Directing · Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA · Born May 25, 1933
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.
MovieArt Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse
2025
as Self
MovieKen Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art
2023
as Self
MovieArt-House America: Austin Film Society
2023
as Self
MovieUp the Illusion
2023
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022
MovieFragments of Paradise
2022
as Self
MovieReminiscences of Jonas Mekas
2016
MovieWhat Is Cinema?
2013
as Self
MovieThe Eternal Courtship
2013
MovieEmma's Dilemma
2012
as Himself
MovieSleepless Nights Stories
2011
as Self
MovieFree Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
2011
as Himself
MovieCinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
2011
as Himself
MovieCyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011
MovieSantos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
2010
as Himself
MovieLavender
2010
as Self
MovieMomma's Man
2008
as Dad
Movie365 Day Project
2007
as Self
MovieJack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007
as Self
MovieStar Spangled to Death
2004
as Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
MovieNervous Ken
2003
Shorts From the Underground
2002
as Self
Flo and Ken Jacobs
2001
MovieAs I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000
as Self
MovieBirth of a Nation
1997
as Self
MovieJonas in the Desert
1994
as Self
MovieQuartet Number One
1991
MovieHe Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1986
as Self (archive footage)
MovieHome Movies 1971-81
1985
MovieLost, Lost, Lost
1976
as Self
MovieHorizons
1973
MovieNotes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
1973
MovieHuge Pupils
1968
as Himself
MovieDiaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968
as Self
MovieBill's Hat
1967
MovieBlonde Cobra
1963
MovieScotch Tape
1962
