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
2025
- Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse as Self
- Book of Eternalisms 39 ... (Director)
2023
- Art-House America: Austin Film Society as Self
- Spasm ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art as Self
- Writhing City ... (Director)
- Up the Illusion ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 5 ... (Director)
- Book of Eternalisms 1-6 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 1 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 20 ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 10 ... (Director)
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ... (Director)
- Other Urban Lives ... (Director)
- From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight ... (Director)
- Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three ... (Director)
- Tourists of the Familiar 15 ... (Director)
2022
- Fragments of Paradise as Self
- When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves ... (Director)
- Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
- America Let's Her Hair Down 1905 ... (Director)
- One Dozen Roses ... (Director)
- Sergei Eisenstein Embossed ... (Director)
- Buster Keaton Embossed ... (Director)
- Real Action Figures ... (Director)
2021
- XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX ... (Editor)
- Hoffman Student ... (Director)
- Abstract Eternalism ... (Director)
- Aspiring To Music ... (Director)
- Eternal Beach ... (Director)
- Adventures of Cookie Truck ... (Director)
- Cartoonish 1-10 ... (Director)
- A Small Misunderstanding ... (Director)
- Double Wow ... (Director)
2020
- Resting Merchant ... (Director)
- Hubble II ... (Director)
- Doyer Street ... (Director)
- Street Commerce ... (Director)
- Spaceworks ... (Director)
- Reading Society ... (Director)
- Red Green ... (Director)
- Broadway Building ... (Director)
- Natural Collage ... (Director)
- Garage Wall ... (Director)
- Friendly Building ... (Director)
- Spiky ... (Director)
- City Foliage ... (Director)
- Transparent Apartments ... (Director)
- Storefront ... (Director)
- Barber ... (Director)
- DeKooning Passed ... (Director)
- Duck ... (Director)
- Period Piece ... (Director)
- Working Girls (short) ... (Director)
- Flowers and Bike ... (Director)
- Halley’s Comet ... (Director)
- Ken and Flo ... (Director)
- Chinese New Years ... (Director)
- Broadway Buildings II ... (Director)
- Facade with Face ... (Director)
- Broadway Buildings III ... (Director)
- Movie That Invites Pausing ... (Director)
- Chinese New Years II ... (Director)
- Municipal Building Passage ... (Director)
- RECIPROCAL ... (Director)
- Neon Sign ... (Director)
- Bargains ... (Director)
- Rubble ... (Director)
- Sleeping American ... (Director)
- Bison ... (Director)
- Water Balloon ... (Director)
- PAINTED POSTER ... (Director)
- Bandit ... (Director)
- Lazy City ... (Director)
- Fire Escape ... (Director)
- Another Day in Days of Yore ... (Director)
- Foliage in Moving Car Window ... (Director)
- Waiting Room Window ... (Director)
- Rain Clouds ... (Director)
- DR. TOOTHY ... (Director)
- Brick Building with Red and Green Windows ... (Director)
- Clouds and Trees ... (Director)
- Roots of Manhattan ... (Director)
- Street Commerce II ... (Director)
- Whirlpool ... (Director)
2019
- CRUSH ... (Director)
- Cartoon ... (Director)
- The Sky Socialist: The Environs ... (Director)
- Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes ... (Director)
- Figures I - V ... (Director)
- Things to Come ... (Director)
- Dimsum and Dragons ... (Director)
- THE WHOLE SHEBANG ... (Director)
- Chaos Is Order Misunderstood ... (Director)
- Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party ... (Director)
- Above the Rain ... (Director)
- Failure ... (Director)
- PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO ... (Director)
- Details of Pollock's White Light ... (Director)
- Joan Mitchell: Departures ... (Director)
- MOVING ROAD ... (Director)
- Once Upon a Planet ... (Director)
2018
- Tree Stump ... (Director)
- The Moments: Evening Boat Ride ... (Director)
2017
- Windbreaker ... (Director)
- Along the Elevated ... (Director)
- Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl ... (Director)
- Get Up and Go ... (Director)
- Ulysses in the Subway ... (Director)
- A Spin Through Night City ... (Director)
- Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms ... (Director)
2016
- 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)
- 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 / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
- Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Mosco Street 2 ... (Director)
- Snow in Headlights II ... (Director)
- Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3) ... (Director)
- Reichstag 9/11 ... (Director)
- I'm Telling You ... (Director)
- Hydroelectric Dam ... (Director)
- Lurking ... (Director)
- Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival ... (Director)
- Molten Landscape ... (Director)
2015
- Empty Seats ... (Director)
- Chrysalis ... (Director)
- Granular ... (Director)
- Floral ... (Director)
- Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies ... (Director)
- Batchellor’s Dog and Beach ... (Director)
- Zazie Learns About Money ... (Director)
- The Lackadaisical Speed of Light ... (Director)
- Afternoon Tide ... (Director)
- Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul ... (Director)
2014
- Canopy ... (Director)
- Pygmalion Cubed ... (Director)
- Popeye Sees 3-D ... (Director)
- Celestial Bodies ... (Director)
- The Guests ... (Director)
- Wire Fence ... (Director)
2013
- What Is Cinema? as Self
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3 ... (Director)
- The Eternal Courtship
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2 ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4 ... (Director)
- A Primer in Sky Socialism ... (Director)
- Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1 ... (Director)
2012
- 20 Little Films ... (Director)
- Emma's Dilemma as Himself
- Street Vendor ... (Director)
- Blankets for Indians ... (Director)
2011
- Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film as Himself
- The Roses ... (Director)
- Revolving Door ... (Director)
- Another Occupation ... (Director)
- Sleepless Nights Stories as Self
- 60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero ... (Director)
- The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street ... (Director)
- Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin as Himself
- Seeking the Monkey King ... (Director)
- Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman ... (Director)
- DAY AND NIGHT ... (Director)
- The Green Wave ... (Director)
- Turbulent Waters ... (Director)
- America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening ... (Director)
2010
- Lavender as Self
- Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta? as Himself
- A Loft ... (Editor)
- Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway ... (Director)
- Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra ... (Director)
- The Near-Collision ... (Director)
- Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two ... (Director)
2009
- Walkway ... (Director)
- Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days ... (Director)
- The Day Was a Scorcher ... (Director)
- Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified ... (Director)
- Hot Dogs At The Met ... (Director)
- Gravity Is Tops ... (Director)
- “Slow is Beauty”—Rodin ... (Director)
- The Signing ... (Director)
- Berkeley To San Francisco ... (Director)
- Brook ... (Director)
- What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901 ... (Director)
- Bob Fleischner Dying ... (Director)
- Brain Operations ... (Director)
- Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor ... (Director)
2008
- Love Story ... (Director)
- The Discovery ... (Director)
- Momma's Man as Dad
- Elbow Dance ... (Director)
- Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception) ... (Director)
- Alone at Last ... (Director)
- Return to the Scene of the Crime ... (Director)
- The Scenic Route ... (Director)
- Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks) ... (Director)
2007
- 365 Day Project
- Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis as Self
- Nymph ... (Director)
- Titles ... (Director)
- We Are Charming ... (Director)
- New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 ... (Director)
- Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO ... (Director)
- Mosco Street Rapture ... (Director)
- Capitalism: Slavery ... (Director)
- Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World ... (Director)
- Hanky Panky January 1902 ... (Director)
- Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World ... (Director)
- Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival ... (Director)
2006
- Monks of Cinema ... (Camera Operator)
- Pushcarts of Eternity Street ... (Director)
- Two Wrenching Departures ... (Director)
- Capitalism: Child Labor ... (Director)
- The Surging Sea of Humanity ... (Director)
2005
- Insistent Clamor ... (Director)
- Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise ... (Director)
- Let There Be Whistle Blowers ... (Director)
- Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888 ... (Director)
- Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly ... (Director)
- Spiral Nebula ... (Director)
- Krypton Is Doomed ... (Director)
2004
- Mountaineer Spinning ... (Director)
- Star Spangled to Death as Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
2003
- Nervous Ken
- Keeping an Eye on Stan ... (Director)
2002
- The Sky Socialist: Flight ... (Director)
- Shorts From the Underground as Self
- A Tom Tom Chaser ... (Director)
- Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence ... (Director)
1999
- New York Street-Trollys 1900 ... (Director)
- Flo Rounds a Corner ... (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
- Spaghetti Aza ... (Director)
- Lost, Lost, Lost as Self
1975
- Urban Peasants ... (Director)
- Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture ... (Director)
1973
- Horizons
- Changing Azazel ... (Director)
1970
- Binghamton, My India ... (Director)
1969
- Globe ... (Director)
- Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son ... (Director)
- Nissan Ariana Window ... (Director)
1968
- Diaries, Notes, and Sketches as Self
- The Sky Socialist ... (Director)
- Huge Pupils as Himself
- Soft Rain ... (Director)
1967
- Bill's Hat
- For Life, Against the War ... (Director)
- Airshaft ... (Director)
1965
- Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness ... (Director)
- Lisa and Joey in Connecticut ... (Director)
1964
- Winter Sky ... (Director)
- We Stole Away ... (Director)
- Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures ... (Director)
- The Winter Footage ... (Director)
- Window ... (Cinematography)
- 1st Window ... (Director)
1963
- TV Plug ... (Director)
- Blonde Cobra
- Little Stabs at Happiness ... (Director)
1962
- Baud'larian Capers ... (Director)
- Scotch Tape
1961
- The Whirled ... (Director)
- The Death of P'town ... (Director)
1956
- Little Cobra Dance ... (Director)
- Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice ... (Director)
1955
- Orchard Street ... (Director)