Carol Jacobson
By Abby Melnik, Ann Deszi, and Julia Peterson
Carol Jacobsen grew up in Jackson, Michigan. Her family had a love of art and music, but discouraged it as unpractical and not a suitable career. Her education includes a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA). Influenced by feminism, lesbian politics, and grassroots activism, her art is politically driven.
Carol Jacobsen’s work includes documentary photography, documentary films, and video. Beginning documentary work in 1983 when she lived in Europe, she has investigated and recorded issues such as women’s criminalization, human rights, censorship, and sex work. She films social documentaries because she feels “the world needs to change, reflect social justice, human rights, [and] compassion (Jacobsen).”
Jacobsen’s films carry a great significance and resonate with her viewers due to her close ties with the women in her films. “I have been friends with the women in the prison films for many years and have worked all these years to free them. As director of the Michigan Women's Justice & Clemency Project I work with many whose stories are similar to those in From One Prison... It's a long hard haul and the criminal justice system does not work for anyone, but especially not for women (Jacobsen).” Jacobsen invests much of her time in helping the women in her films. She says:
“I always find a way to "pay" women who narrate my film. If they are in prison, I commit to working with [and/or] for them, recruiting attorneys for their cases, researching, writing and submitting clemency petitions [and] parole packages, testifying for them, going to parole hearings with them, etc. It's a long term commitment. Women who've just been released from prison, I pay at least $500 for a filmed interview. All of the women who participate do so because they, too, want to join the struggle against unjust laws that criminalize women.”
As of 2009, the Project has successfully freed five women from life sentences, assisted dozens more with paroles, and protested ongoing human rights violations (U of M).
Jacobsen’s choice of topics for her films may be seen as controversial, but she chooses them in order to spread awareness. For example, Jacobsen believes that regarding “prostitutes as suffering from a “false consciousness” – an anti-porn/prostitution feminist position - disregards the institutional sexism that pervades every aspect of our society (Jacobsen).” Censorship is a very important issue to her as well. Due to her use of controversial issues as the subjects of her films, her work is often censored. “As a feminist and artist who has been producing politically explicit work for nearly two decades, I have been forced to accept the fact that confronting censorship comes with the territory (Jacobsen).” She has persevered through this, and her artist statement indicates her drive for social justice: “I believe visual art can be a powerful tool in the global struggle for women's human rights and social justice. As an artist/filmmaker/feminist/activist working with Amnesty International, incarcerated women and many others on issues of women's criminalization and censorship, issues of representation (legal and visual) are critical concerns. I am interested in discovering how countercultural images and visibility, political activism, public education and feminist legal strategies can combine to produce social change and methods of resistance. Working with indomitable feminists on both sides of the law is what keeps me going.”
Jacobsen’s films carry a great significance and resonate with her viewers due to her close ties with the women in her films. “I have been friends with the women in the prison films for many years and have worked all these years to free them. As director of the Michigan Women's Justice & Clemency Project I work with many whose stories are similar to those in From One Prison... It's a long hard haul and the criminal justice system does not work for anyone, but especially not for women (Jacobsen),” she has explained.
Some of Jacobsen’s other films include “Street Sex,” “Night Voices,” “From One Prison…,” and “Censorious.” These films have received critically acclaim internationally. Her work have been exhibited and screened worldwide in locations like New York, Paris, Minneapolis, Barcelona), Bonn, Rome, and Beijing. Other works by Carol Jacobsen, include her critical essays on feminism, art, and politics, have appeared in publications including the New York Law Review, Hastings Women’s Law Journal, Sign Journal, Social Text, Art in America, Exposure, Heresies, and several others, and she has received countless awards and fellowships for her work both on paper and screen.
Jacobsen is currently a Professor of Art, Women’s Studies, and Human Rights at the University of Michigan. Some of her work can be seen, as of 2009, in the Denise Bibro Fine Art Gallery in New York. She currently serves as Director of the Michigan Women’s Justice and Clemency Project - a grassroots advocacy and public education effort for human rights and freedom for women prisoners. Her work continues to expose significant issues and to gain justice for the women she has so long fought for.
Carol Jacobsen grew up in Jackson, Michigan. Her family had a love of art and music, but discouraged it as unpractical and not a suitable career. Her education includes a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA). Influenced by feminism, lesbian politics, and grassroots activism, her art is politically driven.
Carol Jacobsen’s work includes documentary photography, documentary films, and video. Beginning documentary work in 1983 when she lived in Europe, she has investigated and recorded issues such as women’s criminalization, human rights, censorship, and sex work. She films social documentaries because she feels “the world needs to change, reflect social justice, human rights, [and] compassion (Jacobsen).”
Jacobsen’s films carry a great significance and resonate with her viewers due to her close ties with the women in her films. “I have been friends with the women in the prison films for many years and have worked all these years to free them. As director of the Michigan Women's Justice & Clemency Project I work with many whose stories are similar to those in From One Prison... It's a long hard haul and the criminal justice system does not work for anyone, but especially not for women (Jacobsen).” Jacobsen invests much of her time in helping the women in her films. She says:
“I always find a way to "pay" women who narrate my film. If they are in prison, I commit to working with [and/or] for them, recruiting attorneys for their cases, researching, writing and submitting clemency petitions [and] parole packages, testifying for them, going to parole hearings with them, etc. It's a long term commitment. Women who've just been released from prison, I pay at least $500 for a filmed interview. All of the women who participate do so because they, too, want to join the struggle against unjust laws that criminalize women.”
As of 2009, the Project has successfully freed five women from life sentences, assisted dozens more with paroles, and protested ongoing human rights violations (U of M).
Jacobsen’s choice of topics for her films may be seen as controversial, but she chooses them in order to spread awareness. For example, Jacobsen believes that regarding “prostitutes as suffering from a “false consciousness” – an anti-porn/prostitution feminist position - disregards the institutional sexism that pervades every aspect of our society (Jacobsen).” Censorship is a very important issue to her as well. Due to her use of controversial issues as the subjects of her films, her work is often censored. “As a feminist and artist who has been producing politically explicit work for nearly two decades, I have been forced to accept the fact that confronting censorship comes with the territory (Jacobsen).” She has persevered through this, and her artist statement indicates her drive for social justice: “I believe visual art can be a powerful tool in the global struggle for women's human rights and social justice. As an artist/filmmaker/feminist/activist working with Amnesty International, incarcerated women and many others on issues of women's criminalization and censorship, issues of representation (legal and visual) are critical concerns. I am interested in discovering how countercultural images and visibility, political activism, public education and feminist legal strategies can combine to produce social change and methods of resistance. Working with indomitable feminists on both sides of the law is what keeps me going.”
Jacobsen’s films carry a great significance and resonate with her viewers due to her close ties with the women in her films. “I have been friends with the women in the prison films for many years and have worked all these years to free them. As director of the Michigan Women's Justice & Clemency Project I work with many whose stories are similar to those in From One Prison... It's a long hard haul and the criminal justice system does not work for anyone, but especially not for women (Jacobsen),” she has explained.
Some of Jacobsen’s other films include “Street Sex,” “Night Voices,” “From One Prison…,” and “Censorious.” These films have received critically acclaim internationally. Her work have been exhibited and screened worldwide in locations like New York, Paris, Minneapolis, Barcelona), Bonn, Rome, and Beijing. Other works by Carol Jacobsen, include her critical essays on feminism, art, and politics, have appeared in publications including the New York Law Review, Hastings Women’s Law Journal, Sign Journal, Social Text, Art in America, Exposure, Heresies, and several others, and she has received countless awards and fellowships for her work both on paper and screen.
Jacobsen is currently a Professor of Art, Women’s Studies, and Human Rights at the University of Michigan. Some of her work can be seen, as of 2009, in the Denise Bibro Fine Art Gallery in New York. She currently serves as Director of the Michigan Women’s Justice and Clemency Project - a grassroots advocacy and public education effort for human rights and freedom for women prisoners. Her work continues to expose significant issues and to gain justice for the women she has so long fought for.
