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Ken Jacobs

Film Director / Film Producer / Actor / Cinematographer | * 05/25/1933 (90) | Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York (United States of America (USA))
Ken Jacobs (born May 25, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American experimental filmmaker. His style often involves the use of found footage which he edits and manipulates. He has also directed films using his own footage. Ken Jacobs directed Blonde Cobra in 1963. This short film stars Jack Smith who directed his own Flaming Creatures the same year. In 1969 he directed Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1969, USA), in which he took the original 1905 short film and manipulated the footage to recontextualize it. This is considered an important first example of deconstruction in film. The film was admitted to the National Film Registry in 2007. His Star Spangled to Death (2004, USA) is a nearly seven-hour film consisting largely of found footage. Jacobs began compiling the archival footage in the 1950s and the film took years to complete. Jacobs taught at the Cinema Department at Harpur College at Binghamton University from 1969 to 2002. His son Azazel Jacobs is also a filmmaker. In the 1990s, Jacobs began working with John Zorn and e... ()
Photo of Ken Jacobs

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.

Most frequent genres for this person: Documentaries | Drama | Comedies

Known for these Movies & Shows

Awards & Nominations for Ken Jacobs

Guggenheim Fellowship Maya Deren Award
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Movies with Ken Jacobs as Actor(17)

Movies with Ken Jacobs as Crew(53)

Directing/Director2021 XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
Editing/Editor2021 XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
Directing/Director2020 Movie That Invites Pausing
Directing/Director2019 Above the Rain
Directing/Director2019 The Sky Socialist: The Environs
Directing/Director2016 I'm Telling You
Directing/Director2014 Canopy
Directing/Director2014 The Guests
Directing/Director2011 Seeking the Monkey King
Directing/Director2011 A Loft
Editing/Editor2011 A Loft
Directing/Director2009 Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
Directing/Director2008 The Scenic Route
Directing/Director2008 Return to the Scene of the Crime
Directing/Director2007 Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
Directing/Director2007 New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
Production/Producer2007 New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
Directing/Director2007 The Whirled
Directing/Director2006 Capitalism: Slavery
Directing/Director2006 Capitalism: Child Labor
Directing/Director2006 Two Wrenching Departures
Crew/Cinematography2004 Star Spangled to Death
Directing/Director2004 Star Spangled to Death
Editing/Editor2004 Star Spangled to Death
Writing/Writer2004 Star Spangled to Death
Directing/Director2002 A Tom Tom Chaser
Directing/Director1999 Flo Rounds a Corner
Directing/Director1996 Disorient Express
Directing/Director1996 The Georgetown Loop
Directing/Director1991 Keaton's Cops
Writing/Writer1991 Keaton's Cops
Directing/Director1985 Perfect Film
Directing/Director1976 Spaghetti Aza
Directing/Director1975 Urban Peasants
Directing/Director1969 Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
Directing/Director1968 The Sky Socialist
Directing/Director1967 For Life, Against the War
Crew/Cinematography1964 Window
Directing/Director1964 Window
Editing/Editor1964 Window
Production/Producer1964 Window
Directing/Director1963 The Death of P'town
Directing/Director1963 Blonde Cobra
Directing/Director1963 Little Stabs at Happiness
Directing/Director1962 Baud'larian Capers
Directing/Director1955 Orchard Street

Additional Information

Full Name: Ken Jacobs
Born: Thursday, 05/25 1933 (May) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York (United States of America (USA)) (current age: 90 years + 309 days)
Zodiac sign: Gemini (Chinese zodiac sign: Rooster)
Languages: English (EN)
Employer: Binghamton University
Represented by: Electronic Arts Intermix, Light Cone
Children: Azazel Jacobs
Ken Jacobs frequently works together with these people:
Jonas Mekas (34x, Crew)
Carlos Adriano (10x, Crew)
Stan Brakhage (6x, Crew)
Andy Warhol (6x, Crew)
Allen Ginsberg (6x, Actor)
P. Adams Sitney (6x, Cast)
Pip Chodorov (5x, Crew)
Robert Breer (5x, Crew)
Oona Mekas (5x, Cast)
Peter Kubelka (5x, Actor)
Adolfas Mekas (5x, Crew)
WatchPlayStream ID: PEOPLE:102712, Added: 06/21/2018, Last updated: 03/14/2024