Video History Project

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Kenneth Anger

Kenneth Anger's fame with the general public is based almost exclusively on his best-selling 1960 book, HOLLYWOOD BABYLON, whose scandalous revelations transcended gossip. But a more limited audience knows Anger as a brilliant and stridently independent filmmaker. This reputation rests on nine short films totaling about three hours' length.

Plagued by calamities that have included financial problems, threats, despair, lost films, stolen ones and seizure of footage by labs on the ground of obscenity, his output has not been prolific. But his impact on American film and television has been substantial. In 1947, at the age of seventeen, Anger made his prize-winning film, FIREWORKS, which became one of the classic films of the underground cinema and a source for gay iconography.

It was in this film that he first examined and celebrated the rites of underground or marginal groups. Very few filmmakers have explored the boundaries of filmmaking the way he has, particularly at the convergence of cult and culture. His other films include EAUX D'ARTIFICE, THE INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME, INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER, LUCIFER RISING, RABBITS' MOON, and SCORPIO RISING.

Cite this record

"Kenneth Anger." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/kenneth-anger.

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Summary

Kenneth Anger achieved public fame with his best-selling 1960 book HOLLYWOOD BABYLON; he is also an independent filmmaker responsible for nine short films totaling three hours' length. His career was plagued by financial problems, threats, despair, lost and stolen films and seizure of footage by labs on grounds of obscenity; in 1947, at seventeen, he made the prize-winning FIREWORKS, and his other films include EAUX D'ARTIFICE, THE INAUGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME, INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER, LUCIFER RISING, RABBITS' MOON and SCORPIO RISING.

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Last modified 17 June 2011

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