Ken Jacobs
Personal Info
Known for
Directing
Gender
Male
Birthday
1933-05-25 (91 years old)
Place of Birth
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. 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
Acting
(2022)
Fragments of Paradise
as Self
(2022)
(2016)
(2013)
What Is Cinema?
as Self
(2013)
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
as Self
(2012)
Emma's Dilemma
as Himself
(2011)
(2011)
Sleepless Nights Stories
as Self
(2011)
(2010)
Lavender
as Self
(2010)
Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
as Himself
(2008)
Momma's Man
as Dad
(2007)
(2007)
(2004)
Star Spangled to Death
as Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
(2002)
Shorts From the Underground
as himself
(2000)
(1997)
Birth of a Nation
as Self
(1994)
Jonas in the Desert
as Self
(1991)
(1986)
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
as Self (archive footage)
(1985)
(1976)
Lost, Lost, Lost
as Self
(1968)
Huge Pupils
as Himself
(1967)
(1963)
(1962)
Crew
(2023)
Spasm
Director
(2023)
Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three
Director
(2023)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Director
(2023)
Up the Illusion
Director
(2023)
Tourists of the Familiar 1
Director
(2023)
Tourists of the Familiar 5
Director
(2023)
Tourists of the Familiar 10
Director
(2023)
Tourists of the Familiar 15
Director
(2023)
Tourists of the Familiar 20
Director
(2023)
Book of Eternalisms 1-6
Director
(2023)
(2023)
Other Urban Lives
Director
(2023)
Writhing City
Director
(2022)
Buster Keaton Embossed
Director
(2022)
Sergei Eisenstein Embossed
Director
(2022)
One Dozen Roses
Director
(2022)
America Let's Her Hair Down 1905
Director
(2022)
Real Action Figures
Director
(2022)
(2021)
Double Wow
Director
(2021)
Abstract Eternalism
Director
(2021)
Cartoonish 1-10
Director
(2021)
XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
Editor, Director
(2021)
A Small Misunderstanding
Director
(2021)
Adventures of Cookie Truck
Director
(2021)
Hoffman Student
Director
(2021)
Eternal Beach
Director
(2021)
Aspiring To Music
Director
(2020)
Rubble
Director
(2020)
Rain Clouds
Director
(2020)
RECIPROCAL
Director
(2020)
Red Green
Director
(2020)
Ken and Flo
Director
(2020)
PAINTED POSTER
Director
(2020)
DR. TOOTHY
Director
(2020)
Barber
Director
(2020)
Foliage in Moving Car Window
Director
(2020)
Facade with Face
Director
(2020)
Doyer Street
Director
(2020)
Sleeping American
Director
(2020)
DeKooning Passed
Director
(2020)
Waiting Room Window
Director
(2020)
Natural Collage
Director
(2020)
Reading Society
Director
(2020)
Roots of Manhattan
Director
(2020)
Lazy City
Director
(2020)
Bison
Director
(2020)
Friendly Building
Director
(2020)
Working Girls (short)
Director
(2020)
Broadway Buildings II
Director
(2020)
Bargains
Director
(2020)
City Foliage
Director
(2020)
Broadway Buildings III
Director
(2020)
(2020)
Broadway Building
Director
(2020)
Fire Escape
Director
(2020)
Duck
Director
(2020)
Chinese New Years
Director
(2020)
Chinese New Years II
Director
(2020)
Street Commerce
Director
(2020)
Resting Merchant
Director
(2020)
Neon Sign
Director
(2020)
Flowers and Bike
Director
(2020)
Street Commerce II
Director
(2020)
Halley’s Comet
Director
(2020)
Water Balloon
Director
(2020)
Spaceworks
Director
(2020)
Period Piece
Director
(2020)
Bandit
Director
(2020)
Another Day in Days of Yore
Director
(2020)
Garage Wall
Director
(2020)
Hubble II
Director
(2020)
Whirlpool
Director
(2020)
Storefront
Director
(2020)
Transparent Apartments
Director
(2020)
Spiky
Director
(2020)
Municipal Building Passage
Director
(2020)
Clouds and Trees
Director
(2020)
Movie That Invites Pausing
Director
(2019)
Cartoon
Director
(2019)
Chaos Is Order Misunderstood
Director
(2019)
(2019)
Dimsum and Dragons
Director
(2019)
Details of Pollock's White Light
Director
(2019)
Joan Mitchell: Departures
Director
(2019)
Once Upon a Planet
Director
(2019)
Above the Rain
Director
(2019)
The Sky Socialist: The Environs
Director
(2019)
THE WHOLE SHEBANG
Director
(2019)
Things to Come
Director
(2019)
(2019)
Failure
Director
(2019)
CRUSH
Director
(2019)
Figures I - V
Director
(2019)
PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO
Director
(2019)
MOVING ROAD
Director
(2018)
The Moments: Evening Boat Ride
Director
(2017)
Windbreaker
Director
(2017)
Ulysses in the Subway
Director
(2017)
Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl
Director
(2017)
Get Up and Go
Director
(2017)
A Spin Through Night City
Director
(2017)
Along the Elevated
Director
(2017)
Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms
Director
(2016)
Reichstag 9/11
Director
(2016)
(2016)
Mosco Street 2
Director
(2016)
I'm Telling You
Director
(2016)
Hydroelectric Dam
Director
(2016)
Lurking
Director
(2016)
Molten Landscape
Director
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2015)
Chrysalis
Director
(2015)
Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
Director, Writer
(2015)
Afternoon Tide
Director
(2015)
Empty Seats
Director
(2015)
Batchellor’s Dog and Beach
Director
(2015)
The Lackadaisical Speed of Light
Director
(2015)
Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul
Director
(2015)
Zazie Learns About Money
Director
(2014)
Canopy
Director
(2014)
The Guests
Director
(2014)
Wire Fence
Director
(2014)
Popeye Sees 3-D
Director
(2014)
Celestial Bodies
Director
(2014)
Pygmalion Cubed
Director
(2013)
A Primer in Sky Socialism
Director
(2013)
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
Director, Technical Supervisor
(2013)
(2013)
(2013)
(2012)
Blankets for Indians
Director
(2012)
20 Little Films
Director
(2012)
Street Vendor
Director
(2011)
Seeking the Monkey King
Director
(2011)
DAY AND NIGHT
Director
(2011)
(2011)
The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
Director, Writer
(2011)
Another Occupation
Director, Writer
(2011)
The Green Wave
Director
(2011)
(2011)
The Roses
Director
(2011)
Revolving Door
Director
(2011)
(2011)
Turbulent Waters
Director
(2010)
A Loft
Editor, Director
(2010)
(2010)
Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two
Director
(2010)
The Near-Collision
Director
(2010)
(2009)
The Day Was a Scorcher
Director, Writer
(2009)
The Signing
Director
(2009)
“Slow is Beauty”—Rodin
Director
(2009)
Berkeley To San Francisco
Director
(2009)
(2009)
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
Director
(2009)
Bob Fleischner Dying
Director
(2009)
Brain Operations
Director
(2009)
Brook
Director
(2009)
(2009)
Hot Dogs At The Met
Director
(2009)
Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor
Director
(2009)
Gravity Is Tops
Director
(2009)
Walkway
Director
(2008)
Return to the Scene of the Crime
Director
(2008)
(2008)
The Scenic Route
Director
(2008)
Elbow Dance
Director
(2008)
(2008)
Alone at Last
Director
(2008)
The Discovery
Director
(2008)
Love Story
Director
(2007)
Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
Director
(2007)
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
Director, Producer
(2007)
Capitalism: Child Labor
Director
(2007)
Capitalism: Slavery
Director
(2007)
(2007)
Hanky Panky January 1902
Director
(2007)
Nymph
Director
(2007)
We Are Charming
Director
(2007)
The Whirled
Director
(2007)
Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO
Director
(2007)
Mosco Street Rapture
Director
(2007)
Titles
Director
(2007)
(2006)
The Surging Sea of Humanity
Director
(2006)
Two Wrenching Departures
Director
(2006)
Pushcarts of Eternity Street
Director
(2006)
Monks of Cinema
Camera Operator
(2005)
Incendiary Cinema
Director
(2005)
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
Director, Editor, Producer
(2005)
Let There Be Whistle Blowers
Director
(2005)
Krypton Is Doomed
Director
(2005)
Spiral Nebula
Director, Writer
(2005)
(2005)
Insistent Clamor
Director
(2005)
Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888
Director
(2004)
Star Spangled to Death
Director, Writer, Cinematography, Editor
(2004)
Mountaineer Spinning
Director
(2003)
Keeping an Eye on Stan
Director
(2002)
A Tom Tom Chaser
Director
(2002)
(2002)
The Sky Socialist: Flight
Director
(1999)
Flo Rounds a Corner
Director
(1999)
New York Street-Trollys 1900
Director
(1996)
The Georgetown Loop
Director
(1996)
Disorient Express
Director
(1995)
Looting For Rodney
Director
(1995)
Make Light On Film
Director
(1994)
Bitemporal Vision: The Sea
Director
(1991)
Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
Director, Writer
(1991)
Keaton's Cops
Director, Writer
(1990)
Chronometer
Director
(1986)
The Alps and The Jews
Director
(1985)
Perfect Film
Director
(1977)
The Doctor's Dream
Director
(1976)
Spaghetti Aza
Director
(1975)
Urban Peasants
Director
(1975)
(1973)
Changing Azazel
Director
(1970)
Binghamton, My India
Director
(1969)
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
Director
(1969)
Nissan Ariana Window
Director
(1969)
Globe
Director
(1968)
Soft Rain
Director
(1968)
The Sky Socialist
Director
(1967)
Airshaft
Director
(1967)
For Life, Against the War
Director
(1965)
Lisa and Joey in Connecticut
Director
(1965)
Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness
Director
(1964)
Window
Director, Editor, Cinematography, Producer
(1964)
(1964)
The Winter Footage
Director
(1964)
We Stole Away
Director
(1964)
Winter Sky
Director
(1964)
1st Window
Director
(1963)
Blonde Cobra
Director
(1963)
Little Stabs at Happiness
Director
(1963)
The Death of P'town
Director
(1963)
TV Plug
Director
(1962)
Baud'larian Capers
Director
(1956)
(1956)
Little Cobra Dance
Director
(1955)
Orchard Street
Director