Kenneth Anger

Kenneth Anger born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemeyer February 3 1927 May 11 2023 was an American underground experimental filmmaker actor and author Working exclusively in short films he produced almost forty works since 1937 nine of which in particular have been grouped together as the Magick Lantern Cycle and form the basis of Angers reputation as one of the most influential independent filmmakers in cinema history His films variously merge surrealism with homoeroticism and the occult and have been described as containing elements of erotica documentary psychodrama and spectacle Anger himself has been described as one of Americas first openly gay filmmakers and certainly the first whose work addressed homosexuality in an undisguised selfimplicating manner and his role in rendering gay culture visible within American cinema commercial or otherwise is impossible to overestimate Some of his particularly homoerotic works such as Fireworks 1947 and Scorpio Rising 1964 were produced prior to the legalisation of homosexuality in the United States He has also focused upon occult themes in many of his films being fascinated by the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley and is a follower of Crowleys religion Thelema This influence is evident from films like Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome 1954 Invocation of My Demon Brother 1969 and Lucifer Rising 1972 Anger has described filmmakers such as Auguste and Louis Lumière and Georges Méliès as influences and has been cited as an important influence on later film directors like Martin Scorsese David Lynch and John WatersHe has also been described as having a profound impact on the work of many other filmmakers and artists as well as on music video as an emergent art form using dream sequence dance fantasy and narrative During the 1960s and 70s he associated and worked with a number of different figures in popular culture and the occult including Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey sexologist Alfred Kinsey artist Jean Cocteau playwright Tennessee Williams and musicians Mick Jagger Keith Richards Jimmy Page and Marianne Faithfull He is also the author of the controversial best seller Hollywood Babylon 1959 and its sequel Hollywood Babylon II 1986 in which he claims to expose many of the rumours and secrets of Hollywood celebrities Description above from the Wikipedia article Kenneth Anger licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia