Jon-of-All-Trades

Jon Jacobs recently composed a telling short poem: "I’m not a Director at all / Just a very devious actor."

Armed with dog-eared copies of filmmaker Roger Corman’s biography "How I Made 100 Movies and Never Lost a Dime," the Jewish actor-writer-director has churned out two dozen stylish films since 1988, many starring himself.

Made for as little as $7,000, the movies showcase Jacobs in roles such as a grizzled cowboy ("The Wooden Gun") a gaunt ex-rocker ("Mic and the Claw") and a sexy descendant of the wizard Merlin ("Lucinda’s Spell"). The indie flicks have raked in prizes on the festival circuit and are the subject of the Jon Jacobs retrospective now at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theatres in West Hollywood.

Late last month, Jacobs, 34, received the 2001 Maverick Actor Award at the Method Fest, which focuses on independent cinema.

The arch, chatty filmmaker is candid about why he’s been willing to take the zero-budget approach — including camping out in sweltering Death Valley to make a no-frills Western. "I’m living out my Jewish-boyhood fantasies," he confides. "I’ve always dreamed of becoming a movie star."

Jacobs traces his obsession with fame — the ultimate sign of acceptance — to his feeling like a pariah as a Jewish child in London. At a Dickensian boarding school, 7-year-old Jacobs was forced to attend Christian prayer services; uncircumcised classmates in the loo jeered at his privates.

His financial whiz of a father suffered genteel anti-Semitism in British high finance circles. "He was constantly making fortunes and going bankrupt," Jacobs recalls.

While the family lived in a three-story Georgian mansion on a famous street (Paul McCartney was a neighbor), the electricity was continually shut off and Jacobs had to fend off creditors who persistently rang the doorbell. "I had to learn to live by my wits, a skill I was able to bring to the movie business," he says.

When starring roles eluded him at the age of 19, Jacobs got his friends to work for free to make a short film, "Metropolis Apocalypse," which won an official slot at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. Three years later, he arrived in Los Angeles with his hair dyed bright blue and the determination to make films on the cheap.

To save money, Jacobs crashed on friends’ couches and shopped for costumes at the Aaardvark’s thrift shop on Melrose Avenue. When his films didn’t show outside the festival circuit, he drove a cab and poured coffee at Starbucks to pay for midnight screenings at the Laemmle Theaters.

Jacobs was rewarded when the E! network included him in a documentary on the midnight film circuit (the other directors featured were John Waters and David Lynch). His vampire thriller, "The Girl with the Hungry Eyes" was voted best horror film of 1995 by Cinefantastique magazine. Several years later, investors raised $200,000 to finance "Lucinda’s Spell," which began when producers asked Jacobs to write a sequel to the 1991 Theresa Russell movie, "Whore."

"I didn’t really like the idea, but I got this vision of a cheeky woman who’s labeled a whore because people are fearful of her sexuality," he says.

The idea turned into "Lucinda’s Spell" (1998) which Jacobs brazenly promoted by turning up with an entourage of scantily clad women at Cannes. But he insists he’s not a sexist. "I did the only full-frontal nudity in the movie, not the women," he says.

The Jon Jacobs retrospective runs through July 15 at the Sunset 5 Theatres, 8000 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. For information, call (323) 848-3500.