KEN JACOBS

Ken Jacobs
Ken Jacobs
Gender: Male
Known for: Directing
Birthday: May 25, 1933
Deathday: October 5, 2025
Place of Birth: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA

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.

Filmography

Starring

2025·
Art Spiegelman: Disaster Is My Muse
Self
2023·
Up the Illusion
2023·
Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art
Self
2023·
Art-House America: Austin Film Society
Self
2022·
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022·
Fragments of Paradise
Self
2016·
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
2013·
The Eternal Courtship
2013·
What Is Cinema?
Self
2012·
Emma's Dilemma
Himself
2011·
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011·
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
Himself
2011·
Sleepless Nights Stories
Self
2011·
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
Himself
2010·
Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
Himself
2010·
Lavender
Self
2008·
Momma's Man
Dad
2007·
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Self
2007·
365 Day Project
Self
2004·
Star Spangled to Death
Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
2003·
Nervous Ken
2002·
Shorts From the Underground
Self
2001·
Flo and Ken Jacobs
2000·
As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Self
1997·
Birth of a Nation
Self
1994·
Jonas in the Desert
Self
1991·
Quartet Number One
1986·
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Self (archive footage)
1985·
Home Movies 1971-81
1976·
Lost, Lost, Lost
Self
1973·
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
1973·
Horizons
1968·
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Self
1968·
Huge Pupils
Himself
1967·
Bill's Hat
1963·
Blonde Cobra
1962·
Scotch Tape

Production

2026·
A Date with Shirley
Director
2026·
Downtown Loft with Skylights
Director
2026·
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43
Director
2026·
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42
Director
2025·
BMT
Director
2024·
Riverbed
Director
2023·
Book of Eternalisms 7
Director
2023·
For James Otis
Director
2021·
In Front of Anthology
Director
TBA·
Spotted Fever
Director
TBA·
Depth for One Eye or Two
Director
TBA·
Sky Dive
Director
2026·
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41
Director
2025·
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40
Director
2025·
Book of Eternalisms 39
Director
2024·
Tourists of the Familiar 70
Director
2023·
Book of Eternalisms 8
Director
2023·
Hobgoblin Ball
Director
2023·
Manhattan is an Island
Director
2023·
Writhing City
Director
2023·
From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight
Director
2023·
Other Urban Lives
Director
2023·
Book of Eternalisms 1-6
Director
2023·
Tourists of the Familiar 20
Director
2023·
Tourists of the Familiar 15
Director
2023·
Tourists of the Familiar 10
Director
2023·
Tourists of the Familiar 5
Director
2023·
Tourists of the Familiar 1
Director
2023·
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Director
2023·
Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three
Director
2023·
Up the Illusion
Director
2023·
Spasm
Director
2022·
Eat the Rich: Aligning Perspectives and Other Challenges to Viewers
Director
2022·
When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves
Director
2022·
Real Action Figures
Director
2022·
America Lets Her Hair Down 1905
Director
2022·
One Dozen Roses
Director
2022·
Buster Keaton Embossed
Director
2022·
Sergei Eisenstein Embossed
Director
2021·
Aspiring To Music
Director
2021·
XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
Director, Editor
2021·
Eternal Beach
Director
2021·
Hoffman Student
Director
2021·
Adventures of Cookie Truck
Director
2021·
A Small Misunderstanding
Director
2021·
Cartoonish 1-10
Director
2021·
Abstract Eternalism
Director
2021·
Double Wow
Director
2020·
Movie That Invites Pausing
Director
2020·
Clouds and Trees
Director
2020·
Municipal Building Passage
Director
2020·
Storefront
Director
2020·
Spiky
Director
2020·
Transparent Apartments
Director
2020·
Hubble II
Director
2020·
Whirlpool
Director
2020·
Garage Wall
Director
2020·
Another Day in Days of Yore
Director
2020·
Bandit
Director
2020·
Period Piece
Director
2020·
Spaceworks
Director
2020·
Water Balloon
Director
2020·
Halley’s Comet
Director
2020·
Street Commerce II
Director
2020·
Flowers and Bike
Director
2020·
Neon Sign
Director
2020·
Resting Merchant
Director
2020·
Street Commerce
Director
2020·
Duck
Director
2020·
Broadway Building
Director
2020·
Fire Escape
Director
2020·
Brick Building with Red and Green Windows
Director
2020·
Chinese New Years
Director
2020·
Chinese New Years II
Director
2020·
Broadway Buildings III
Director
2020·
City Foliage
Director
2020·
Bargains
Director
2020·
Broadway Buildings II
Director
2020·
Friendly Building
Director
2020·
Working Girls (short)
Director
2020·
Bison
Director
2020·
Natural Collage
Director
2020·
Waiting Room Window
Director
2020·
Lazy City
Director
2020·
Reading Society
Director
2020·
Roots of Manhattan
Director
2020·
Sleeping American
Director
2020·
DeKooning Passed
Director
2020·
Doyer Street
Director
2020·
Facade with Face
Director
2020·
Foliage in Moving Car Window
Director
2020·
Barber
Director
2020·
Ken and Flo
Director
2020·
Red Green
Director
2020·
DR. TOOTHY
Director
2020·
PAINTED POSTER
Director
2020·
RECIPROCAL
Director
2020·
Rain Clouds
Director
2020·
Rubble
Director
2019·
ABSTRACT
Director
2019·
MOVING ROAD
Director
2019·
PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO
Director
2019·
Figures I - V
Director
2019·
CRUSH
Director
2019·
Failure
Director
2019·
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
Director
2019·
Things to Come
Director
2019·
THE WHOLE SHEBANG
Director
2019·
The Sky Socialist: The Environs
Director
2019·
Above the Rain
Director
2019·
Once Upon a Planet
Director
2019·
Joan Mitchell: Departures
Director
2019·
Details of Pollock's White Light
Director
2019·
Dimsum and Dragons
Director
2019·
Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes
Director
2019·
Chaos Is Order Misunderstood
Director
2019·
Cartoon
Director
2018·
Tree Stump
Director
2018·
The Moments: Evening Boat Ride
Director
2017·
Beautiful Dreamer
Director
2017·
Capitalism Defeats Life on Earth, Cab in Rain
Director
2017·
Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms
Director
2017·
Along the Elevated
Director
2017·
Get Up and Go
Director
2017·
Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl
Director
2017·
A Spin Through Night City
Director
2017·
Ulysses in the Subway
Director
2017·
Windbreaker
Director
2016·
BMT Canal Street
Director
2016·
Central Park
Director
2016·
Snow in Headlights II
Director
2016·
Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016·
Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016·
Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016·
Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016·
Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016·
Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016·
Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016·
Molten Landscape
Director
2016·
Lurking
Director
2016·
I'm Telling You
Director
2016·
Hydroelectric Dam
Director
2016·
Mosco Street 2
Director
2016·
Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3)
Director
2016·
Reichstag 9/11
Director
2015·
Floral
Director
2015·
Granular
Director
2015·
Zazie Learns About Money
Director
2015·
Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul
Director
2015·
The Lackadaisical Speed of Light
Director
2015·
Batchellor’s Dog and Beach
Director
2015·
Empty Seats
Director
2015·
Afternoon Tide
Director
2015·
Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
Writer, Director
2015·
Chrysalis
Director
2014·
Celestial Bodies
Director
2014·
Pygmalion Cubed
Director
2014·
Popeye Sees 3-D
Director
2014·
Wire Fence
Director
2014·
The Guests
Director
2014·
Canopy
Director
2013·
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1
Director
2013·
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3
Director
2013·
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4
Director
2013·
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
Technical Supervisor, Director
2013·
A Primer in Sky Socialism
Director
2012·
Street Vendor
Director
2012·
20 Little Films
Director
2012·
Blankets for Indians
Director
2011·
OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN
Director
2011·
Turbulent Waters
Director
2011·
60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
Director
2011·
Revolving Door
Director
2011·
The Roses
Director
2011·
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
Director
2011·
The Green Wave
Director
2011·
The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
Writer, Director
2011·
Another Occupation
Writer, Director
2011·
America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening
Director
2011·
DAY AND NIGHT
Director
2011·
Seeking the Monkey King
Director
2010·
The Near-Collision
Director
2010·
Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway
Director
2010·
Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra
Director
2010·
Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two
Director
2010·
A Loft
Director, Editor
2009·
Walkway
Director
2009·
Gravity Is Tops
Director
2009·
Hot Dogs At The Met
Director
2009·
Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor
Director
2009·
Brook
Director
2009·
Bob Fleischner Dying
Director
2009·
Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified
Director
2009·
Brain Operations
Director
2009·
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
Director
2009·
What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901
Director
2009·
"Slow is Beauty"-Rodin
Director
2009·
Berkeley To San Francisco
Director
2009·
The Signing
Director
2009·
The Day Was a Scorcher
Writer, Director
2008·
Love Story
Director
2008·
Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception)
Director
2008·
Elbow Dance
Director
2008·
Alone at Last
Director
2008·
The Discovery
Director
2008·
The Scenic Route
Director
2008·
Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks)
Director
2008·
Return to the Scene of the Crime
Director
2007·
Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival
Director
2007·
Mosco Street Rapture
Director
2007·
Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO
Director
2007·
Titles
Director
2007·
We Are Charming
Director
2007·
Hanky Panky January 1902
Director
2007·
Nymph
Director
2007·
Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World
Director
2007·
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
Producer, Director
2007·
Capitalism: Slavery
Director
2007·
Capitalism: Child Labor
Director
2007·
Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
Director
2006·
Monks of Cinema
Camera Operator
2006·
Pushcarts of Eternity Street
Director
2006·
Two Wrenching Departures
Director
2006·
The Surging Sea of Humanity
Director
2005·
Insistent Clamor
Director
2005·
Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888
Director
2005·
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
Editor, Producer, Director
2005·
Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly
Director
2005·
Spiral Nebula
Writer, Director
2005·
Krypton Is Doomed
Director
2005·
Let There Be Whistle Blowers
Director
2004·
Star Spangled to Death
Writer, Cinematography, Editor, Director
2004·
Mountaineer Spinning
Director
2003·
Keeping an Eye on Stan
Director
2003·
The Whirled
Director
2002·
The Sky Socialist: Flight
Director
2002·
Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence
Director
2002·
A Tom Tom Chaser
Director
1999·
New York Street Trolleys 1900
Director
1999·
Flo Rounds a Corner
Director
1996·
Disorient Express
Director
1996·
The Georgetown Loop
Director
1995·
Make Light On Film
Director
1995·
Looting For Rodney
Director
1994·
Bitemporal Vision: The Sea
Director
1991·
Keaton's Cops
Director, Writer
1991·
Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
Writer, Director
1990·
Chronometer
Director
1986·
The Alps and The Jews
Director
1985·
Perfect Film
Director
1977·
Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance
Director
1977·
The Doctor's Dream
Director
1976·
Spaghetti Aza
Director
1975·
Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture
Director
1975·
Urban Peasants
Director
1973·
Changing Azazel
Director
1970·
Binghamton, My India
Director
1969·
Globe
Director
1969·
Nissan Ariana Window
Director
1969·
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
Director
1968·
Soft Rain
Director
1967·
For Life, Against the War
Director
1967·
Airshaft
Director
1966·
The Sky Socialist
Director
1965·
Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness
Director
1965·
Lisa and Joey in Connecticut
Director
1964·
1st Window
Director
1964·
Winter Sky
Director
1964·
We Stole Away
Director
1964·
The Winter Footage
Director
1964·
Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures
Director
1964·
Window
Editor, Director, Producer, Cinematography
1963·
TV Plug
Director
1963·
Little Stabs at Happiness
Director
1963·
Blonde Cobra
Director
1962·
Baud'larian Capers
Director
1961·
The Death of P'town
Director
1956·
Little Cobra Dance
Director
1956·
Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice
Director
1955·
Orchard Street
Director