Essay by Scott McDonald to accompany Ken Jacobs program听
听 听 听 听 听 听 Major contributions to cinema history can come in various sizes. Orson Welles astonished early, then struggled for decades to add to his legacy, whereas John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock astonished early and continued to astonish, not merely with the films they produced in their final decades鈥攂ut with their stamina as filmmakers. Among independents, Kenneth Anger amazed us from听Fireworks听迟丑谤辞耻驳丑听Lucifer Rising, but in more recent decades has struggled to find the resources and the energy to complete films, whereas Stan Brakhage was astonishingly productive of first-rate films from his earliest experiments until his last days. Among living independent filmmakers, only Jonas Mekas and James Benning exhibit Brakhage鈥檚 stamina鈥�and, of course, the indefatigable Ken Jacobs.
听听听听听听听听听听听 Jacobs has worked in a wide variety of ways during his long career, which began with听Orchard Street听in 1956 and the epic听Star Spangled to Death听(1958-1960, 2003-2004), and this still-passionate artist continues to astonish, nearly 60 years later, both with the amount and the quality of his work and with his energy for presenting it. Early on, the quest was to find a way to make meaningful and beautiful films with a minimum of resources鈥攊n听Blonde Cobra听补苍诲听Little Stabs at Happiness听Jacobs perfected one of the most anti-Hollywood aesthetics imaginable (though he did help to nurture Jack Smith, who soon became an avant-garde star, and in time a Queer star as well). By the end of the 1960s Jacobs was making quiet, meditative films, including the lovely听Soft Rain, a rumination on cinematic space and on the idea that cinema is fundamentally an urban medium, and听Nissan Ariana Window, his paean to his young daughter and to his ever-supportive partner, Flo Jacobs.
听听听听听听听听听听听 By the 1970s, Jacobs was immersed in an investigation, on one hand, of the early history of cinema, and on the other, of the potential of 3-D. His fascination with a 1905 Biograph short became the subject of a deep visual investigation in听Tom, Tom, the Piper鈥檚 Son听(1969, revised 1971) and Jacobs has remained fascinated with the moving-image work produced just before and during the early decades of cinema (see for example,Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896). His fascination with 3-D, an outgrowth of the nineteenth century interest in stereoscopic photography, led to a series of shadowplays, developed during his early years as a professor at the State University of New York at Binghamton and performed by Binghamton students; then to what came to be called Nervous System Performances鈥攊n-depth, 3-D explorations of early films, using a two-projector system Jacobs invented. His embracing of digital technology has led to astonishing in-depth investigations of particular stereopticon photographs (Capitalism: Slavery, for example), and to such eye- and space-bending works as听Flo Rounds a Corner.
听听听听听听听听听听听 This program of short films might remind us of Hemingway鈥檚 famous metaphor for his writing style: 鈥淭he dignity of the movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water.鈥� The 7 films in this program are certainly evidence of Jacobs鈥檚 ever-evolving vision, but they are at best an infinitesimal sign of a remarkable, ever more prolific, contribution to modern cinema and modern art.
听This is the program:
Saturday, March 7th at听 2PM, ATLAS 100
BLONDE COBRA
1963. 33min. Color and B&W. Sound. 16mm
LITTLE STABS AT HAPPINESS
1960. 15min. Color. Sound. 16mm
SOFT RAIN
1968. 12min. Color. Silent. 16mm
NISSAN ARIANA WINDOW
1969. 14min. Silent. 16mm
OPENING THE 19TH CENTURY: 1896
1991. 9min. B&W. Sound. 16mm
CAPITALISM: SLAVERY
2006. 3min. Color. Silent. (4:3 SD-BluRay)
FLO ROUNDS A CORNER
1999. 6min. Silent. (4:3 SD-BluRay)
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