Ken Jacobs
- Known for
- Directing
- Born
- May 25, 1933
- Died
- October 5, 2025 (aged 92)
- Birthplace
- Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Biography
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.
Known For
As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty
Blonde Cobra
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
What Is Cinema?
Lost, Lost, Lost
Scotch Tape
Little Stabs at Happiness
Capitalism: Slavery
Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
Momma's Man
Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film
Cinematic Correspondences: Jonas Mekas - J.L. Guerin
Filmography
Sky Dive
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Depth for One Eye or Two
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Spotted Fever
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BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 41
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BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 42
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BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 43
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Downtown Loft with Skylights
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A Date with Shirley
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Book of Eternalisms 39
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BOOK OF ETERNALISMS 40
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BMT
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Tourists of the Familiar 70
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Riverbed
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Spasm
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Up the Illusion
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Whims of Twenty Twenty-Three
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
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Tourists of the Familiar 1
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Tourists of the Familiar 5
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Tourists of the Familiar 10
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Tourists of the Familiar 15
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Tourists of the Familiar 20
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Book of Eternalisms 1-6
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Other Urban Lives
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From Introduction to Orson Welles’s Falstaff: Chimes at Midnight
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Writhing City
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For James Otis
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Manhattan is an Island
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Hobgoblin Ball
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Book of Eternalisms 7
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Book of Eternalisms 8
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Sergei Eisenstein Embossed
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Buster Keaton Embossed
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One Dozen Roses
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America Lets Her Hair Down 1905
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Real Action Figures
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When Timofeev Moves Everything Moves
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Eat the Rich: Aligning Perspectives and Other Challenges to Viewers
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Double Wow
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Abstract Eternalism
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Cartoonish 1-10
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A Small Misunderstanding
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Adventures of Cookie Truck
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Hoffman Student
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Eternal Beach
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XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX
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Aspiring To Music
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In Front of Anthology
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Rubble
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Rain Clouds
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RECIPROCAL
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PAINTED POSTER
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DR. TOOTHY
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Red Green
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Ken and Flo
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Barber
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Foliage in Moving Car Window
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Facade with Face
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Doyer Street
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DeKooning Passed
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Sleeping American
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Roots of Manhattan
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Reading Society
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Lazy City
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Waiting Room Window
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Natural Collage
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Bison
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Working Girls (short)
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Friendly Building
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Broadway Buildings II
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Bargains
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City Foliage
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Broadway Buildings III
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Chinese New Years II
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Chinese New Years
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Brick Building with Red and Green Windows
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Fire Escape
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Broadway Building
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Duck
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Street Commerce
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Resting Merchant
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Neon Sign
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Flowers and Bike
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Street Commerce II
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Halley’s Comet
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Water Balloon
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Spaceworks
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Period Piece
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Bandit
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Another Day in Days of Yore
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Garage Wall
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Whirlpool
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Hubble II
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Transparent Apartments
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Spiky
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Storefront
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Municipal Building Passage
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Clouds and Trees
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Movie That Invites Pausing
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Cartoon
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Chaos Is Order Misunderstood
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Nervous Magic Lantern: 3D for One or Two Naked Eyes
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Dimsum and Dragons
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Details of Pollock's White Light
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Joan Mitchell: Departures
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Once Upon a Planet
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Above the Rain
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The Sky Socialist: The Environs
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THE WHOLE SHEBANG
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Things to Come
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Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party
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Failure
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CRUSH
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Figures I - V
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PAPPY SEES 3D, TOO
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MOVING ROAD
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ABSTRACT
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The Moments: Evening Boat Ride
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Tree Stump
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Windbreaker
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Ulysses in the Subway
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A Spin Through Night City
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Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl
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Get Up and Go
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Along the Elevated
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Swee’pea’s Favorite Eternalisms
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Capitalism Defeats Life on Earth, Cab in Rain
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Beautiful Dreamer
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Reichstag 9/11
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Mosco Street 3: Attack of The Perfect Camera (Fuji W3)
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Mosco Street 2
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Hydroelectric Dam
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I'm Telling You
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Lurking
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Molten Landscape
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Ken Jacobs / diNMachine @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
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Ken Jacobs / JG Thirlwell @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
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Ken Jacobs / Ghosts Of The Holy Ghost Spermic Brotherhood @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
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Ken Jacobs / Victoria Keddie @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
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Ken Jacobs / Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
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Ken Jacobs / Robert Poss @The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
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Ken Jacobs / Rick Reed & Tara Bhattacharya @ The Nervous Magic Lantern Festival
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Snow in Headlights II
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Central Park
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BMT Canal Street
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Chrysalis
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Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies
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Afternoon Tide
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Empty Seats
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Batchellor’s Dog and Beach
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The Lackadaisical Speed of Light
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Aimless Sightseeing, Seoul
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Zazie Learns About Money
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Granular
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Floral
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Canopy
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The Guests
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Wire Fence
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Popeye Sees 3-D
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Pygmalion Cubed
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Celestial Bodies
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A Primer in Sky Socialism
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Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #2
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Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #4
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Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #3
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Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus #1
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Blankets for Indians
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20 Little Films
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Street Vendor
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Seeking the Monkey King
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DAY AND NIGHT
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America at War, The Home Front: Film Opening
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Another Occupation
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The Pushcarts Leave Eternity Street
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The Green Wave
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Cyclopean 3D: Life with a Beautiful Woman
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The Roses
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Revolving Door
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60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
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Turbulent Waters
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OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE 99% JOIN IN
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A Loft
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Sensoriums at Sea: Toothy Two
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Fair And White: Parts I, II, III and Extra
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Sensoriums at Sea: Dr. Toothy's New Entranceway
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The Near-Collision
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The Day Was a Scorcher
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The Signing
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Berkeley To San Francisco
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"Slow is Beauty"-Rodin
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What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901
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Jonas Mekas in Kodachrome Days
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Brain Operations
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Excerpt From THE SKY SOCIALIST Stratified
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Bob Fleischner Dying
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Brook
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Ronald Gonzales, Sculptor
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Hot Dogs At The Met
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Gravity Is Tops
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Walkway
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Return to the Scene of the Crime
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Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks)
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The Scenic Route
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The Discovery
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Alone at Last
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Elbow Dance
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Amorous Interludes: His Favorite Wife Improved (or The Virtue Of Bad Reception)
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Love Story
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Razzle Dazzle: The Lost World
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New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903
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Capitalism: Child Labor
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Capitalism: Slavery
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Gift of Fire: Nineteen (Obscure) Frames That Changed The World
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Nymph
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Hanky Panky January 1902
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We Are Charming
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Titles
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Popeye Sees 3-D, TOO
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Mosco Street Rapture
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Nervous Lantern at Kill Your Timid Notion Festival
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The Surging Sea of Humanity
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Two Wrenching Departures
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Pushcarts of Eternity Street
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Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise
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Let There Be Whistle Blowers
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Krypton Is Doomed
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Spiral Nebula
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Ontic Antics Starring Laurel and Hardy: Bye Molly
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Le Prince: Leeds Bridge 1888
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Insistent Clamor
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Star Spangled to Death
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Mountaineer Spinning
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The Whirled
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Keeping an Eye on Stan
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A Tom Tom Chaser
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Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence
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The Sky Socialist: Flight
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Flo Rounds a Corner
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New York Street Trolleys 1900
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The Georgetown Loop
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Disorient Express
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Looting For Rodney
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Make Light On Film
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Bitemporal Vision: The Sea
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Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896
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Keaton's Cops
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Chronometer
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The Alps and The Jews
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Perfect Film
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The Doctor's Dream
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Book of Splendors, Part Two, Book of Levers: Action at a Distance
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Spaghetti Aza
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Urban Peasants
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Jerry Takes A Back Seat, Then Passes Out Of The Picture
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Changing Azazel
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Binghamton, My India
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Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son
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Nissan Ariana Window
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Globe
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Soft Rain
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Airshaft
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For Life, Against the War
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The Sky Socialist
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Lisa and Joey in Connecticut
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Naomi Is A Dream of Loveliness
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Window
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Artie and Marty Rosenblatt’s Baby Pictures
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The Winter Footage
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We Stole Away
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Winter Sky
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1st Window
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Blonde Cobra
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Little Stabs at Happiness
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TV Plug
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Baud'larian Capers
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The Death of P'town
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Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice
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Little Cobra Dance
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Orchard Street
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