Directing
Ken Jacobs
EN, XX, PT, DE cinema · 315 credits
Born
25 May 1933
Died
5 October 2025 (aged 92)
Birthplace
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Also known as 켄 제이콥스
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
Filmography
Sky Dive
Director
Spotted Fever
Director
BMT
2025
BMT
Director
Up the Illusion
Actor, Director
Spasm
Director
Writhing City
Director
Double Wow
Director
XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
Editor, Director
Eternal Beach
Director
Rubble
Director
Rain Clouds
Director
RECIPROCAL
Director
PAINTED POSTER
Director
DR. TOOTHY
Director
Red Green
Director
Ken and Flo
Director
Barber
Director
Doyer Street
Director
Lazy City
Director
Bison
Director
Bargains
Director
City Foliage
Director
Fire Escape
Director
Duck
Director
Neon Sign
Director
Halley’s Comet
Director
Water Balloon
Director
Spaceworks
Director
Period Piece
Director
Garage Wall
Director
Whirlpool
Director
Hubble II
Director
Spiky
Director
Storefront
Director
Cartoon
Director
Above the Rain
Director
Things to Come
Director
Failure
Director
CRUSH
Director
Figures I - V
Director
MOVING ROAD
Director
ABSTRACT
Director
Tree Stump
Director
Reichstag 9/11
Director
Mosco Street 2
Director
Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
Central Park
Director
Chrysalis
Director
Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
2015
Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
Director, Writer
Afternoon Tide
Director
Empty Seats
Director
Granular
Director
Canopy
Director
What Is Cinema?
as Self
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
Director, Technical Supervisor
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4
2013
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4
Director
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3
2013
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3
Director
Emma's Dilemma
as Himself
20 Little Films
Director
Street Vendor
Director
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
Actor, Director
DAY AND NIGHT
Director
Another Occupation
Director, Writer
The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
Director, Writer
The Green Wave
Director
The Roses
Director
Turbulent Waters
Director
Lavender
as Self
Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
as Himself
A Loft
Editor, Director
The Day Was a Scorcher
Director, Writer
The Signing
Director
Brook
Director
Walkway
Director
Momma's Man
as Dad
Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception)
Director
365 Day Project
as Self
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
Director, Producer
Capitalism: Slavery
Director
Nymph
Director
Titles
2007
Titles
Director
Monks of Cinema
Camera Operator
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
Director, Producer, Editor
Spiral Nebula
Director, Writer
Star Spangled to Death
as Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor, Director, Editor, Cinematography, Writer
The Whirled
Director
Flo Rounds a Corner
Director
The Georgetown Loop
Director
Keaton's Cops
Writer, Director
Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
Director, Writer
Chronometer
Director
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
as Self (archive footage)
Perfect Film
Director
Lost, Lost, Lost
as Self
Spaghetti Aza
Director
Urban Peasants
Director
Horizons
Actor
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
Actor
Globe
Director
Huge Pupils
as Himself
Soft Rain
Director
Airshaft
Director
Window
Cinematography, Producer, Director, Editor
1st Window
Director
Blonde Cobra
Actor, Director
TV Plug
Director
The Death of P'town
Director
Orchard Street
Director