A Date with Shirley

Overview

Dir. Ken Jacobs. 2025, 48 mins. U.S. Digital. This colorful and cubist record of a Chinatown haircut is the final long-form work by the great avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs, who died last October. As with his first film, Orchard Street (1955), made 70 years earlier, A Date with Shirley is a slice of New York City life that transforms urban energy into cinematic spectacle. Three cameras capture the action, one operated by Ken as he is having his Einstein-ian locks shorn, and the others by his children, Aza and Nisi. A loving and poignant family scene, the film is also a dazzling work of art—and a tribute to a fine barber whose phone number is offered in the credits