Ken Jacobs
Born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA — May 25 1933• Died Oct 05 2025
Biography
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 o…
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Ken Jacobs's Credits
Browse acting and crew credits across movies and TV — filter and sort to find specific roles.
What Is Cinema?
Self
60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
Directing
365 Day Project
Self
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Self
Birth of a Nation
Self
Bill's Hat
Jonas in the Desert
Self
Lost, Lost, Lost
Self
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Self
Fragments of Paradise
Self
Momma's Man
Dad
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Self
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Self (archive footage)
Sleepless Nights Stories
Self
Art-House America: Austin Film Society
Self
Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse
Self
20 Little Films
Directing
For Life, Against the War
Directing
Horizons
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
Himself
Barber
Directing
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
Up the Illusion
Directing
Window
Crew
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
Dimsum and Dragons
Directing
Airshaft
Directing
Home Movies 1971-81
Titles
Directing
Sergei Eisenstein Embossed
Directing
Walkway
Directing
From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight
Directing
Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World
Directing
Huge Pupils
Himself
The Winter Footage
Directing
Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception)
Directing
Emma's Dilemma
Himself
Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
Himself
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
Directing
Globe
Directing
Flo Rounds a Corner
Directing
The Sky Socialist
Directing
Blonde Cobra
Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Directing
Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two
Directing
Nervous Ken
THE WHOLE SHEBANG
Directing
Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Directing
A Primer in Sky Socialism
Directing
Keeping an Eye on Stan
Directing
Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway
Directing
Bison
Directing
The Guests
Directing
Working Girls (short)
Directing
Granular
Directing
Disorient Express
Directing
Joan Mitchell: Departures
Directing
Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly
Directing
Capitalism: Slavery
Directing
Scotch Tape
Another Day in Days of Yore
Directing
XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
Editing
Tree Stump
Directing
The Discovery
Directing
Alone at Last
Directing
America Lets Her Hair Down 1905
Directing
Rubble
Directing
Windbreaker
Directing
Chrysalis
Directing
The Sky Socialist: Flight
Directing
Changing Azazel
Directing
RECIPROCAL
Directing
The Death of P'town
Directing
Two Wrenching Departures
Directing
The Signing
Directing
The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
Directing
Street Commerce
Directing
Spasm
Directing
Orchard Street
Directing
Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl
Directing
Failure
Directing
PAINTED POSTER
Directing
Lazy City
Directing
Other Urban Lives
Directing
Star Spangled to Death
Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
Real Action Figures
Directing
Rain Clouds
Directing
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
Directing
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
Period Piece
Directing
Baud'larian Capers
Directing
Spaghetti Aza
Directing
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
Himself
Little Stabs at Happiness
Directing
Duck
Directing
Urban Peasants
Directing
Adventures of Cookie Truck
Directing
Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
Directing
Once Upon a Planet
Directing
Hydroelectric Dam
Directing
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4
Directing
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
Directing
Spiky
Directing
Quartet Number One
Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance
Directing
Lavender
Self
Chaos Is Order Misunderstood
Directing
Capitalism: Child Labor
Directing
Seeking the Monkey King
Directing
Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice
Directing
America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening
Directing
The Lackadaisical Speed of Light
Directing
Chinese New Years II
Directing
Another Occupation
Directing
Book of Eternalisms 39
Directing
Tourists of the Familiar 15
Directing
Water Balloon
Directing
The Sky Socialist: The Environs
Directing
Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture
Directing
Batchellor’s Dog and Beach
Directing
A Tom Tom Chaser
Directing
Red Green
Directing
Krypton Is Doomed
Directing
We Are Charming
Directing
Hot Dogs At The Met
Directing
Floral
Directing
Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
Directing
Brick Building with Red and Green Windows
Directing
A Small Misunderstanding
Directing
I'm Telling You
Directing
Perfect Film
Directing
Reading Society
Directing
Municipal Building Passage
Directing
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
Directing
Garage Wall
Directing
Zazie Learns About Money
Directing
Eternal Beach
Directing
Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness
Directing
Storefront
Directing
Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art
Self
The Surging Sea of Humanity
Directing
Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
Directing
Popeye Sees 3-D
Directing
Bandit
Directing
The Near-Collision
Directing
Buster Keaton Embossed
Directing
New York Street Trolleys 1900
Directing
DAY AND NIGHT
Directing
Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul
Directing
Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence
Directing
Doyer Street
Directing
Street Vendor
Directing
Pushcarts of Eternity Street
Directing
Resting Merchant
Directing
Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks)
Directing
Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures
Directing
OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN
Directing
Tourists of the Familiar 5
Directing
Canopy
Directing
Sleeping American
Directing
Waiting Room Window
Directing
Natural Collage
Directing
Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Directing
Abstract Eternalism
Directing
Mountaineer Spinning
Directing
The Whirled
Directing
Turbulent Waters
Directing
The Green Wave
Directing
Wire Fence
Directing
Central Park
Directing
Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Directing
Things to Come
Directing
Chinese New Years
Directing
Let There Be Whistleblowers
Directing
Berkeley To San Francisco
Directing
Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3)
Directing
DR. TOOTHY
Directing
Elbow Dance
Directing
Brain Operations
Directing
CRUSH
Directing
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1
Directing
Love Story
Directing
Cartoon
Directing
Broadway Buildings II
Directing
We Stole Away
Directing
Fire Escape
Directing
Neon Sign
Directing
Bitemporal Vision: The Sea
Directing
Brook
Directing
Pygmalion Cubed
Directing
Return to the Scene of the Crime
Directing
Bargains
Directing
City Foliage
Directing
Spotted Fever
Directing
Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor
Directing
The Roses
Directing
Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Directing
ABSTRACT
Directing
Soft Rain
Directing
Empty Seats
Directing
Monks of Cinema
Camera
Foliage in Moving Car Window
Directing
When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves
Directing
The Alps and The Jews
Directing
Lurking
Directing
Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival
Directing
Writhing City
Directing
Halley’s Comet
Directing
Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three
Directing
Above the Rain
Directing
TV Plug
Directing
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
Directing
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
Directing
Details of Pollock's White Light
Directing
Nymph
Directing
DeKooning Passed
Directing
Revolving Door
Directing
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42
Directing
Spiral Nebula
Directing
Hanky Panky January 1902
Directing
Tourists of the Familiar 10
Directing
“Slow is Beauty”—Rodin
Directing
Clouds and Trees
Directing
Movie That Invites Pausing
Directing
Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra
Directing
Nissan Ariana Window
Directing
MOVING ROAD
Directing
Winter Sky
Directing
Keaton's Cops
Writing
Street Commerce II
Directing
Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Directing
Make Light On Film
Directing
Hoffman Student
Directing
The Scenic Route
Directing
Get Up and Go
Directing
Ken and Flo
Directing
The Eternal Courtship
Tourists of the Familiar 1
Directing
Shorts From the Underground
Self
Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888
Directing
Hubble II
Directing
Aspiring To Music
Directing
Friendly Building
Directing
Mosco Street 2
Directing
Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO
Directing
The Moments: Evening Boat Ride
Directing
Little Cobra Dance
Directing
Broadway Building
Directing
Book of Eternalisms 1-6
Directing
Whirlpool
Directing
Molten Landscape
Directing
Broadway Buildings III
Directing
The Day Was a Scorcher
Directing
Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms
Directing
Snow in Headlights II
Directing
Transparent Apartments
Directing
A Loft
Editing
Chronometer
Directing
Gravity Is Tops
Directing
Flowers and Bike
Directing
The Doctor's Dream
Directing
Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes
Directing
A Spin Through Night City
Directing
Blankets for Indians
Directing
Binghamton, My India
Directing
Spaceworks
Directing
Bob Fleischner Dying
Directing
Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Directing
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Directing
Ulysses in the Subway
Directing
Double Wow
Directing
Along the Elevated
Directing
Mosco Street Rapture
Directing
Let There Be Whistle Blowers
Directing
Insistent Clamor
Directing
Celestial Bodies
Directing
Figures I - V
Directing
Tourists of the Familiar 20
Directing
One Dozen Roses
Directing
Lisa and Joey in Connecticut
Directing
Looting For Rodney
Directing
The Georgetown Loop
Directing
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3
Directing
Cartoonish 1-10
Directing
1st Window
Directing
Facade with Face
Directing
Reichstag 9/11
Directing
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40
Directing
Roots of Manhattan
Directing
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
Directing
What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901
Directing
PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO
Directing
Downtown Loft with Skylights
Directing
Sky Dive
Directing
Afternoon Tide
Directing
Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified
Directing
BMT Canal Street
Directing
Depth for One Eye or Two
Directing
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41
Directing
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43
Directing