Cast & creator
Ken Jacobs
Best known for As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty, Diaries, Notes, and Sketches, Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse
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.
Also known as: 켄 제이콥스
337
film credits
0
television credits
38
1955–2026 · acting roles
6.2
average across scored titles
Signature credits
Known for
Across film & television
Filmography (337)
Showing 337 of 337 credits
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Self
2000
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
Self
1968
Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse
Self
2025
Art-House America: Austin Film Society
Self
2023
60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
Director
2011
365 Day Project
Self
2007
Birth of a Nation
Self
1997
20 Little Films
Director
2012
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Self (archive footage)
1986
Jonas in the Desert
Self
1994
For Life, Against the War
Director
1967
Fragments of Paradise
Self
2022
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Self
2007
Home Movies 1971-81
1985
Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
Himself
2010
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
Himself
2011
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
1973
What Is Cinema?
Self
2013
Laboratorium Anthology
1999
Blonde Cobra
1963Blonde Cobra
Director
1963
Sleepless Nights Stories
Self
2011
Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
2016
Lost, Lost, Lost
Self
1976
Up the Illusion
2023Up the Illusion
Director
2023
Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
Director
2011
From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight
Director
2023Flo and Ken Jacobs
2001
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
Director
2009
Flo Rounds a Corner
Director
1999Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022
Bill's Hat
1967
Star Spangled to Death
Oscar Friendly / Ringmaster / Janitor
2004Star Spangled to Death
Director
2004Star Spangled to Death
Cinematography
2004Star Spangled to Death
Writer
2004Star Spangled to Death
Editor
2004
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
Himself
2011
Little Stabs at Happiness
Director
1963
Seeking the Monkey King
Director
2011
Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice
Director
1956
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
Director
2019
Momma's Man
Dad
2008
Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World
Director
2007
The Death of P'town
Director
1961
Return to the Scene of the Crime
Director
2008
Movie That Invites Pausing
Director
2020
Two Wrenching Departures
Director
2006Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO
Director
2007
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
Director
2007New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
Producer
2007
Lavender
Self
2010Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two
Director
2010
New York Street Trolleys 1900
Director
1999
Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888
Director
2005
The Day Was a Scorcher
Director
2009The Day Was a Scorcher
Writer
2009
Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl
Director
2017
"Slow is Beauty"-Rodin
Director
2009
What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901
Director
2009
Lisa and Joey in Connecticut
Director
1965
Ulysses in the Subway
Director
2017
Bitemporal Vision: The Sea
Director
1994Zazie Learns About Money
Director
2015
Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
Director
2007
Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016
Baud'larian Capers
Director
1962
Keeping an Eye on Stan
Director
2003
Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks)
Director
2008
Orchard Street
Director
1955Shorts From the Underground
Self
2002
Book of Eternalisms 8
Director
2023
Book of Eternalisms 1-6
Director
2023The Alps and The Jews
Director
1986
Scotch Tape
1963
Quartet Number One
1991
Horizons
1973
Let There Be Whistle Blowers
Director
2005
Perfect Film
Director
1985
Hanky Panky January 1902
Director
2007
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
Technical Supervisor
2013Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
Director
2013Popeye Sees 3-D
Director
2014
Little Cobra Dance
Director
1956
Once Upon a Planet
Director
2019
Snow in Headlights II
Director
2016
Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway
Director
2010
Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016
Tourists of the Familiar 20
Director
2023
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
Director
2005Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
Editor
2005Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
Producer
2005
Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture
Director
1975
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
Director
1969Berkeley To San Francisco
Director
2009
The Lackadaisical Speed of Light
Director
2015
Central Park
Director
2016
The Eternal Courtship
2013Make Light On Film
Director
1995
The Doctor's Dream
Director
1977Hot Dogs At The Met
Director
2009
Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence
Director
2002
Pushcarts of Eternity Street
Director
2006Capitalism Defeats Life on Earth, Cab in Rain
Director
2017
Emma's Dilemma
Himself
2012
Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
Director
1991Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
Writer
1991I'm Telling You
Director
2016Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
Writer
2015Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
Director
2015Get Up and Go
Director
2017
Batchellor’s Dog and Beach
Director
2015
Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance
Director
1977
Tourists of the Familiar 5
Director
2023
The Moments: Evening Boat Ride
Director
2018
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41
Director
2026Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4
Director
2013
A Spin Through Night City
Director
2017Manhattan is an Island
Director
2023
OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN
Director
2011Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra
Director
2010
Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly
Director
2005
Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified
Director
2009
America Lets Her Hair Down 1905
Director
2022
Book of Eternalisms 39
Director
2025
Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception)
Director
2008
Brick Building with Red and Green Windows
Director
2020
Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3)
Director
2016Eat the Rich: Aligning Perspectives and Other Challenges to Viewers
Director
2022
Tourists of the Familiar 15
Director
2023Celestial Bodies
Director
2014
The Signing
Director
2009A Date with Shirley
Director
2026
Tourists of the Familiar 1
Director
2023
Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms
Director
2017
Double Wow
Director
2021
Friendly Building
Director
2020In Front of Anthology
Director
2021
The Sky Socialist: Flight
Director
2002
PAINTED POSTER
Director
2020The Guests
Director
2014
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1
Director
2013Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness
Director
1965
Foliage in Moving Car Window
Director
2020
Depth for One Eye or Two
Director
The Sky Socialist
Director
1966
Book of Eternalisms 7
Director
2023
Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016
Huge Pupils
Himself
1968
Spasm
Director
2023
Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures
Director
1964
Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three
Director
2023
Window
Cinematography
1964Window
Director
1964Window
Producer
1964Window
Editor
1964A Primer in Sky Socialism
Director
2013
Working Girls (short)
Director
2020
Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016
Urban Peasants
Director
1975
The Green Wave
Director
2011
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43
Director
2026
Chaos Is Order Misunderstood
Director
2019
Chinese New Years II
Director
2020
The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
Writer
2011The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
Director
2011
BMT Canal Street
Director
2016
THE WHOLE SHEBANG
Director
2019America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening
Director
2011
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Director
2023
A Tom Tom Chaser
Director
2002
Tourists of the Familiar 10
Director
2023
Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes
Director
2019
Street Commerce II
Director
2020
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42
Director
2026
Another Day in Days of Yore
Director
2020
Hydroelectric Dam
Director
2016Tourists of the Familiar 70
Director
2024
Red Green
Director
2020
When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves
Director
2022
Buster Keaton Embossed
Director
2022
Rain Clouds
Director
2020
Spaghetti Aza
Director
1976Riverbed
Director
2024
Downtown Loft with Skylights
Director
2026
PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO
Director
2019
Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016
1st Window
Director
1964
Bob Fleischner Dying
Director
2009
Nervous Ken
2003
Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
Director
2016Winter Sky
Director
1964Revolving Door
Director
2011
Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art
Self
2023
Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival
Director
2007
BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40
Director
2025
Period Piece
Director
2020
Chrysalis
Director
2015
CRUSH
Director
2019
The Sky Socialist: The Environs
Director
2019Changing Azazel
Director
1973
Chronometer
Director
1990
The Georgetown Loop
Director
1996
Sleeping American
Director
2020The Surging Sea of Humanity
Director
2006
Storefront
Director
2020
Details of Pollock's White Light
Director
2019
Joan Mitchell: Departures
Director
2019
Flowers and Bike
Director
2020
The Roses
Director
2011
Soft Rain
Director
1968
Monks of Cinema
Camera Operator
2006
Mosco Street 2
Director
2016
Failure
Director
2019
Sergei Eisenstein Embossed
Director
2022
Halley’s Comet
Director
2020
Capitalism: Slavery
Director
2007
Airshaft
Director
1967Elbow Dance
Director
2008Lurking
Director
2016
Walkway
Director
2009
Brook
Director
2009
Brain Operations
Director
2009
Street Commerce
Director
2020Pygmalion Cubed
Director
2014
Hubble II
Director
2020
Granular
Director
2015Titles
Director
2007
DR. TOOTHY
Director
2020
Broadway Buildings III
Director
2020
MOVING ROAD
Director
2019Windbreaker
Director
2017Nissan Ariana Window
Director
1969
Looting For Rodney
Director
1995Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3
Director
2013
Figures I - V
Director
2019
DeKooning Passed
Director
2020Molten Landscape
Director
2016
Globe
Director
1969
Keaton's Cops
Writer
1991Keaton's Cops
Director
1991
Blankets for Indians
Director
2012
A Loft
Editor
2010A Loft
Director
2010
Writhing City
Director
2023
Above the Rain
Director
2019
Reichstag 9/11
Director
2016
Street Vendor
Director
2012
Chinese New Years
Director
2020
Capitalism: Child Labor
Director
2007Floral
Director
2015
Garage Wall
Director
2020
Facade with Face
Director
2020
DAY AND NIGHT
Director
2011
Aspiring To Music
Director
2021
Cartoon
Director
2019
Sky Dive
Director
Doyer Street
Director
2020
Spiky
Director
2020Alone at Last
Director
2008
Empty Seats
Director
2015
Water Balloon
Director
2020
The Whirled
Director
2003
Things to Come
Director
2019
Bison
Director
2020Hobgoblin Ball
Director
2023
Reading Society
Director
2020
Dimsum and Dragons
Director
2019
Disorient Express
Director
1996
The Scenic Route
Director
2008
RECIPROCAL
Director
2020
Krypton Is Doomed
Director
2005
Municipal Building Passage
Director
2020
Hoffman Student
Director
2021
Resting Merchant
Director
2020
Whirlpool
Director
2020
Cartoonish 1-10
Director
2021
Another Occupation
Director
2011Another Occupation
Writer
2011
Neon Sign
Director
2020Along the Elevated
Director
2017
Waiting Room Window
Director
2020
Afternoon Tide
Director
2015The Discovery
Director
2008
Other Urban Lives
Director
2023
Turbulent Waters
Director
2011
We Are Charming
Director
2007
Bargains
Director
2020Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul
Director
2015
Natural Collage
Director
2020
TV Plug
Director
1963
Spaceworks
Director
2020
Broadway Building
Director
2020
Real Action Figures
Director
2022
Spiral Nebula
Director
2005Spiral Nebula
Writer
2005
ABSTRACT
Director
2019
Spotted Fever
Director
Rubble
Director
2020
Abstract Eternalism
Director
2021
The Winter Footage
Director
1964
Clouds and Trees
Director
2020
Transparent Apartments
Director
2020
Eternal Beach
Director
2021
A Small Misunderstanding
Director
2021
Nymph
Director
2007
Barber
Director
2020
Gravity Is Tops
Director
2009
The Near-Collision
Director
2010
Canopy
Director
2014
Roots of Manhattan
Director
2020
Fire Escape
Director
2020
Binghamton, My India
Director
1970Love Story
Director
2008
Broadway Buildings II
Director
2020Mosco Street Rapture
Director
2007
Ken and Flo
Director
2020Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor
Director
2009We Stole Away
Director
1964Bandit
Director
2020
Tree Stump
Director
2018
Adventures of Cookie Truck
Director
2021BMT
Director
2025
City Foliage
Director
2020
Lazy City
Director
2020
XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
Editor
2021XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
Director
2021
Duck
Director
2020
Insistent Clamor
Director
2005
One Dozen Roses
Director
2022Beautiful Dreamer
Director
2017For James Otis
Director
2023Mountaineer Spinning
Director
2004Wire Fence
Director
2014