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.
Acting
Movie
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
as Self
2000
Movie
Blonde Cobra
1963
Movie
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
as Self
1968
Movie
What Is Cinema?
as Self
2013
Movie
Lost, Lost, Lost
as Self
1976
Movie
Scotch Tape
1962
Movie
Momma's Man
as Dad
2008
Movie
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
as Himself
2011
Movie
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
as Himself
2011
Movie
Star Spangled to Death
as Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
2004
Movie
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
as Self (archive footage)
1986
Movie
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
as Self
2007
Movie
Sleepless Nights Stories
as Self
2011
Movie
Horizons
1973
Movie
Jonas in the Desert
as Self
1994
Movie
Fragments of Paradise
as Self
2022
Movie
Birth of a Nation
as Self
1997
Movie
Quartet Number One
1991
Movie
365 Day Project
as Self
2007
Movie
Emma's Dilemma
as Himself
2012
Movie
Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
as Himself
2010
Movie
Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse
as Self
2025
Movie
Lavender
as Self
2010
Movie
Home Movies 1971-81
1985
Crew
Movie
Blonde Cobra
Director
1963
Movie
Little Stabs at Happiness
Director
1963
Movie
Capitalism: Slavery
Director
2007
Movie
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
Director
1969
Movie
Star Spangled to Death
Director
2004
Movie
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
Director
2005
Movie
The Georgetown Loop
Director
1996
Movie
60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
Director
2011
Movie
Seeking the Monkey King
Director
2011
Movie
Flo Rounds a Corner
Director
1999
Movie
Window
Cinematography
1964
Movie
Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
Director
2007