The Whirled
(1956–1961, 16 mm, 15 min)
The Following four films are early images of Jack Smith: 1. Saturday Afternoon Blood Sacrifice (1956),
2. Little Cobra Dance (1956), 3. Hunch Your Back (1963) and 4. Death of P'Town (1961).
The first two shorts were shot around Jack's loft on Reade Street on two 100' rolls (Sunday morning, following
Saturday’s sacrifice, I saw there was another 50' left) in an impromptu way very different from my initial
fastidious art-film approach. I would never be an art-film true-believer again. In 1963 a snatch of “Saturday
Afternoon...” was shown on TV when I was somehow invited to participate in a TV quiz program called Hunch Your
Back (“Back Your Hunch”). After years of shooting my raging epic Star Spangled to Death starring Jack
as The Spirit Not of Life But of Living, and after a few months of being on the outs with each other, we got
together for one last stab at friendship and the making of a film in Provincetown, Summer of '61. KEN JACOBS