The son of avante-garde film legend, Ken Jacobs, who made Flaming Creatures (with Jack Smith), Tom Tom the Piper’s Son, Star Spangled to Death, and various seminal film performances, Azazel Jacobs is the director of Momma’s Man, a film that takes place in the Chinatown loft where he grew up and features his mother painter Flo Jacobs and his dad.

As a student at SUNY-Binghamton in the 1970’s I took numerous film classes with the great Ken Jacobs. His course, the Joy of Cinema, taught in collaboration with the poet Milton Kessler, was an unforgettable experience.

I can remember Jacobs, who was a (and may still be a Professor of Cinema at SUNY-Binghamton) talking lovingly about his son Aza, who was named, I think, for the Wizard of Oz, a film Jacob brilliantly analyzed (verbally, not published).

Now Aza is 35 and a narrative filmmaker in his own right. His film, Momma’s Man was a hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and there will be a sneak preview at BAM this Friday. They are showing other films as well. Don’t miss it if you’re in town. Here’s the blurb written by Azazel:

Momma’s Man

With Matt Boren, Ken Jacobs, Flo Jacobs

When Mikey returns to New York to visit his parents (played by Jacobs’
real-life parents and filmed in their apartment), he ends up staying
longer than intended and neglects his wife and child back home in LA.
“Still a bit too recent to really say anything poignant or insightful
about, but the film was conceived as a way to document the place where
I was raised, which is a rental, and one day won’t be mine to visit.
The casting of my parents only came later, when I realized I couldn’t
separate them with the place. This is the first film of mine where my
only job on set was to direct. ”—Azazel Jacobs. Sneak preview!