Ken Jacobs
Directing
Born: May 25, 1933 · Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Died: October 5, 2025 (aged 92)
Highest Rated
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.
Photos (1)
Movies (15)
Laboratorium Anthology
1999
Blonde Cobra
1963
Bill's Hat
1967
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
1973
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
2016
Home Movies 1971-81
1985
Momma's Man
Dad
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011
Star Spangled to Death
Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
Up the Illusion
2023
Horizons
1973
Quartet Number One
1991
The Eternal Courtship
2013
Nervous Ken
2003
Scotch Tape
1963
Self / Appearances (20)
365 Day Project
Self
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Self
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Self (archive footage)
Fragments of Paradise
Self
Birth of a Nation
Self
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
Himself
What Is Cinema?
Self
Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse
Self
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Self
Lost, Lost, Lost
Self
Jonas in the Desert
Self
Art-House America: Austin Film Society
Self
Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
Himself
Sleepless Nights Stories
Self
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Self
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
Himself
Lavender
Self
Emma's Dilemma
Himself
Huge Pupils
Himself
Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art
Self
Upcoming (3)
Directing (222)
60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
Director
Blonde Cobra
Director
20 Little Films
Director
For Life, Against the War
Director
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
Director
Star Spangled to Death
Director
Up the Illusion
Director
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
Director
"Slow is Beauty"-Rodin
Director
Little Cobra Dance
Director
Seeking the Monkey King
Director
Keeping an Eye on Stan
Director
Flo Rounds a Corner
Director
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
Director
Bitemporal Vision: The Sea
Director
Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl
Director
Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance
Director
From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight
Director
Window
Director
The Moments: Evening Boat Ride
Director
Movie That Invites Pausing
Director
Little Stabs at Happiness
Director
Ulysses in the Subway
Director
The Death of P'town
Director
Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks)
Director
Foliage in Moving Car Window
Director
Tourists of the Familiar 20
Director
America Lets Her Hair Down 1905
Director
Another Day in Days of Yore
Director
Tourists of the Familiar 1
Director
The Lackadaisical Speed of Light
Director
Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
Director
Return to the Scene of the Crime
Director
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
Director
Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice
Director
Tourists of the Familiar 15
Director
The Signing
Director
Lisa and Joey in Connecticut
Director
Hoffman Student
Director
Tourists of the Familiar 5
Director
Perfect Film
Director
Orchard Street
Director
Facade with Face
Director
The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
Director
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
Director
The Sky Socialist: The Environs
Director
A Spin Through Night City
Director
When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves
Director
Let There Be Whistle Blowers
Director
Halley’s Comet
Director
Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence
Director
Barber
Director
Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
Book of Eternalisms 7
Director
Details of Pollock's White Light
Director
Once Upon a Planet
Director
Book of Eternalisms 39
Director
Tourists of the Familiar 10
Director
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Director
Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888
Director
Double Wow
Director
Garage Wall
Director
Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms
Director
The Doctor's Dream
Director
Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World
Director
Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three
Director
Tree Stump
Director
Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly
Director
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41
Director
Chinese New Years II
Director
Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
Director
Hanky Panky January 1902
Director
Batchellor’s Dog and Beach
Director
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
Director
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43
Director
Downtown Loft with Skylights
Director
MOVING ROAD
Director
The Day Was a Scorcher
Director
Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
The Georgetown Loop
Director
The Sky Socialist: Flight
Director
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
Director
Book of Eternalisms 1-6
Director
The Green Wave
Director
Chaos Is Order Misunderstood
Director
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1
Director
A Tom Tom Chaser
Director
DeKooning Passed
Director
Two Wrenching Departures
Director
Red Green
Director
Period Piece
Director
PAINTED POSTER
Director
Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified
Director
Turbulent Waters
Director
Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception)
Director
Brick Building with Red and Green Windows
Director
Book of Eternalisms 8
Director
Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture
Director
Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures
Director
New York Street Trolleys 1900
Director
PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO
Director
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42
Director
Hydroelectric Dam
Director
Snow in Headlights II
Director
Friendly Building
Director
Above the Rain
Director
Urban Peasants
Director
Chrysalis
Director
Pushcarts of Eternity Street
Director
Working Girls (short)
Director
CRUSH
Director
Bob Fleischner Dying
Director
Storefront
Director
Municipal Building Passage
Director
Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3)
Director
Spaghetti Aza
Director
Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
Cartoonish 1-10
Director
Broadway Buildings III
Director
Eternal Beach
Director
OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN
Director
Whirlpool
Director
Real Action Figures
Director
RECIPROCAL
Director
Other Urban Lives
Director
What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901
Director
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40
Director
Buster Keaton Embossed
Director
Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes
Director
Broadway Building
Director
Sleeping American
Director
Brain Operations
Director
Krypton Is Doomed
Director
Street Vendor
Director
Soft Rain
Director
Dimsum and Dragons
Director
Disorient Express
Director
Aspiring To Music
Director
Ken and Flo
Director
Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival
Director
Spaceworks
Director
Spasm
Director
Mosco Street 2
Director
The Near-Collision
Director
Brook
Director
Chronometer
Director
Empty Seats
Director
Things to Come
Director
We Are Charming
Director
Adventures of Cookie Truck
Director
A Small Misunderstanding
Director
Spiky
Director
Central Park
Director
Sergei Eisenstein Embossed
Director
Nymph
Director
The Roses
Director
Joan Mitchell: Departures
Director
Capitalism: Slavery
Director
Water Balloon
Director
TV Plug
Director
Chinese New Years
Director
1st Window
Director
Baud'larian Capers
Director
Doyer Street
Director
Keaton's Cops
Director
Street Commerce
Director
Hubble II
Director
ABSTRACT
Director
The Sky Socialist
Director
THE WHOLE SHEBANG
Director
Capitalism: Child Labor
Director
Looting For Rodney
Director
Bison
Director
Airshaft
Director
Clouds and Trees
Director
Cartoon
Director
A Loft
Director
DAY AND NIGHT
Director
Street Commerce II
Director
Globe
Director
Rain Clouds
Director
Reichstag 9/11
Director
Neon Sign
Director
Figures I - V
Director
Transparent Apartments
Director
Writhing City
Director
Granular
Director
Resting Merchant
Director
Natural Collage
Director
The Scenic Route
Director
Gravity Is Tops
Director
Another Occupation
Director
Lazy City
Director
Blankets for Indians
Director
Roots of Manhattan
Director
Abstract Eternalism
Director
Reading Society
Director
Afternoon Tide
Director
Fire Escape
Director
Flowers and Bike
Director
DR. TOOTHY
Director
Spiral Nebula
Director
The Whirled
Director
Binghamton, My India
Director
Waiting Room Window
Director
Walkway
Director
Broadway Buildings II
Director
Bargains
Director
Insistent Clamor
Director
The Winter Footage
Director
Failure
Director
Rubble
Director
BMT Canal Street
Director
Canopy
Director
Duck
Director
XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
Director
One Dozen Roses
Director
City Foliage
Director
Writing (7)
Producing (3)
Other Crew (9)
Star Spangled to Death
Cinematography
Star Spangled to Death
Editor
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
Editor
Window
Cinematography
Window
Editor
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
Technical Supervisor
Monks of Cinema
Camera Operator
A Loft
Editor
XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
Editor