Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Jakob, Dennis C.
- Extent:
- 14 boxes
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item]. Dennis C. Jakob Papers, 1963-2011. PFA--MSS--020. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection comprises materials related to Dennis C. Jakob's work as a screenwriter, film editor, author, and enthusiast of cinema, including screenplay drafts; completed scripts; personal papers, including correspondence and collaged journals; photographs and slides; and film-related ephemera. The materials represent Jakob's professional career from his student days at UCLA in the 1960s through his work on a 2011 book about his college friend, Jim Morisson. Selected titles of draft and unfinished short stories and screenplays include 'Death in the Strange Arena' (1963), 'The Unknown Soldier' (1968), 'Stella' (1981), 'Jack's Boy' (1984-85), 'Avalon' (undated), 'American Torpedo' (undated), 'Bolivar' (undated), 'Hotspur' (undated), 'Goethe the Alchemist' (undated), 'Lamia' (undated), 'Lenz' (undated), 'Radical Telepath' (undated), 'The Sandpainter' (undated), 'Wait for the Darkness'/'Time Out' (undated), 'Wild, Wild, West. A Detached Case of Power' (television episode, undated). Also included are papers related to Jakob's work on 'Apocalypse Now' (1979); drafts and research materials related to the biography 'Summer with Morrison' (2011); personal copies of books and magazines. Correspondents in the collection include Francis Ford Coppola, Carroll Ballard, Jon Bang Carlsen, Guy Maddin, and DuΕ‘an Makavejev.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Dennis C. Jakob (1938-2019) was a film editor, screenwriter, historian, and cinephile whose circle of friends and mentees from the 1960s onwards included filmmakers such as George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Errol Morris, Carrol Ballard, Guy Maddin, and more, as well as musicians including Jim Morrison of The Doors. By the 1970s, his devotion to cinema found him active in the film scene surrounding the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, California, where he held court discussing the history and future of world cinema, philosophy, and literature with other cinephiles including Coppola and Lucas, who would go on to become household names. Jakob wrote many screenplays for film and television, and holds editing credits for films from the 1960s through the 2000s. Among his most notable contributions are to the production of Coppola's Apocalypse Now, as well as Oliver Stone's biopic about Jim Morrison, The Doors (1991). Jakob also kept extensive journals and dabbled in artforms including illustration, collage, and experimental film. He died in 2019 in relative obscurity, supported by his longtime friends in the film industry.
- Processing information:
-
The collection is unprocessed, but was received minimally arranged by the donor.
- Accruals:
-
No accruals are expected.
- Physical location:
- UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Film Library and Study Center
- Physical facet:
- The material is housed in 14 boxes (13 plastic poxes and one banker's box)
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research use.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights reside with the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the BAMPFA Film Library and Study Center.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item]. Dennis C. Jakob Papers, 1963-2011. PFA--MSS--020. University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
- Location of this collection:
-
2120 Oxford Street#2250Berkeley, CA 94720-2250, US
- Contact:
- (510) 642-1437