Ken Jacobs
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.
As actor 37
Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
2010
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968
What Is Cinema?
2013
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
1973
Blonde Cobra
1963
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1986
Birth of a Nation
1997
Fragments of Paradise
2022
Lost, Lost, Lost
1976
Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse
2025
365 Day Project
2007
Flo and Ken Jacobs
2001
Sleepless Nights Stories
2011
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
2016
Momma's Man
2008
Home Movies 1971-81
1985
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
2011
Jonas in the Desert
1994
Up the Illusion
2023
Art-House America: Austin Film Society
2023
Horizons
1973
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011
Quartet Number One
1991
Bill's Hat
1967
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
2011
Lavender
2010
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022
Huge Pupils
1968
Star Spangled to Death
2004
Scotch Tape
1963
The Eternal Courtship
2013
Nervous Ken
2003
Shorts From the Underground
2002
Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art
2023
Emma's Dilemma
2012
On the crew 280
20 Little Films
2012
Blonde Cobra
1963
60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
2011
Up the Illusion
2023
For Life, Against the War
1967
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011
Monks of Cinema
2006
Window
1964
Orchard Street
1955
The Signing
2009
Turbulent Waters
2011
Seeking the Monkey King
2011
Hobgoblin Ball
2023
Period Piece
2020
Spaghetti Aza
1976
Flo Rounds a Corner
1999
Above the Rain
2019
Let There Be Whistle Blowers
2005
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
2009
Storefront
2020
Figures I - V
2019
Windbreaker
2017
Failure
2019
From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight
2023
Little Cobra Dance
1956
Star Spangled to Death
2004
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
2007
DeKooning Passed
2020
Red Green
2020
Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks)
2008
The Georgetown Loop
1996
Revolving Door
2011
Chinese New Years II
2020
Natural Collage
2020
We Are Charming
2007
The Roses
2011
XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
2021
Working Girls (short)
2020
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
2019
Disorient Express
1996
Mosco Street Rapture
2007
Winter Sky
1964
Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness
1965
Bitemporal Vision: The Sea
1994
MOVING ROAD
2019
Urban Peasants
1975
Barber
2020
Little Stabs at Happiness
1963
Things to Come
2019
Blankets for Indians
2012
Ulysses in the Subway
2017
THE WHOLE SHEBANG
2019
Return to the Scene of the Crime
2008
The Sky Socialist
1966
Insistent Clamor
2005
Book of Eternalisms 7
2023
Perfect Film
1985
Brook
2009
The Green Wave
2011
Two Wrenching Departures
2006
Keeping an Eye on Stan
2003
Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture
1975
Afternoon Tide
2015
Joan Mitchell: Departures
2019
Hubble II
2020
Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway
2010
Broadway Building
2020
Spaceworks
2020
Eat the Rich: Aligning Perspectives and Other Challenges to Viewers
2022
Neon Sign
2020
Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra
2010
Snow in Headlights II
2016
The Sky Socialist: The Environs
2019
A Loft
2010
The Doctor's Dream
1977
Mosco Street 2
2016
Spasm
2023
DAY AND NIGHT
2011
I'm Telling You
2016
Krypton Is Doomed
2005
For James Otis
2023
A Tom Tom Chaser
2002
Titles
2007
Bandit
2020
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
1969
The Guests
2014
The Near-Collision
2010
Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice
1956
The Moments: Evening Boat Ride
2018
Clouds and Trees
2020
Canopy
2014
The Death of P'town
1961
When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves
2022
Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor
2009
The Scenic Route
2008
The Whirled
2003
The Sky Socialist: Flight
2002
Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl
2017
Beautiful Dreamer
2017
Movie That Invites Pausing
2020
Airshaft
1967
Tree Stump
2018
Hot Dogs At The Met
2009
New York Street Trolleys 1900
1999
Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
1991
Tourists of the Familiar 5
2023
Details of Pollock's White Light
2019
Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly
2005
Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1
2013
Doyer Street
2020
Capitalism: Slavery
2007
Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
A Date with Shirley
2026
Berkeley To San Francisco
2009
Wire Fence
2014
Water Balloon
2020
Chrysalis
2015
Hoffman Student
2021
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
2023
The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
2011
Mountaineer Spinning
2004
Along the Elevated
2017
Soft Rain
1968
Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
City Foliage
2020
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
2005
Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
2015
Ken and Flo
2020
Tourists of the Familiar 20
2023
The Discovery
2008
Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul
2015
Pygmalion Cubed
2014
Floral
2015
Downtown Loft with Skylights
2026
Garage Wall
2020
RECIPROCAL
2020
BMT Canal Street
2016
Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Writhing City
2023
America Lets Her Hair Down 1905
2022
Changing Azazel
1973
1st Window
1964
Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance
1977
Reichstag 9/11
2016
Keaton's Cops
1991
Street Commerce II
2020
Duck
2020
Once Upon a Planet
2019
Chinese New Years
2020
Elbow Dance
2008
Waiting Room Window
2020
Tourists of the Familiar 1
2023
Another Day in Days of Yore
2020
One Dozen Roses
2022
Lurking
2016
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4
2013
Central Park
2016
Friendly Building
2020
What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901
2009
Walkway
2009
Rubble
2020
Capitalism Defeats Life on Earth, Cab in Rain
2017
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3
2013
Double Wow
2021
Brain Operations
2009
In Front of Anthology
2021
OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN
2011
"Slow is Beauty"-Rodin
2009
Sleeping American
2020
TV Plug
1963
Baud'larian Capers
1962
Spiky
2020
Batchellor’s Dog and Beach
2015
Foliage in Moving Car Window
2020
Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888
2005
The Alps and The Jews
1986
We Stole Away
1964
Dimsum and Dragons
2019
Bob Fleischner Dying
2009
Spotted Fever
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40
2025
Popeye Sees 3-D
2014
Looting For Rodney
1995
Gravity Is Tops
2009
Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World
2007
Globe
1969
Fire Escape
2020
Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival
2007
Lazy City
2020
Bison
2020
Cartoon
2019
Book of Eternalisms 1-6
2023
Granular
2015
Love Story
2008
Tourists of the Familiar 15
2023
Cartoonish 1-10
2021
Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms
2017
Book of Eternalisms 39
2025
Adventures of Cookie Truck
2021
Municipal Building Passage
2020
Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures
1964
BMT
2025
Chaos Is Order Misunderstood
2019
Bargains
2020
Depth for One Eye or Two
Get Up and Go
2017
Sergei Eisenstein Embossed
2022
Book of Eternalisms 8
2023
Street Vendor
2012
Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception)
2008
DR. TOOTHY
2020
Molten Landscape
2016
ABSTRACT
2019
Rain Clouds
2020
America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening
2011
Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Make Light On Film
1995
Nissan Ariana Window
1969
Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
The Day Was a Scorcher
2009
Spiral Nebula
2005
Sky Dive
Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence
2002
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43
2026
Celestial Bodies
2014
Binghamton, My India
1970
Roots of Manhattan
2020
Broadway Buildings III
2020
Brick Building with Red and Green Windows
2020
Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two
2010
Capitalism: Child Labor
2007
Lisa and Joey in Connecticut
1965
CRUSH
2019
Street Commerce
2020
Reading Society
2020
A Primer in Sky Socialism
2013
Tourists of the Familiar 70
2024
Flowers and Bike
2020
Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3)
2016
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42
2026
The Winter Footage
1964
Aspiring To Music
2021
Whirlpool
2020
Eternal Beach
2021
Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three
2023
Broadway Buildings II
2020
A Small Misunderstanding
2021
Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Transparent Apartments
2020
Hydroelectric Dam
2016
Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
2007
Another Occupation
2011
Other Urban Lives
2023
Halley’s Comet
2020
Real Action Figures
2022
PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO
2019
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
2013
A Spin Through Night City
2017
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41
2026
Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes
2019
Riverbed
2024
Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified
2009
Pushcarts of Eternity Street
2006
The Surging Sea of Humanity
2006
Empty Seats
2015
PAINTED POSTER
2020
The Lackadaisical Speed of Light
2015
Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO
2007
Tourists of the Familiar 10
2023
Facade with Face
2020
Alone at Last
2008
Buster Keaton Embossed
2022
Zazie Learns About Money
2015
Chronometer
1990
Manhattan is an Island
2023
Resting Merchant
2020
Hanky Panky January 1902
2007
Abstract Eternalism
2021
Nymph
2007