Lewis Jacobs; Filmmaker, Pioneer Film Critic

Lewis Jacobs, 93, screenwriter, filmmaker and pioneer film critic and historian. A native of Philadelphia who was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Jacobs worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter for MGM and Columbia. Moving to New York, he produced and directed award-winning independent art films. But he was probably best known as author of the first critical history of American cinema, “The Rise of the American Film,” published in 1939. Jacobs also founded Experimental Cinema, the first American magazine devoted to film as a social and artistic force. He almost single-handedly established film as an area of college study, teaching the new subject at the City College of New York, the New School for Social Research, the Philadelphia College of Art and New York University Graduate School. Jacobs published more than 50 critical articles and edited several major anthologies about film. He also served for several years as a juror at the Venice Film Festival. Among Jacobs’ many honors was one in 1993 from the Anthology Film Archives in New York for his preservation of motion pictures. On Feb. 11 in Manhasset, N.Y.