Filmmakers

Daniel Jacobs is a Massachusetts-based filmmaker, cinematographer, and editor whose work ranges from documentaries and arts films to music, dance, and commercial productions. Through his company, Blake Road Productions, he has collaborated extensively with folklorist Maggie Holtzberg and the Mass Cultural Council to document traditional artists and the transmission of cultural knowledge.

Jacobs served as cinematographer and editor on a series of short films about Massachusetts traditional arts, including films on Wampanoag artist Elizabeth James-Perry, shipwright Harold A. Burnham, and letter carver and printer Jesse Marsolais. In 2022, he and Holtzberg documented three Traditional Arts Apprenticeships: Western Boot Making Apprenticeship, Bird Taxidermy Apprenticeship, and Tabla Apprenticeship.

Jacobs has also worked internationally. He was cinematographer for Daughters of Anatolia, a documentary about a nomadic goat-herding family in Turkey, spending extended periods traveling and living with the family during filming. A musician and visual artist as well as a filmmaker, Jacobs brings a strong interest in music, painting, literature, and cultural traditions to his documentary work.