MoMA Q&A

Abstract “MoMA Q&A” presents a transcript of a 1969 public discussion at the Museum of Modern Art with filmmaker Ken Jacobs, recorded shortly after screenings of the editing print (shorter than the final version) of his experimental film Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (1969). Compiled and annotated by Federico Windhausen, the text captures Jacobs reflecting on his radical reworking of the eponymous 1905 silent film and elaborating his philosophy of cinematic perception, materiality, and spectatorship. Jacobs describes his project not as an analysis but as the creation of a new film using the earlier work as raw material. Through re-photography, zooms, reframing, repetition, flicker effects, split screens, and the later addition of color passages, he seeks to “really see” the original film—excavating its overlooked gestures, background details, surface textures, and latent narratives. He emphasizes the poignancy of cinema as a medium that preserves the “ghost images” of long-deceased performers, framing film deterioration and visual defects as sites of vitality rather than loss. His intervention highlights the tension between flat surface pattern and three-dimensional illusion, drawing connections to modern painting and photography. Throughout the exchange, Jacobs resists accusations of didacticism, insisting that his film is not a lecture or critical breakdown but a sensuous, rhythmic, and even erotic engagement with a “perfect” pre-Griffith work. He articulates deep respect for the original's tableau structure while defending his “respectful tampering” as both homage and creative transformation. The Q&A also addresses teaching, spectatorship, flicker aesthetics, repetition, and the evolving nature of audiences. Taken together, the transcript offers a vivid account of Jacobs's early articulation of found-footage practice, revealing his commitment to perceptual renewal, historical consciousness, and the material life of the cinematic image.