Directing · b. 1933 · Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA

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. Althou...

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