Ulysses Jenkins was born in 1946, in Los Angeles, California. He studied painting and drawing as an undergraduate at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and later received an MFA in intermedia-video and performance art from Otis Art Institute (now known as Otis College of Art and Design). Prior to enrolling at Otis, from 1970-72 Jenkins worked with the Los Angeles County Probation Department, teaching art to nondelinquent youth, and in 1989, taught video through a gang-intervention program in Oakland. Jenkins is the recipient of numerous awards, including individual artist fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, and named first place in experimental video by the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1990 and 92. His work has been included in major exhibitions, including America is Hard to See (2015), at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Now Dig this!: Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980 (2012), at the Hammer Museum, and California Video (2008) at the Getty Center. Jenkins is currently Associate Professor in the Claire Trevor School of the Arts and an affiliate professor in the African American Studies program at the University of California, Irvine.

Filmography

• 2010In The Midnight Hour — Director
• 2007Notions of Freedom — Director
• 2006Planet X — Director
• 2000Vulnerable — Director
• 1994Secrecy: Help Me to Understand — Director
• 1991The Nomadics — Director
• 1990Mutual Native Duplex — Director
• 1989Self Divination — Director
• 1985Peace and Anwar Sadat — Director
• 1983Cake Walk — Director
• 1983Dream City — Director, Producer, Writer, Editor, Camera Operator
• 1983Without Your Interpretation — Director
• 1983Z-Grass — Director
• 1981Inconsequential Doggereal — Director
• 1980Remnants of the Watts Festival — Director
• 1979Two-Zone Transfer — Director
• 1978King David — Director
• 1978Mass of Images — Director

Appearances as themselves (1)

• 1985Voices — Self