Ken Jacobs
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- 25 May 1933 · Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Died
- 5 October 2025
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
Directing 280
- 2026Depth for One Eye or Two · director
- 2026Sky Dive · director
- 2026Spotted Fever · director
- 2026Downtown Loft with Skylights · director
- 2026A Date with Shirley · director
- 2026BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43 · director
- 2026BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41 · director
- 2026BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42 · director
- 2025BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40 · director
- 2025Book of Eternalisms 39 · director
- 2025BMT · director
- 2024Riverbed · director
- 2024Tourists of the Familiar 70 · director
- 2023Book of Eternalisms 8 · director
- 2023Book of Eternalisms 7 · director
- 2023For James Otis · director
- 2023Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde · director
- 2023Writhing City · director
- 2023Up the Illusion · director
- 2023From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight · director
- 2023Other Urban Lives · director
- 2023Book of Eternalisms 1-6 · director
- 2023Tourists of the Familiar 20 · director
- 2023Hobgoblin Ball · director
- 2023Spasm · director
- 2023Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three · director
- 2023Tourists of the Familiar 1 · director
- 2023Tourists of the Familiar 10 · director
- 2023Manhattan is an Island · director
- 2023Tourists of the Familiar 5 · director
- 2023Tourists of the Familiar 15 · director
- 2022Real Action Figures · director
- 2022When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves · director
- 2022Sergei Eisenstein Embossed · director
- 2022Buster Keaton Embossed · director
- 2022One Dozen Roses · director
- 2022America Let's Her Hair Down 1905 · director
- 2022Eat the Rich: Aligning Perspectives and Other Challenges to Viewers · director
- 2021Eternal Beach · director
- 2021Abstract Eternalism · director
- 2021Double Wow · director
- 2021XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX · director
- 2021Aspiring To Music · director
- 2021Adventures of Cookie Truck · director
- 2021Cartoonish 1-10 · director
- 2021Hoffman Student · director
- 2021In Front of Anthology · director
- 2021A Small Misunderstanding · director
- 2020Movie That Invites Pausing · director
- 2020Transparent Apartments · director
- 2020Storefront · director
- 2020Spiky · director
- 2020Clouds and Trees · director
- 2020Municipal Building Passage · director
- 2020Bandit · director
- 2020Whirlpool · director
- 2020Hubble II · director
- 2020Water Balloon · director
- 2020Halley’s Comet · director
- 2020Spaceworks · director
- 2020Another Day in Days of Yore · director
- 2020Garage Wall · director
- 2020Period Piece · director
- 2020Street Commerce II · director
- 2020Street Commerce · director
- 2020Resting Merchant · director
- 2020Broadway Buildings III · director
- 2020Broadway Buildings II · director
- 2020Neon Sign · director
- 2020Flowers and Bike · director
- 2020Chinese New Years · director
- 2020Fire Escape · director
- 2020Broadway Building · director
- 2020Chinese New Years II · director
- 2020Brick Building with Red and Green Windows · director
- 2020Duck · director
- 2020DeKooning Passed · director
- 2020Roots of Manhattan · director
- 2020Lazy City · director
- 2020Natural Collage · director
- 2020Working Girls (short) · director
- 2020Doyer Street · director
- 2020City Foliage · director
- 2020Sleeping American · director
- 2020Reading Society · director
- 2020Waiting Room Window · director
- 2020Bison · director
- 2020Friendly Building · director
- 2020Bargains · director
- 2020Facade with Face · director
- 2020Barber · director
- 2020Foliage in Moving Car Window · director
- 2020RECIPROCAL · director
- 2020Red Green · director
- 2020Ken and Flo · director
- 2020PAINTED POSTER · director
- 2020Rain Clouds · director
- 2020DR. TOOTHY · director
- 2020Rubble · director
- 2019CRUSH · director
- 2019PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO · director
- 2019Failure · director
- 2019Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party · director
- 2019MOVING ROAD · director
- 2019Things to Come · director
- 2019Figures I - V · director
- 2019ABSTRACT · director
- 2019THE WHOLE SHEBANG · director
- 2019Chaos Is Order Misunderstood · director
- 2019Above the Rain · director
- 2019The Sky Socialist: The Environs · director
- 2019Joan Mitchell: Departures · director
- 2019Once Upon a Planet · director
- 2019Details of Pollock's White Light · director
- 2019Cartoon · director
- 2019Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes · director
- 2019Dimsum and Dragons · director
- 2018The Moments: Evening Boat Ride · director
- 2018Tree Stump · director
- 2017Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms · director
- 2017Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl · director
- 2017Along the Elevated · director
- 2017A Spin Through Night City · director
- 2017Get Up and Go · director
- 2017Beautiful Dreamer · director
- 2017Ulysses in the Subway · director
- 2017Windbreaker · director
- 2017Capitalism Defeats Life on Earth, Cab in Rain · director
- 2016Central Park · director
- 2016Snow in Headlights II · director
- 2016Reichstag 9/11 · director
- 2016BMT Canal Street · director
- 2016Mosco Street 2 · director
- 2016Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3) · director
- 2016Molten Landscape · director
- 2016Lurking · director
- 2016Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival · director
- 2016Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival · director
- 2016Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival · director
- 2016Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival · director
- 2016Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival · director
- 2016Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival · director
- 2016Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival · director
- 2016Hydroelectric Dam · director
- 2016I'm Telling You · director
- 2015Empty Seats · director
- 2015Batchellor’s Dog and Beach · director
- 2015Afternoon Tide · director
- 2015Zazie Learns About Money · director
- 2015Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul · director
- 2015Chrysalis · director
- 2015Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies · director
- 2015Floral · director
- 2015Granular · director
- 2015The Lackadaisical Speed of Light · director
- 2014Wire Fence · director
- 2014Canopy · director
- 2014Pygmalion Cubed · director
- 2014Celestial Bodies · director
- 2014The Guests · director
- 2014Popeye Sees 3-D · director
- 2013Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3 · director
- 2013Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1 · director
- 2013A Primer in Sky Socialism · director
- 2013Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4 · director
- 2013Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2 · director
- 2012Blankets for Indians · director
- 2012Street Vendor · director
- 201220 Little Films · director
- 201160 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero · director
- 2011OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN · director
- 2011Seeking the Monkey King · director
- 2011The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street · director
- 2011America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening · director
- 2011Revolving Door · director
- 2011Turbulent Waters · director
- 2011The Roses · director
- 2011The Green Wave · director
- 2011Another Occupation · director
- 2011Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman · director
- 2011DAY AND NIGHT · director
- 2010A Loft · director
- 2010Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway · director
- 2010The Near-Collision · director
- 2010Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two · director
- 2010Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra · director
- 2009Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days · director
- 2009Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified · director
- 2009Walkway · director
- 2009Brook · director
- 2009Brain Operations · director
- 2009Bob Fleischner Dying · director
- 2009Berkeley To San Francisco · director
- 2009What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901 · director
- 2009“Slow is Beauty”—Rodin · director
- 2009Hot Dogs At The Met · director
- 2009Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor · director
- 2009Gravity Is Tops · director
- 2009The Day Was a Scorcher · director
- 2009The Signing · director
- 2008Return to the Scene of the Crime · director
- 2008Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception) · director
- 2008The Discovery · director
- 2008Alone at Last · director
- 2008Elbow Dance · director
- 2008The Scenic Route · director
- 2008Love Story · director
- 2008Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks) · director
- 2007We Are Charming · director
- 2007Nymph · director
- 2007Hanky Panky January 1902 · director
- 2007Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World · director
- 2007Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO · director
- 2007Mosco Street Rapture · director
- 2007Titles · director
- 2007Capitalism: Slavery · director
- 2007Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World · director
- 2007Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival · director
- 2007New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 · director
- 2007Capitalism: Child Labor · director
- 2006Pushcarts of Eternity Street · director
- 2006Two Wrenching Departures · director
- 2006The Surging Sea of Humanity · director
- 2005Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise · director
- 2005Incendiary Cinema · director
- 2005Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888 · director
- 2005Insistent Clamor · director
- 2005Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly · director
- 2005Krypton Is Doomed · director
- 2005Spiral Nebula · director
- 2005Let There Be Whistle Blowers · director
- 2004Mountaineer Spinning · director
- 2004Star Spangled to Death · director
- 2003Keeping an Eye on Stan · director
- 2002Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence · director
- 2002The Sky Socialist: Flight · director
- 2002A Tom Tom Chaser · director
- 1999New York Street-Trollys 1900 · director
- 1999Flo Rounds a Corner · director
- 1996Disorient Express · director
- 1996The Georgetown Loop · director
- 1995Looting For Rodney · director
- 1995Make Light On Film · director
- 1994Bitemporal Vision: The Sea · director
- 1991Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896 · director
- 1991Keaton's Cops · director
- 1990Chronometer · director
- 1986The Alps and The Jews · director
- 1985Perfect Film · director
- 1977The Doctor's Dream · director
- 1977Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance · director
- 1976Spaghetti Aza · director
- 1975Urban Peasants · director
- 1975Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture · director
- 1973Changing Azazel · director
- 1970Binghamton, My India · director
- 1969Nissan Ariana Window · director
- 1969Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son · director
- 1969Globe · director
- 1968The Sky Socialist · director
- 1968Soft Rain · director
- 1967For Life, Against the War · director
- 1967Airshaft · director
- 1965Lisa and Joey in Connecticut · director
- 1965Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness · director
- 19641st Window · director
- 1964Window · director
- 1964We Stole Away · director
- 1964The Winter Footage · director
- 1964Winter Sky · director
- 1964Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures · director
- 1963Little Stabs at Happiness · director
- 1963TV Plug · director
- 1963Blonde Cobra · director
- 1962Baud'larian Capers · director
- 1961The Whirled · director
- 1961The Death of P'town · director
- 1956Little Cobra Dance · director
- 1956Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice · director
- 1955Orchard Street · director
Acting 38
- 2025Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse as Self
- 2023Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art as Self
- 2023Art-House America: Austin Film Society as Self
- 2023Up the Illusion
- 2022Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
- 2022Fragments of Paradise as Self
- 2016Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
- 2013What Is Cinema? as Self
- 2013The Eternal Courtship
- 2012Emma's Dilemma as Himself
- 2011Sleepless Nights Stories as Self
- 2011Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film as Himself
- 2011Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin as Himself
- 2011Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
- 2010Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta? as Himself
- 2010Lavender as Self
- 2008Momma's Man as Dad
- 2007365 Day Project as Self
- 2007Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis as Self
- 2004Star Spangled to Death as Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
- 2003Nervous Ken
- 2002Shorts From the Underground as Self
- 2001Flo and Ken Jacobs
- 2000As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty as Self
- 1999Laboratorium Anthology
- 1997Birth of a Nation as Self
- 1994Jonas in the Desert as Self
- 1991Quartet Number One
- 1986He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life as Self (archive footage)
- 1985Home Movies 1971-81
- 1976Lost, Lost, Lost as Self
- 1973Horizons
- 1973Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
- 1968Huge Pupils as Himself
- 1968Diaries, Notes, and Sketches as Self
- 1967Bill's Hat
- 1963Blonde Cobra
- 1962Scotch Tape
Editing 5
- 2021XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX · editor
- 2010A Loft · editor
- 2005Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise · editor
- 2004Star Spangled to Death · editor
- 1964Window · editor
Writing 8
- 2015Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies · writer
- 2011The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street · writer
- 2011Another Occupation · writer
- 2009The Day Was a Scorcher · writer
- 2005Spiral Nebula · writer
- 2004Star Spangled to Death · writer
- 1991Keaton's Cops · writer
- 1991Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896 · writer
crew 3
- 2013Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2 · technical supervisor
- 2004Star Spangled to Death · cinematography
- 1964Window · cinematography
Production 3
- 2007New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 · producer
- 2005Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise · producer
- 1964Window · producer
Camera 1
- 2006Monks of Cinema · camera operator