Real Action Figures ... (Director)
- Sergei Eisenstein Embossed ... (Director)
2021
- In Front of Anthology ... (Director)
- Abstract Eternalism ... (Director)
- Double Wow ... (Director)
- Cartoonish 1-10 ... (Director)
- XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX ... (Editor)
- A Small Misunderstanding ... (Director)
- Aspiring To Music ... (Director)
- Adventures of Cookie Truck ... (Director)
- Hoffman Student ... (Director)
- Eternal Beach ... (Director)
2020
- Rain Clouds ... (Director)
- Rubble ... (Director)
- Fire Escape ... (Director)
- Another Day in Days of Yore ... (Director)
- Neon Sign ... (Director)
- Sleeping American ... (Director)
- Street Commerce ... (Director)
- PAINTED POSTER ... (Director)
- Hubble II ... (Director)
- Working Girls (short) ... (Director)
- Bison ... (Director)
- Natural Collage ... (Director)
- Lazy City ... (Director)
- Brick Building with Red and Green Windows ... (Director)
- Foliage in Moving Car Window ... (Director)
- Bargains ... (Director)
- Duck ... (Director)
- Halley’s Comet ... (Director)
- Barber ... (Director)
- Doyer Street ... (Director)
- Roots of Manhattan ... (Director)
- City Foliage ... (Director)
- Broadway Building ... (Director)
- DR. TOOTHY ... (Director)
- Storefront ... (Director)
- Ken and Flo ... (Director)
- Red Green ... (Director)
- RECIPROCAL ... (Director)
- Spiky ... (Director)
- Facade with Face ... (Director)
- Waiting Room Window ... (Director)
- Reading Society ... (Director)
- Broadway Buildings III ... (Director)
- Chinese New Years II ... (Director)
- Flowers and Bike ... (Director)
- Whirlpool ... (Director)
- Municipal Building Passage ... (Director)
- Movie That Invites Pausing ... (Director)
- DeKooning Passed ... (Director)
- Friendly Building ... (Director)
- Broadway Buildings II ... (Director)
- Chinese New Years ... (Director)
- Resting Merchant ... (Director)
- Street Commerce II ... (Director)
- Spaceworks ... (Director)
- Bandit ... (Director)
- Garage Wall ... (Director)
- Transparent Apartments ... (Director)
- Water Balloon ... (Director)
- Period Piece ... (Director)
- Clouds and Trees ... (Director)
2019
- THE WHOLE SHEBANG ... (Director)
- Details of Pollock's White Light ... (Director)
- Things to Come ... (Director)
- Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party ... (Director)
- Failure ... (Director)
- Figures I - V ... (Director)
- Joan Mitchell: Departures ... (Director)
- Chaos Is Order Misunderstood ... (Director)
- Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes ... (Director)
- Once Upon a Planet ... (Director)
- MOVING ROAD ... (Director)
- ABSTRACT ... (Director)
- Dimsum and Dragons ... (Director)
- Above the Rain ... (Director)
- Cartoon ... (Director)
- The Sky Socialist: The Environs ... (Director)
- CRUSH ... (Director)
- PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO ... (Director)
2018
- The Moments: Evening Boat Ride ... (Director)
- Tree Stump ... (Director)
2017
- Capitalism Defeats Life on Earth, Cab in Rain ... (Director)
- Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl ... (Director)
- Windbreaker ... (Director)
- Ulysses in the Subway ... (Director)
- A Spin Through Night City ... (Director)
- Along the Elevated ... (Director)
- Get Up and Go ... (Director)
- Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms ... (Director)
- Beautiful Dreamer ... (Director)
2016
- Reichstag 9/11 ... (Director)
- Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
- Lurking ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Molten Landscape ... (Director)
- Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3) ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- I'm Telling You ... (Director)
- Snow in Headlights II ... (Director)
- Mosco Street 2 ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Central Park ... (Director)
- BMT Canal Street ... (Director)
- Hydroelectric Dam ... (Director)
2015
- Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul ... (Director)
- Chrysalis ... (Director)
- The Lackadaisical Speed of Light ... (Director)
- Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies ... (Writer)
- Batchellor’s Dog and Beach ... (Director)
- Afternoon Tide ... (Director)
- Empty Seats ... (Director)
- Zazie Learns About Money ... (Director)
- Floral ... (Director)
- Granular ... (Director)
2014
- Wire Fence ... (Director)
- Canopy ... (Director)
- Popeye Sees 3-D ... (Director)
- The Guests ... (Director)
- Celestial Bodies ... (Director)
- Pygmalion Cubed ... (Director)
2013
- What Is Cinema? as Self
- The Eternal Courtship
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3 ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1 ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4 ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2 ... (Technical Supervisor)
- A Primer in Sky Socialism ... (Director)
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)
- Sleepless Nights Stories as Self
- Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film as Himself
- Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
- Another Occupation ... (Director)
- Seeking the Monkey King ... (Director)
- The Green Wave ... (Director)
- Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin as Himself
- The Roses ... (Director)
- The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street ... (Writer)
- Turbulent Waters ... (Director)
- DAY AND NIGHT ... (Director)
- America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening ... (Director)
- Revolving Door ... (Director)
- OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN ... (Director)
2010
- Lavender as Self
- Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta? as Himself
- Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two ... (Director)
- The Near-Collision ... (Director)
- Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway ... (Director)
- A Loft ... (Editor)
- Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra ... (Director)
2009
- The Signing ... (Director)
- "Slow is Beauty"-Rodin ... (Director)
- Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days ... (Director)
- Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor ... (Director)
- Walkway ... (Director)
- Berkeley To San Francisco ... (Director)
- What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901 ... (Director)
- Brook ... (Director)
- Bob Fleischner Dying ... (Director)
- Brain Operations ... (Director)
- The Day Was a Scorcher ... (Director)
- Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified ... (Director)
- Hot Dogs At The Met ... (Director)
- Gravity Is Tops ... (Director)
2008
- Momma's Man as Dad
- Return to the Scene of the Crime ... (Director)
- The Scenic Route ... (Director)
- The Discovery ... (Director)
- Elbow Dance ... (Director)
- Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception) ... (Director)
- Alone at Last ... (Director)
- Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks) ... (Director)
- Love Story ... (Director)
2007
- 365 Day Project as Self
- Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis as Self
- Capitalism: Slavery ... (Director)
- Nymph ... (Director)
- Hanky Panky January 1902 ... (Director)
- New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 ... (Director)
- Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World ... (Director)
- We Are Charming ... (Director)
- Titles ... (Director)
- Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival ... (Director)
- Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World ... (Director)
- Mosco Street Rapture ... (Director)
- Capitalism: Child Labor ... (Director)
- Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO ... (Director)
2006
- Two Wrenching Departures ... (Director)
- Monks of Cinema ... (Camera Operator)
- The Surging Sea of Humanity ... (Director)
- Pushcarts of Eternity Street ... (Director)
2005
- Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise ... (Director)
- Krypton Is Doomed ... (Director)
- Let There Be Whistle Blowers ... (Director)
- Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly ... (Director)
- Spiral Nebula ... (Director)
- Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888 ... (Director)
- Insistent Clamor ... (Director)
2004
- Star Spangled to Death as Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
- Mountaineer Spinning ... (Director)
2003
- The Whirled ... (Director)
- Keeping an Eye on Stan ... (Director)
- Nervous Ken
2002
- Shorts From the Underground as Self
- The Sky Socialist: Flight ... (Director)
- A Tom Tom Chaser ... (Director)
- Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence ... (Director)
1999
- Flo Rounds a Corner ... (Director)
- New York Street Trolleys 1900 ... (Director)
1997
- Birth of a Nation as Self
1996
- Disorient Express ... (Director)
- The Georgetown Loop ... (Director)
1995
- Looting For Rodney ... (Director)
- Make Light On Film ... (Director)
1994
- Jonas in the Desert as Self
- Bitemporal Vision: The Sea ... (Director)
1991
- Quartet Number One
- Keaton's Cops ... (Writer)
- Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896 ... (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)
- Globe ... (Director)
- Nissan Ariana Window ... (Director)
1968
- Diaries, Notes, and Sketches as Self
- The Sky Socialist ... (Director)
- Huge Pupils as Himself
- Soft Rain ... (Director)
1967
- For Life, Against the War ... (Director)
- Bill's Hat
- Airshaft ... (Director)
1965
- Lisa and Joey in Connecticut ... (Director)
- Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness ... (Director)
1964
- Window ... (Cinematography)
- We Stole Away ... (Director)
- 1st Window ... (Director)
- The Winter Footage ... (Director)
- Winter Sky ... (Director)
- Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures ... (Director)
1963
- Blonde Cobra
- Little Stabs at Happiness ... (Director)
- TV Plug ... (Director)
1962
- Scotch Tape
- 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)