Ken Jacobs
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.
279 directing credits · 36 acting credits
Directing · 279
60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
2011
Blonde Cobra
1963
20 Little Films
2012
For Life, Against the War
1967
THE WHOLE SHEBANG
2019
From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight
2023
The Sky Socialist
1968
Rain Clouds
2020
Window
1964
The Signing
2009
"Slow is Beauty"-Rodin
2009
Capitalism: Slavery
2007
Capitalism Defeats Life on Earth, Cab in Rain
2017
Rubble
2020
Downtown Loft with Skylights
2026
Star Spangled to Death
2004
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
2005
Fire Escape
2020
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011
Little Stabs at Happiness
1963
Return to the Scene of the Crime
2008
Lisa and Joey in Connecticut
1965
Another Day in Days of Yore
2020
The Whirled
2003
Details of Pollock's White Light
2019
Another Occupation
2011
Keeping an Eye on Stan
2003
Seeking the Monkey King
2011
Neon Sign
2020
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
1969
Reichstag 9/11
2016
Sleeping American
2020
Street Commerce
2020
Two Wrenching Departures
2006
The Scenic Route
2008
PAINTED POSTER
2020
Flo Rounds a Corner
1999
Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl
2017
A Date with Shirley
2026
Wire Fence
2014
The Green Wave
2011
The Death of P'town
1961
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
2009
Hubble II
2020
Hanky Panky January 1902
2007
Nymph
2007
Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture
1975
Bitemporal Vision: The Sea
1994
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
2007
Windbreaker
2017
Orchard Street
1955
Things to Come
2019
Working Girls (short)
2020
Eat the Rich: Aligning Perspectives and Other Challenges to Viewers
2022
Bison
2020
Krypton Is Doomed
2005
Urban Peasants
1975
Perfect Film
1985
The Roses
2011
The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
2011
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
2019
Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul
2015
Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor
2009
Lurking
2016
Natural Collage
2020
Lazy City
2020
Turbulent Waters
2011
Brick Building with Red and Green Windows
2020
BMT
2025
Walkway
2009
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
2023
Ulysses in the Subway
2017
Globe
1969
In Front of Anthology
2021
Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice
1956
Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World
2007
The Discovery
2008
We Stole Away
1964
Foliage in Moving Car Window
2020
Bargains
2020
Duck
2020
Halley’s Comet
2020
Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Looting For Rodney
1995
Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two
2010
Manhattan is an Island
2023
Chrysalis
2015
Disorient Express
1996
Elbow Dance
2008
The Near-Collision
2010
Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception)
2008
Alone at Last
2008
A Spin Through Night City
2017
Along the Elevated
2017
Failure
2019
Barber
2020
Doyer Street
2020
Roots of Manhattan
2020
Figures I - V
2019
Little Cobra Dance
1956
Baud'larian Capers
1962
Berkeley To San Francisco
2009
City Foliage
2020
Keaton's Cops
1991
Joan Mitchell: Departures
2019
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3
2013
Chronometer
1990
Molten Landscape
2016
1st Window
1964
Broadway Building
2020
Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance
1977
Spasm
2023
Chaos Is Order Misunderstood
2019
Let There Be Whistle Blowers
2005
Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes
2019
DAY AND NIGHT
2011
Mountaineer Spinning
2004
Nissan Ariana Window
1969
Airshaft
1967
Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly
2005
Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway
2010
What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901
2009
Writhing City
2023
Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3)
2016
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1
2013
The Lackadaisical Speed of Light
2015
Once Upon a Planet
2019
TV Plug
1963
Brook
2009
The Moments: Evening Boat Ride
2018
DR. TOOTHY
2020
Storefront
2020
MOVING ROAD
2019
ABSTRACT
2019
Abstract Eternalism
2021
Spaghetti Aza
1976
The Sky Socialist: Flight
2002
Ken and Flo
2020
Canopy
2014
A Tom Tom Chaser
2002
Dimsum and Dragons
2019
New York Street Trolleys 1900
1999
Above the Rain
2019
The Winter Footage
1964
Winter Sky
1964
RECIPROCAL
2020
Red Green
2020
Spiky
2020
Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Double Wow
2021
Cartoon
2019
Cartoonish 1-10
2021
The Georgetown Loop
1996
Buster Keaton Embossed
2022
A Small Misunderstanding
2021
One Dozen Roses
2022
Tourists of the Familiar 1
2023
Tourists of the Familiar 10
2023
Tourists of the Familiar 15
2023
Tourists of the Familiar 20
2023
America Lets Her Hair Down 1905
2022
Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
2015
The Doctor's Dream
1977
XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
2021
Spiral Nebula
2005
Popeye Sees 3-D
2014
We Are Charming
2007
Other Urban Lives
2023
Get Up and Go
2017
Aspiring To Music
2021
Street Vendor
2012
When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves
2022
Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence
2002
Batchellor’s Dog and Beach
2015
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4
2013
I'm Telling You
2016
Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures
1964
Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness
1965
Make Light On Film
1995
Bob Fleischner Dying
2009
Brain Operations
2009
Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms
2017
Titles
2007
Facade with Face
2020
Waiting Room Window
2020
Reading Society
2020
Broadway Buildings III
2020
Chinese New Years II
2020
Flowers and Bike
2020
Whirlpool
2020
Municipal Building Passage
2020
Movie That Invites Pausing
2020
Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival
2007
Snow in Headlights II
2016
Tree Stump
2018
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40
2025
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41
2026
Depth for One Eye or Two
—
Spotted Fever
—
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42
2026
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43
2026
Tourists of the Familiar 70
2024
Riverbed
2024
Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
2007
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
2013
The Surging Sea of Humanity
2006
Adventures of Cookie Truck
2021
Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three
2023
The Guests
2014
Tourists of the Familiar 5
2023
America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening
2011
A Loft
2010
Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
1991
The Day Was a Scorcher
2009
Blankets for Indians
2012
Pushcarts of Eternity Street
2006
Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra
2010
Real Action Figures
2022
Afternoon Tide
2015
Mosco Street 2
2016
Empty Seats
2015
The Sky Socialist: The Environs
2019
Binghamton, My India
1970
Changing Azazel
1973
The Alps and The Jews
1986
Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888
2005
Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified
2009
Celestial Bodies
2014
Mosco Street Rapture
2007
Zazie Learns About Money
2015
CRUSH
2019
DeKooning Passed
2020
Friendly Building
2020
Broadway Buildings II
2020
Chinese New Years
2020
Resting Merchant
2020
Street Commerce II
2020
Spaceworks
2020
Bandit
2020
Garage Wall
2020
Transparent Apartments
2020
PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO
2019
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 / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Book of Eternalisms 39
2025
Floral
2015
Central Park
2016
BMT Canal Street
2016
For James Otis
2023
A Primer in Sky Socialism
2013
Capitalism: Child Labor
2007
Sergei Eisenstein Embossed
2022
Hoffman Student
2021
Up the Illusion
2023
Book of Eternalisms 1-6
2023
Eternal Beach
2021
Soft Rain
1968
Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks)
2008
Hydroelectric Dam
2016
Insistent Clamor
2005
Love Story
2008
Hot Dogs At The Met
2009
Gravity Is Tops
2009
Revolving Door
2011
Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO
2007
Pygmalion Cubed
2014
Water Balloon
2020
Period Piece
2020
Clouds and Trees
2020
Granular
2015
OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN
2011
Sky Dive
—
Hobgoblin Ball
2023
Beautiful Dreamer
2017
Book of Eternalisms 7
2023
Book of Eternalisms 8
2023
Acting · 36
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968
365 Day Project
2007
What Is Cinema?
2013
Art-House America: Austin Film Society
2023
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007
Lost, Lost, Lost
1976
Birth of a Nation
1997
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1986
Blonde Cobra
1963
Momma's Man
2008
Sleepless Nights Stories
2011
Jonas in the Desert
1994
Fragments of Paradise
2022
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
2011
Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse
2025
Horizons
1973
Bill's Hat
1967
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022
Star Spangled to Death
2004
Home Movies 1971-81
1985
Emma's Dilemma
2012
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011
Scotch Tape
1962
Huge Pupils
1968
Quartet Number One
1991
Lavender
2010
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
2016
Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
2010
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
2011
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
1973
Nervous Ken
2003
Shorts From the Underground
2002
The Eternal Courtship
2013
Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art
2023
Up the Illusion
2023