Ken Jacobs
Known for: Directing
Born: May 25, 1933
Died: October 5, 2025
Place of birth: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA
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.
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Filmography
313 movies · 0 TV shows, newest first
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Downtown Loft with Skylights
2026NR
A Date with Shirley
2026
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BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43
2026
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BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41
2026
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BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42
2026
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BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40
2025
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Book of Eternalisms 39
2025
8.2
Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse
2025NR
BMT
2025NR
Riverbed
2024NR
Tourists of the Familiar 70
2024
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Ken Jacobs - from Orchard Street to the Museum of Modern Art
2023
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Book of Eternalisms 8
2023
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Book of Eternalisms 7
2023NR
For James Otis
2023
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Art-House America: Austin Film Society
2023
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Up the Illusion
2023
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
2023
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Writhing City
2023
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Other Urban Lives
2023
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From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight
2023
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Book of Eternalisms 1-6
2023
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Spasm
2023
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Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three
2023
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Tourists of the Familiar 15
2023
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Tourists of the Familiar 1
2023
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Tourists of the Familiar 5
2023
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Tourists of the Familiar 20
2023
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Tourists of the Familiar 10
2023NR
Manhattan is an Island
2023NR
Hobgoblin Ball
2023
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Real Action Figures
2022
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When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves
2022NR
Please Leave a Message: Anthology Film Archives Voicemails Through the Ages
2022
6.5
Fragments of Paradise
2022
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Sergei Eisenstein Embossed
2022
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Buster Keaton Embossed
2022
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One Dozen Roses
2022
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America Lets Her Hair Down 1905
2022NR
Eat the Rich: Aligning Perspectives and Other Challenges to Viewers
2022
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Eternal Beach
2021
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Abstract Eternalism
2021
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Double Wow
2021
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XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
2021
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Cartoonish 1-10
2021
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A Small Misunderstanding
2021
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Adventures of Cookie Truck
2021
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Hoffman Student
2021
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Aspiring To Music
2021NR
In Front of Anthology
2021
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Movie That Invites Pausing
2020
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Storefront
2020
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Spiky
2020
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Transparent Apartments
2020
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Municipal Building Passage
2020
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Clouds and Trees
2020NR
Bandit
2020
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Hubble II
2020
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Whirlpool
2020
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Water Balloon
2020
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Halley’s Comet
2020
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Spaceworks
2020
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Another Day in Days of Yore
2020
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Garage Wall
2020
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Period Piece
2020
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Street Commerce II
2020
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Street Commerce
2020
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Resting Merchant
2020
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Broadway Buildings II
2020
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Broadway Buildings III
2020
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Neon Sign
2020
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Flowers and Bike
2020
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Chinese New Years
2020
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Chinese New Years II
2020
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Broadway Building
2020
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Duck
2020
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Fire Escape
2020
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Brick Building with Red and Green Windows
2020
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DeKooning Passed
2020
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Doyer Street
2020
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Sleeping American
2020
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Waiting Room Window
2020
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Natural Collage
2020
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Reading Society
2020
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Lazy City
2020
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Roots of Manhattan
2020
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Friendly Building
2020
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Bison
2020
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Working Girls (short)
2020
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Bargains
2020
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City Foliage
2020
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Barber
2020
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Foliage in Moving Car Window
2020
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Facade with Face
2020
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RECIPROCAL
2020
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Ken and Flo
2020
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Red Green
2020
6.0
Rain Clouds
2020
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PAINTED POSTER
2020
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DR. TOOTHY
2020
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Rubble
2020
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CRUSH
2019
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PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO
2019
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Failure
2019
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Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
2019
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Things to Come
2019
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MOVING ROAD
2019
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Figures I - V
2019
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THE WHOLE SHEBANG
2019
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ABSTRACT
2019
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Chaos Is Order Misunderstood
2019
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Above the Rain
2019
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The Sky Socialist: The Environs
2019
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Joan Mitchell: Departures
2019
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Once Upon a Planet
2019
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Details of Pollock's White Light
2019
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Cartoon
2019
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Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes
2019
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Dimsum and Dragons
2019
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The Moments: Evening Boat Ride
2018
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Tree Stump
2018
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Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms
2017NR
Get Up and Go
2017
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A Spin Through Night City
2017NR
Along the Elevated
2017
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Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl
2017NR
Beautiful Dreamer
2017
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Ulysses in the Subway
20178.0
Windbreaker
2017NR
Capitalism Defeats Life on Earth, Cab in Rain
2017
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Central Park
2016
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Snow in Headlights II
2016
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Reichstag 9/11
2016
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BMT Canal Street
2016
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Mosco Street 2
2016
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Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3)
2016NR
Molten Landscape
2016NR
Lurking
2016
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Reminiscences of Jonas Mekas
2016
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Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
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Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
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Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
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Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
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Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
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Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016
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Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
2016NR
I'm Telling You
2016
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Hydroelectric Dam
2016
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Empty Seats
2015
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Batchellor’s Dog and Beach
2015
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Afternoon Tide
2015NR
Zazie Learns About Money
2015NR
Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul
2015
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Chrysalis
2015NR
Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
2015
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The Lackadaisical Speed of Light
2015
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Granular
2015NR
Floral
2015NR
Wire Fence
2014
5.0
Canopy
2014NR
Pygmalion Cubed
2014NR
Celestial Bodies
20146.0
The Guests
2014NR
Popeye Sees 3-D
2014NR
A Primer in Sky Socialism
2013
6.4
What Is Cinema?
2013
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The Eternal Courtship
2013
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Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
2013
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Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1
2013NR
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4
2013NR
Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3
2013
1.0
Emma's Dilemma
2012
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Blankets for Indians
2012
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Street Vendor
2012
6.0
20 Little Films
2012
4.2
60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
2011
5.3
Sleepless Nights Stories
2011
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OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN
2011
4.8
Seeking the Monkey King
2011
6.8
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
2011
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The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
2011NR
America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening
2011NR
Revolving Door
2011
2.0
Turbulent Waters
2011
7.0
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
2011
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The Roses
2011
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The Green Wave
2011
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Another Occupation
2011
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Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
2011
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DAY AND NIGHT
2011
10.0
A Loft
2010
5.0
Santos Dumont: Pré-Cineasta?
2010NR
Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway
2010
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The Near-Collision
2010NR
Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two
2010NR
Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra
2010
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Lavender
2010
6.5
Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
2009
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Walkway
2009
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Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified
2009
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Brook
2009
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Bob Fleischner Dying
2009
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Brain Operations
2009
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"Slow is Beauty"-Rodin
2009NR
Berkeley To San Francisco
2009
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What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901
2009NR
Hot Dogs At The Met
2009NR
Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor
2009
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Gravity Is Tops
2009
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The Day Was a Scorcher
2009
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The Signing
2009
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Return to the Scene of the Crime
2008NR
Elbow Dance
20086.5
The Discovery
2008
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Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception)
2008NR
Alone at Last
2008
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The Scenic Route
2008NR
Love Story
2008
5.5
Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks)
2008
6.2
Momma's Man
2008
10.0
365 Day Project
2007
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Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World
2007
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Nymph
2007
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Hanky Panky January 1902
2007
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We Are Charming
20071.0
Titles
2007NR
Mosco Street Rapture
2007NR
Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO
2007
4.9
Capitalism: Slavery
2007
5.3
Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
2007
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Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival
2007
6.7
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
2007
7.3
New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
2007
6.0
Capitalism: Child Labor
2007
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Monks of Cinema
2006
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Pushcarts of Eternity Street
2006NR
The Surging Sea of Humanity
2006
5.0
Two Wrenching Departures
2006
5.9
Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
2005
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Insistent Clamor
2005
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Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888
2005
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Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly
2005
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Let There Be Whistle Blowers
2005
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Krypton Is Doomed
2005
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Spiral Nebula
20056.0
Mountaineer Spinning
2004
7.7
Star Spangled to Death
2004
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Nervous Ken
2003
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Keeping an Eye on Stan
2003
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The Whirled
2003NR
Shorts From the Underground
2002
9.0
Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence
2002
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A Tom Tom Chaser
2002
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The Sky Socialist: Flight
2002NR
Flo and Ken Jacobs
2001
7.8
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
2000
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New York Street Trolleys 1900
1999
5.0
Flo Rounds a Corner
1999
7.0
Birth of a Nation
1997
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Disorient Express
1996
7.3
The Georgetown Loop
1996
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Looting For Rodney
1995NR
Make Light On Film
1995
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Bitemporal Vision: The Sea
1994
6.4
Jonas in the Desert
1994
7.5
Quartet Number One
1991
7.0
Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
1991
7.0
Keaton's Cops
1991
6.0
Chronometer
1990NR
The Alps and The Jews
1986
8.4
He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
1986
6.0
Perfect Film
1985
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Home Movies 1971-81
1985
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The Doctor's Dream
1977
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Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance
1977
7.1
Lost, Lost, Lost
1976
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Spaghetti Aza
1976
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Urban Peasants
1975
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Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture
1975
8.5
Horizons
1973
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Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
19738.5
Changing Azazel
1973
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Binghamton, My India
1970NR
Nissan Ariana Window
1969
6.2
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
1969
6.0
Globe
1969
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Huge Pupils
1968
7.3
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
1968
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Soft Rain
1968
6.0
For Life, Against the War
1967
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Bill's Hat
1967
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Airshaft
1967
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The Sky Socialist
1966
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Lisa and Joey in Connecticut
1965NR
Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness
1965
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1st Window
1964
5.0
Window
1964NR
We Stole Away
1964
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The Winter Footage
1964NR
Winter Sky
1964
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Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures
1964
5.8
Little Stabs at Happiness
1963
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TV Plug
1963
3.0
Blonde Cobra
1963
4.4
Scotch Tape
1963
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Baud'larian Capers
1962
10.0
The Death of P'town
1961
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Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice
1956
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Little Cobra Dance
1956
6.8
Orchard Street
1955
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Sky Dive
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Depth for One Eye or Two
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Spotted Fever
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