Ken Jacobs

Jonas Mekas talks with filmmaker Ken Jacobs. They begin with a discussion of the program's purpose and coverage of the 'avant-garde' arts. Jacobs objects to the use of the term feeling it is elitist. Mekas defends it but says it should be used carefully and sparingly. They move on to debate the use of "independent' and 'art' film.

Ken Jacobs reads from Andrew Sarris' criticism in the Village Voice (February 7, 1974) on cinematic language, the narrative cinema,and praise of the film, The Last Detail. He wants more detail from Sarris' comment on "loop-de-loop lunacy" and he talks about the nature of movies as loops and the need to see movies over and over again as loops. He talks about his film Tom Tom The Piper's Son and the use of the loop.

Mekas says The Last Detail was hard to watch. He calls it banal and 'nitwitty.'

Jacobs comments on Sarris' use of the word 'meta-historian.' and labeling of art as 'dead' or 'alive'. He brings up Tod Browning's Freaks. Jacobs calls Sarris a 'sentimental reactionary' and comments on the language of film as first invented by D.W. Griffith is not yet finished.

Mekas goes over a list of upcoming independent films showing in New York City.

Mekas and Jacobs have a brief discussion of 'the erotic film', pornography, the term 'cinema,' and 'film, the ribbon.' Jacobs has more criticism of Sarris and Sarris' wife critic Molly Haskel. He describes what he sees as the theater of the future and returns to the phrase, 'loop-de-loop'. He says Sarris is too busy attacking people who are making contemporary art in the name of sentimentalism.

Jacobs says in his own work he is interested in film form as it is a way of shaping experiences. He's not interested in patterning film or counting frames. He wants to create an interesting experience for the viewer.

WNYC archives id: 71277