Personal Info

Known For

Directing

Known Credits

Gender

Male

Birthday

1933-05-25 (91 years old)

Place of Birth

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Also Known As

켄 제이콥스

Ken Jacobs

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.

Known For

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

7.7%

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Acting

2022		Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022		Fragments of Paradise as Self

2016

Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas

2013		Diaries, Notes, and Sketches as Self
2013		What Is Cinema? as Self

2012

Emma's Dilemma as Himself

2011		Sleepless Nights Stories as Self
2011		Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film as Himself
2011		Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin as Himself

2010		Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta? as Himself
2010		Lavender as Self

2008

Momma's Man as Dad

2007		365 Day Project
2007		Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis as Self

2004

Star Spangled to Death as Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor

2002

Shorts From the Underground as himself

2000

As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty as Self

1997

Birth of a Nation as Self

1994

Jonas in the Desert as Self

1991

Quartet Number One

1986

He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life as Self (archive footage)

1985

Home Movies 1971-81

1976

Lost, Lost, Lost as Self

1968

Huge Pupils as Himself

1967

Bill's Hat

1963

Blonde Cobra

1962

Scotch Tape

Camera

2006

Monks of Cinema as Camera Operator

Crew

2013

Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2 as Technical Supervisor

2004

Star Spangled to Death as Cinematography

1964

Window as Cinematography

Directing

2023		Up the Illusion as Director
2023		Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as Director
2023		Writhing City as Director
2023		Other Urban Lives as Director
2023		From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight as Director
2023		Book of Eternalisms 1-6 as Director
2023		Spasm as Director
2023		Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three as Director
2023		Tourists of the Familiar 1 as Director
2023		Tourists of the Familiar 5 as Director
2023		Tourists of the Familiar 10 as Director
2023		Tourists of the Familiar 15 as Director
2023		Tourists of the Familiar 20 as Director

2022		Real Action Figures as Director
2022		When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves as Director
2022		Sergei Eisenstein Embossed as Director
2022		Buster Keaton Embossed as Director
2022		One Dozen Roses as Director
2022		America Let's Her Hair Down 1905 as Director

2021		Eternal Beach as Director
2021		Abstract Eternalism as Director
2021		Double Wow as Director
2021		XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX as Director
2021		Cartoonish 1-10 as Director
2021		A Small Misunderstanding as Director
2021		Adventures of Cookie Truck as Director
2021		Hoffman Student as Director
2021		Aspiring To Music as Director

2020		Movie That Invites Pausing as Director
2020		Transparent Apartments as Director
2020		Spiky as Director
2020		Storefront as Director
2020		Municipal Building Passage as Director
2020		Clouds and Trees as Director
2020		Bandit as Director
2020		Whirlpool as Director
2020		Hubble II as Director
2020		Halley’s Comet as Director
2020		Water Balloon as Director
2020		Spaceworks as Director
2020		Another Day in Days of Yore as Director
2020		Garage Wall as Director
2020		Period Piece as Director
2020		Street Commerce II as Director
2020		Street Commerce as Director
2020		Resting Merchant as Director
2020		Broadway Buildings II as Director
2020		Broadway Buildings III as Director
2020		Neon Sign as Director
2020		Flowers and Bike as Director
2020		Chinese New Years II as Director
2020		Chinese New Years as Director
2020		Brick Building with Red and Green Windows as Director
2020		Fire Escape as Director
2020		Broadway Building as Director
2020		Duck as Director
2020		Doyer Street as Director
2020		DeKooning Passed as Director
2020		Sleeping American as Director
2020		Roots of Manhattan as Director
2020		Reading Society as Director
2020		Lazy City as Director
2020		Waiting Room Window as Director
2020		Natural Collage as Director
2020		Bison as Director
2020		Working Girls (short) as Director
2020		Friendly Building as Director
2020		Bargains as Director
2020		City Foliage as Director
2020		Barber as Director
2020		Foliage in Moving Car Window as Director
2020		Facade with Face as Director
2020		RECIPROCAL as Director
2020		Red Green as Director
2020		Ken and Flo as Director
2020		Rain Clouds as Director
2020		PAINTED POSTER as Director
2020		DR. TOOTHY as Director
2020		Rubble as Director

2019		CRUSH as Director
2019		PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO as Director
2019		Failure as Director
2019		Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party as Director
2019		Things to Come as Director
2019		MOVING ROAD as Director
2019		Figures I - V as Director
2019		THE WHOLE SHEBANG as Director
2019		Chaos Is Order Misunderstood as Director
2019		Above the Rain as Director
2019		The Sky Socialist: The Environs as Director
2019		Joan Mitchell: Departures as Director
2019		Once Upon a Planet as Director
2019		Details of Pollock's White Light as Director
2019		Cartoon as Director
2019		Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes as Director
2019		Dimsum and Dragons as Director

2018

The Moments: Evening Boat Ride as Director

2017		Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms as Director
2017		A Spin Through Night City as Director
2017		Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl as Director
2017		Get Up and Go as Director
2017		Along the Elevated as Director
2017		Ulysses in the Subway as Director
2017		Windbreaker as Director

2016		Reichstag 9/11 as Director
2016		Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3) as Director
2016		Mosco Street 2 as Director
2016		Lurking as Director
2016		Molten Landscape as Director
2016		Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival as Director
2016		Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival as Director
2016		Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival as Director
2016		Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival as Director
2016		Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival as Director
2016		Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival as Director
2016		Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival as Director
2016		Hydroelectric Dam as Director
2016		I'm Telling You as Director

2015		Empty Seats as Director
2015		Batchellor’s Dog and Beach as Director
2015		Afternoon Tide as Director
2015		Zazie Learns About Money as Director
2015		Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul as Director
2015		Chrysalis as Director
2015		Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies as Director
2015		The Lackadaisical Speed of Light as Director

2014		Wire Fence as Director
2014		Canopy as Director
2014		Pygmalion Cubed as Director
2014		Celestial Bodies as Director
2014		The Guests as Director
2014		Popeye Sees 3-D as Director

2013		A Primer in Sky Socialism as Director
2013		Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2 as Director
2013		Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4 as Director
2013		Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3 as Director
2013		Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1 as Director

2012		Blankets for Indians as Director
2012		Street Vendor as Director
2012		20 Little Films as Director

2011		60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero as Director
2011		Seeking the Monkey King as Director
2011		The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street as Director
2011		America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening as Director
2011		Revolving Door as Director
2011		Turbulent Waters as Director
2011		The Roses as Director
2011		The Green Wave as Director
2011		Another Occupation as Director
2011		DAY AND NIGHT as Director
2011		Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman as Director

2010		A Loft as Director
2010		Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two as Director
2010		Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra as Director
2010		Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway as Director
2010		The Near-Collision as Director

2009		Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days as Director
2009		Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified as Director
2009		Walkway as Director
2009		Brook as Director
2009		Brain Operations as Director
2009		Bob Fleischner Dying as Director
2009		Berkeley To San Francisco as Director
2009		“Slow is Beauty”—Rodin as Director
2009		What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901 as Director
2009		Hot Dogs At The Met as Director
2009		Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor as Director
2009		Gravity Is Tops as Director
2009		The Day Was a Scorcher as Director
2009		The Signing as Director

2008		Return to the Scene of the Crime as Director
2008		The Discovery as Director
2008		Alone at Last as Director
2008		Elbow Dance as Director
2008		Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception) as Director
2008		The Scenic Route as Director
2008		Love Story as Director
2008		Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks) as Director

2007		Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World as Director
2007		Nymph as Director
2007		Hanky Panky January 1902 as Director
2007		We Are Charming as Director
2007		Titles as Director
2007		Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO as Director
2007		Mosco Street Rapture as Director
2007		The Whirled as Director
2007		Capitalism: Slavery as Director
2007		Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World as Director
2007		Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival as Director
2007		New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 as Director
2007		Capitalism: Child Labor as Director

2006		Pushcarts of Eternity Street as Director
2006		The Surging Sea of Humanity as Director
2006		Two Wrenching Departures as Director

2005		Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise as Director
2005		Incendiary Cinema as Director
2005		Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888 as Director
2005		Insistent Clamor as Director
2005		Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly as Director
2005		Let There Be Whistle Blowers as Director
2005		Krypton Is Doomed as Director
2005		Spiral Nebula as Director

2004		Mountaineer Spinning as Director
2004		Star Spangled to Death as Director

2003

Keeping an Eye on Stan as Director

2002		Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence as Director
2002		A Tom Tom Chaser as Director
2002		The Sky Socialist: Flight as Director

1999		New York Street-Trollys 1900 as Director
1999		Flo Rounds a Corner as Director

1996		Disorient Express as Director
1996		The Georgetown Loop as Director

1995		Looting For Rodney as Director
1995		Make Light On Film as Director

1994

Bitemporal Vision: The Sea as Director

1991		Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896 as Director
1991		Keaton's Cops as Director

1990

Chronometer as Director

1986

The Alps and The Jews as Director

1985

Perfect Film as Director

1977

The Doctor's Dream as Director

1976

Spaghetti Aza as Director

1975		Urban Peasants as Director
1975		Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture as Director

1973

Changing Azazel as Director

1970

Binghamton, My India as Director

1969		Nissan Ariana Window as Director
1969		Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son as Director
1969		Globe as Director

1968		The Sky Socialist as Director
1968		Soft Rain as Director

1967		For Life, Against the War as Director
1967		Airshaft as Director

1965		Lisa and Joey in Connecticut as Director
1965		Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness as Director

1964		1st Window as Director
1964		Window as Director
1964		We Stole Away as Director
1964		The Winter Footage as Director
1964		Winter Sky as Director
1964		Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures as Director