A pioneer of the American film avant-garde, Ken Jacobs (1933-2025) was a central figure in post-war experimental cinema. From his first films of the late 1950s to his last experiments with digital video, his investigations and innovations have influenced countless artists. Jacobs is the director of Star Spangled to Death (2004), a nearly seven-hour film composed largely of found footage.
Jacobs coined the term “paracinema”, referring to cinema experiences delivered through means outside standard cinema technology. He was an influential teacher of, for instance, Art Spiegelman and co-founded the Cinema department at Harpur College (now Binghamton University), teaching there until his retirement in 2003 as a Distinguished Professor of Cinema.