10.0
10.0
365 Day Project
2007
Ken Jacobs
Directing
Born:May 25, 1933
Died:October 5, 2025(aged 92)
Birthplace:Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA
N/A
CommunityBiography
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.
Filmography (279 movies)
8.5
8.5
Horizons
1973
8.5
8.5
Changing Azazel
1973
Director
8.2
8.2
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1986
as Self (archive footage)
8.0
8.0
Windbreaker
2017
Director
7.7
7.7
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000
as Self
7.5
7.5
Star Spangled to Death
2004
Director
7.5
7.5
Quartet Number One
1991
7.3
7.3
The Georgetown Loop
1996
Director
7.0
7.0
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
2011
as Himself
7.0
7.0
Lost, Lost, Lost
1976
as Self
6.8
6.8
Orchard Street
1955
Director
6.7
6.7
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
2011
as Himself
6.6
6.6
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007
as Self
6.5
6.5
Fragments of Paradise
2022
as Self
6.5
6.5
The Discovery
2008
Director
6.5
6.5
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
2009
Director
6.4
6.4
What Is Cinema?
2013
as Self
6.2
6.2
Momma's Man
2008
as Dad
6.0
6.0
For Life, Against the War
1967
Director
6.0
6.0
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
2007
Director
6.0
6.0
Globe
1969
Director
6.0
6.0
Capitalism: Child Labor
2006
Director
6.0
6.0
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
1969
Director
6.0
6.0
The Guests
2014
Director
6.0
6.0
Rain Clouds
2020
Director
6.0
6.0
Mountaineer Spinning
2004
Director
6.0
6.0
Perfect Film
1985
Director
5.9
5.9
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
2005
Producer
5.6
5.6
Little Stabs at Happiness
1963
Director
5.5
5.5
Jonas in the Desert
1994
as Self
5.5
5.5
Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks)
2008
Director
5.3
5.3
Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
2007
Director
5.3
5.3
Sleepless Nights Stories
2011
as Self
5.0
5.0
Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
2010
as Himself
5.0
5.0
Canopy
2014
Director
5.0
5.0
Two Wrenching Departures
2006
Director
4.9
4.9
Capitalism: Slavery
2007
Director
4.8
4.8
Seeking the Monkey King
2011
Director
4.5
4.5
Flo Rounds a Corner
1999
Director
4.5
4.5
Window
1964
Producer
4.2
4.2
Scotch Tape
1962
3.8
3.8
60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
2011
Director
2.7
2.7
Blonde Cobra
1963
Director
2.0
2.0
Turbulent Waters
2011
Director
1.0
1.0
Emma's Dilemma
2012
as Himself
1.0
1.0
Titles
2007
Director
Lavender
2010
as Self
Bill's Hat
1967
Art-House America: Austin Film Society
2023
as Self
Shorts From the Underground
2002
as himself
Huge Pupils
1968
as Himself
Nervous Ken
2003
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
2016
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022
Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art
2023
as Self
The Eternal Courtship
2013
The Whirled
1961
Director
Once Upon a Planet
2019
Director
Urban Peasants
1975
Director
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
2013
Director
The Surging Sea of Humanity
2006
Director
A Tom Tom Chaser
2002
Director
Let There Be Whistle Blowers
2005
Director
Krypton Is Doomed
2005
Director
The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
2011
Director
Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
2015
Director
DAY AND NIGHT
2011
Director
Soft Rain
1968
Director
A Loft
2010
Director
Wire Fence
2014
Director
America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening
2011
Director
Disorient Express
1996
Director
The Doctor's Dream
1977
Director
Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
1991
Writer
Keaton's Cops
1991
Director
Spiral Nebula
2005
Writer
The Day Was a Scorcher
2009
Writer
Another Occupation
2011
Writer
The Green Wave
2011
Director
Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice
1956
Director
Little Cobra Dance
1956
Director
The Death of P'town
1961
Director
Baud'larian Capers
1962
Director
Blankets for Indians
2012
Director
Reichstag 9/11
2016
Director
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011
Director
Popeye Sees 3-D
2014
Director
Ulysses in the Subway
2017
Director
Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly
2005
Director
Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl
2017
Director
Get Up and Go
2017
Director
A Spin Through Night City
2017
Director
Along the Elevated
2017
Director
Street Vendor
2012
Director
The Roses
2011
Director
Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence
2002
Director
Details of Pollock's White Light
2019
Director
The Sky Socialist: The Environs
2019
Director
Above the Rain
2019
Director
THE WHOLE SHEBANG
2019
Director
Things to Come
2019
Director
Chronometer
1990
Director
TV Plug
1963
Director
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
2019
Director
Bitemporal Vision: The Sea
1994
Director
Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures
1964
Director
The Winter Footage
1964
Director
We Stole Away
1964
Director
Winter Sky
1964
Director
Binghamton, My India
1970
Director
Rubble
2020
Director
Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness
1965
Director
The Alps and The Jews
1986
Director
Make Light On Film
1995
Director
Keeping an Eye on Stan
2003
Director
Insistent Clamor
2005
Director
Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888
2005
Director
Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul
2015
Director
Love Story
2008
Director
Bob Fleischner Dying
2009
Director
Brain Operations
2009
Director
Brook
2009
Director
Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified
2009
Director
Hot Dogs At The Met
2009
Director
Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor
2009
Director
Gravity Is Tops
2009
Director
Walkway
2009
Director
Revolving Door
2011
Director
Lurking
2016
Director
Molten Landscape
2016
Director
Celestial Bodies
2014
Director
Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO
2007
Director
Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms
2017
Director
Mosco Street Rapture
2007
Director
The Moments: Evening Boat Ride
2018
Director
Pygmalion Cubed
2014
Director
Zazie Learns About Money
2015
Director
1st Window
1964
Director
Failure
2019
Director
RECIPROCAL
2020
Director
Red Green
2020
Director
CRUSH
2019
Director
Ken and Flo
2020
Director
PAINTED POSTER
2020
Director
DR. TOOTHY
2020
Director
Barber
2020
Director
Foliage in Moving Car Window
2020
Director
Facade with Face
2020
Director
Doyer Street
2020
Director
Sleeping American
2020
Director
DeKooning Passed
2020
Director
Bison
2020
Director
Friendly Building
2020
Director
Working Girls (short)
2020
Director
Bargains
2020
Director
City Foliage
2020
Director
Waiting Room Window
2020
Director
Natural Collage
2020
Director
Reading Society
2020
Director
Roots of Manhattan
2020
Director
Lazy City
2020
Director
Brick Building with Red and Green Windows
2020
Director
Broadway Building
2020
Director
Fire Escape
2020
Director
Duck
2020
Director
Figures I - V
2019
Director
Chinese New Years
2020
Director
Chinese New Years II
2020
Director
Broadway Buildings II
2020
Director
Broadway Buildings III
2020
Director
Neon Sign
2020
Director
Flowers and Bike
2020
Director
Street Commerce
2020
Director
Resting Merchant
2020
Director
Street Commerce II
2020
Director
Period Piece
2020
Director
Garage Wall
2020
Director
Another Day in Days of Yore
2020
Director
Halley’s Comet
2020
Director
Water Balloon
2020
Director
Spaceworks
2020
Director
Hubble II
2020
Director
Whirlpool
2020
Director
Bandit
2020
Director
Municipal Building Passage
2020
Director
Clouds and Trees
2020
Director
Storefront
2020
Director
Transparent Apartments
2020
Director
Spiky
2020
Director
PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO
2019
Director
MOVING ROAD
2019
Director
Movie That Invites Pausing
2020
Director
Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Director
Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Director
Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Director
Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Director
Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Director
Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Director
Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
Director
Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival
2007
Director
Double Wow
2021
Director
Abstract Eternalism
2021
Director
Chrysalis
2015
Director
Eternal Beach
2021
Director
XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
2021
Director
The Signing
2009
Director
Buster Keaton Embossed
2022
Director
Sergei Eisenstein Embossed
2022
Director
Chaos Is Order Misunderstood
2019
Director
From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight
2023
Director
Other Urban Lives
2023
Director
Real Action Figures
2022
Director
Aspiring To Music
2021
Director
Writhing City
2023
Director
When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves
2022
Director
Spasm
2023
Director
Cartoon
2019
Director
Cartoonish 1-10
2021
Director
A Small Misunderstanding
2021
Director
Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes
2019
Director
Book of Eternalisms 1-6
2023
Director
Adventures of Cookie Truck
2021
Director
Hoffman Student
2021
Director
Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three
2023
Director
One Dozen Roses
2022
Director
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
2023
Director
Up the Illusion
2023
Director
Dimsum and Dragons
2019
Director
Tourists of the Familiar 1
2023
Director
Tourists of the Familiar 5
2023
Director
Tourists of the Familiar 10
2023
Director
Tourists of the Familiar 15
2023
Director
Tourists of the Familiar 20
2023
Director
America Let's Her Hair Down 1905
2022
Director
The Sky Socialist: Flight
2002
Director
Afternoon Tide
2015
Director
Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3)
2016
Director
Mosco Street 2
2016
Director
Empty Seats
2015
Director
Batchellor’s Dog and Beach
2015
Director
Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance
1977
Director
Snow in Headlights II
2016
Director
Book of Eternalisms 39
2025
Director
Spaghetti Aza
1976
Director
Granular
2015
Director
Nissan Ariana Window
1969
Director
Return to the Scene of the Crime
2008
Director
Joan Mitchell: Departures
2019
Director
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1
2013
Director
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3
2013
Director
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4
2013
Director
I'm Telling You
2016
Director
Hydroelectric Dam
2016
Director
The Lackadaisical Speed of Light
2015
Director
Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture
1975
Director
Lisa and Joey in Connecticut
1965
Director
A Primer in Sky Socialism
2013
Director
Looting For Rodney
1995
Director
New York Street-Trollys 1900
1999
Director
The Sky Socialist
1968
Director
The Scenic Route
2008
Director
Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World
2007
Director
“Slow is Beauty”—Rodin
2009
Director
Berkeley To San Francisco
2009
Director
Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway
2010
Director
Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two
2010
Director
Elbow Dance
2008
Director
The Near-Collision
2010
Director
Pushcarts of Eternity Street
2006
Director
Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception)
2008
Director
Hanky Panky January 1902
2007
Director
Nymph
2007
Director
Alone at Last
2008
Director
We Are Charming
2007
Director
What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901
2009
Director
Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra
2010
Director
20 Little Films
2012
Director
Airshaft
1967
Director
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