This series of films, each extraordinarily unique from every other (except “0 + 10” going together) is inspired and governed by strata of the mind’s moving-visual-thinking different from that of the “Roman Numeral Series” or perhaps one should say that the Arabic Numerals come to fruition thru some tree-of nerves separate from that which gave birth to the Romans (as it is physiologically deceptive to think of thought as existing in “layers”). The Arabics range in length from approximately 5 min. to 32 min. and may be projected at 24 fps as well as 18, tho’ the latter speed seems preferable for starts. I think each film’s integrity of rhythm would allow viewing at a greater variety of speeds, were there the 16mm projectors to allow that exercise. So far as I can tell, they defy verbal interpretation (even more than their Roman equivalents) and would, thus, seem to be closer to Music than any previous work given me to do; but if that be true, it is (as composer James Tenney put it to me) that they relate to that relatively small area of musical composition which resists Song and Dance and exists more purely in terms of Sound Events in Time/Space. Finally, then, the inspiration of all those modern (and a few ancient) composers I’ve most loved since my teens overwhelms the easier, and comfortably lovely, habits of jig and do-re-mi AND creates a visual correlative OF music’s eventuality – i.e. each Arabic is formed by the intrinsic grammar of the most inner (perhaps pre-natal) structure of thought itself.

Jacobs completed “Little Stabs at Happiness” (1959-63) as a by-product of or as “a true breather” from his long film, “Star Spangled to Death.” Except for the addition of titles which identify the four sections of the film, the use of 78 rpm records, and a short monologue on the soundrack, the film is exactly as it came out of the camera. Jonas Mekas hailed “Blonde Cobra,” “Little Stabs at Happiness” and “Scotch Tape” as opening a vital new direction in the American cinema. On May 2, 1963 he wrote in The Village Voice: “Ron Rice’s ‘The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man,’ Jack Smith’s ‘Flaming Creatures,’ Ken Jacobs’ ‘Little Stabs at Happiness’ and ‘Blonde Cobra’ are four works that make up a real revolution in cinema today. These movies are illuminating and open up sensibilities and experiences never before recorded in the American arts: a content which Beaudelaire, the Marquis de Sade and Rimbaud gave to world literature a century ago and which Burroughs gave American literature three years ago. It is a world of flowers of evil, of illuminations, of torn and tortured flesh; a poetry at once beautiful and terrible, good and evil, delicate and dirty.”

This series of films, each extraordinarily unique from every other (except “0 + 10” going together) is inspired and governed by strata of the mind’s moving-visual-thinking different from that of the “Roman Numeral Series” or perhaps one should say that the Arabic Numerals come to fruition thru some tree-of nerves separate from that which gave birth to the Romans (as it is physiologically deceptive to think of thought as existing in “layers”). The Arabics range in length from approximately 5 min. to 32 min. and may be projected at 24 fps as well as 18, tho’ the latter speed seems preferable for starts. I think each film’s integrity of rhythm would allow viewing at a greater variety of speeds, were there the 16mm projectors to allow that exercise. So far as I can tell, they defy verbal interpretation (even more than their Roman equivalents) and would, thus, seem to be closer to Music than any previous work given me to do; but if that be true, it is (as composer James Tenney put it to me) that they relate to that relatively small area of musical composition which resists Song and Dance and exists more purely in terms of Sound Events in Time/Space. Finally, then, the inspiration of all those modern (and a few ancient) composers I’ve most loved since my teens overwhelms the easier, and comfortably lovely, habits of jig and do-re-mi AND creates a visual correlative OF music’s eventuality – i.e. each Arabic is formed by the intrinsic grammar of the most inner (perhaps pre-natal) structure of thought itself.

As the name implies, this film presents the evocative potential of colour and purely visual (non-verbal) film. It is a sketchbook of various collage techniques and ideas. Autobiographical references – journal entries in a purely visual sense – combine with the use of sound and altered music to elicit different types of emotions and memories. A natural stepping-stone to Bendahan’s later works.