Ken Jacobs
1933 (91 год)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.
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage
A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Mary Jordan
Jack Smith, Nayland Blake
In this entrancing documentary on performance artist, photographer and underground filmmaker Jack Smith, photographs and rare clips of Smith's performances and films punctuate interviews with artists, critics, friends and foes to create an engaging portrait of the artist. Widely known for his banned queer erotica film Flaming Creatures, Smith was an innovator and firebrand who influenced artists such as Andy Warhol and John Waters.
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
Ken Jacobs
Early 20th-century street vendors push their carts loaded with vegetables. It is time for them to go. Little by little, the viewer discovers fragments of the film of that reduced space in which multiple actions are occurring. The films' technique, The Nervous System, succeeds once more in creating the illusion of visual depth.
The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
Star Spangled to Death
Ken Jacobs
Jack Smith, Jerry Sims
An examination of the history of the U.S. through archival footage and contrasting views of society, incorporating audiovisual material ranging from political campaign films to animated cartoons to children’s phonograph records, featuring Al Jolson, Mickey Mouse, the young Jack Smith, and a half-dozen American presidents.
Star Spangled to Death
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
Ken Jacobs
First created and presented as a Tzadik New Jewish Culture offering in 1993. First performed live as a Nervous System performance with Catherine Jauniaux performing onstage, this version has been reconstructed from scratch (film-frame by film-frame) on the computer. This current embodiment does not hesitate to electronically embrace the fish-peddlers and buyers of 1903.
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
Perfect Film
Ken Jacobs
Directed by Ken Jacobs, 1985. In Jacobs' own words: "I wish more stuff was available in its raw state, as primary source material for anyone to consider, and to leave for others in just that way, the evidence uncontaminated by compulsive proprietary misapplied artistry, "editing", the purposeful "pointing things out" that cuts a road straight and narrow through the cine-jungle; we barrel through thinking we’re going somewhere and miss it all. Better to just be pointed to the territory, to put in time exploring, roughing it, on our own. For the straight scoop we need the whole scoop, or no less than the clues entire and without rearrangement. O, for a Museum of Found Footage, or cable channel, library, a shit-museum of telling discards accessible to all talented viewers/auditors. A wilderness haven salvaged from Entertainment."
Perfect Film
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
Pip Chodorov
Pip Chodorov, Stan Brakhage
Experimental filmmaker Pip Chodorov traces the course of experimental film in America, taking the very personal point of view of someone who grew up as part of the experimental film community.
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
