Kenneth Anger
Iconic American filmmaker Kenneth Anger has inspired generations of creative storytellers since the late 1940s. He is a unique visionary who drifts from pure poetry within his magical filmmaking to sardonic gossip in his bestselling "Hollywood Babylon" books. In-between these extremes we find a person who never tires of exploring his own creativity. In this intimate documentary, Anger lets us in on his fascinating life story, his approaches to filmmaking, and his relationship to British occultist Aleister Crowley.
On LA’s iconic Sunset Boulevard and inside the glamorous rooms of ChateauMarmont, Floria Sigismondi shot KennethAngerfor an additional special edition for System Magazine.
In 1989, I met Anton LaVey for the first time. At this time in his life, LaVey was seeing only a select few people. For this film, I've met and interviewed some of them, to try and create a composite image of what he was really like, and what he meant to these people. It's a memory lane trip, filled with personal stories, dark humor, great music and never before seen material with the "Black Pope" himself.
On LA’s iconic Sunset Boulevard and inside the glamorous rooms of ChateauMarmont, Floria Sigismondi shot Kenneth Anger for an additional special edition for System Magazine.
About the last two years of movie goddess Jayne Mansfield’s life and the speculation swirling around her untimely death being caused by a curse after her alleged romantic dalliance with Anton LaVey, head of the Church of Satan.
Guy Maddin, who has been nicknamed the Canadian David Lynch, is undoubtedly one of the last remaining Magi of cinema. Despite living in the middle of the digital age, this heretical director hailing from the snowy plains of Canada has spent 25 years transposing the uncommon and the uncanny onto screens over-saturated with naturalistic imagery. A lover of primitive cinema, he has cunningly summoned the light-and-shadow techniques and experimentations of the Golden Age of film to resuscitate a unique cinematographic language which plays with the spectator’s unconscious by means of visual trickery as disturbing as it is absurd. In an attitude as playful at that Maddin’s films this documentary follows the mediumistic experiments of this master of illusion, filmed during the ‘’spirit’’ shootings he presented in Europe.
Kenneth Anger's Airship series consists of three short films that exhume newsreel footage of mighty dirigibles hovering ominously in the sky, the filmmaker's characteristic fusion of magic, symbolism, mystery, and myth — as well as the opulent use of colour and, in the first film, anaglyph 3D — imbuing the already incredible footage with an eerie, supernatural quality.
Nine films grouped together that form the basis of Anger's reputation as one of the most influential independent filmmakers in cinema history.
In 1960, Brion Gysin invented the Dream Machine, a hypnotic light device with the power to induce hallucinations, drugless highs, and revolutionize human consciousness. It looks simple enough; a 100-watt light bulb, a motor, and a rotating cylinder with cutouts. Just sit in front of it, close your eyes, and wait for the visions to come. The Dream Machine enthralled mystics and freethinkers everywhere; Kurt Cobain had a dream machine, and William S. Burroughs thought it could be used to “storm the citadels of enlightenment.” With a custom-made Dream Machine in tow, director Nik Sheehan takes us on a journey into the life of Brion Gysin; his art, his complex ideas, and his friendships with some of the most eccentric counter-cultural icons. Taking the Dream Machine as the basis of its explorations, FLicKeR asks crucial questions about the nature of art and consciousness, and imagines a humanity liberated to explore its creativity in complete freedom.
A magician encounters the void that separates the human mind from divine consciousness and in turn faces the mad god.
As a firm believer in resurrection, I approach the subject of “DEATH” not as the closing of a final door, but as a beginning. In my short cinepoem “DEATH” I begin with a golden skull, and conclude with the silver death mask of the notorious gangster, John Dillinger. In between we see the bunks and bodies of two of the Heaven’s Gaters, deluded into believing by an evil cult that death by suicide would deliver them to a waiting flying saucer. Then a succession of silver embossed tantric skulls of enlightened ones lead us to the necessary conclusion. By these small token gestures I chose to broach the vast subject that remains unknowable. Death is indeed the spice of life -for without it life would have no meaning. It is necessary to give form, pacing and contrast to the good time of living.
A young man with a stylish crew cut watches a surveillance video monitor with great interest as a security guard makes out with a bodyguard (both with similar crew cut) among luxury cars in the underground parking of a posh building.
Using found footage, we're introduced to the short life of Bunker Spreckels, Clark Gable's stepson and surfing legend.
Covering the first half of Anger's career, from his landmark debut FIREWORKS in 1947 to his epic bacchanalia INAGURATION OF THE PLEASURE DOME, Fantoma is very proud to present the long-awaited first volume of films by this revolutionary and groundbreaking maverick, painstakingly restored and presented on DVD for the first time. Contains the films: Fireworks (1947) Puce Moment (1949) Rabbit's Moon (1950, the rarely seen original 16 minute version) Eaux d'Artifice (1953) Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)
A homage to the late American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, Elliott’s Suicide is a sentimental 15 minute tribute, lacking Anger’s usual irony for obvious reasons. The film begins with shots of friends’ and fans’ last words written on Smith’s memorial on Sunset Boulevard, then to footage of a Macy’s parade, focusing closely on the oddly outfitted participants, some in renaissance attire, cowboys with lassos, and beauty queens. The film is scored with Smith’s music, resulting in a melancholy effect, especially in the segment that follows Smith through the woods and films him as he digs up a guitar, then plays a song. This footage is repeated in the end of the film, but in a negative reversal print, suggesting pretty damn clearly that the subject matter has moved beyond the veil.
Covering the second half of Anger's career, from his legendary SCORPIO RISING to his breathtaking phantasmagoria LUCIFER RISING, Fantoma is very proud to complete the cycle with this long-awaited final volume of films by this revolutionary and groundbreaking maverick, painstakingly restored and presented on DVD for the first time anywhere in the world. Contains the films: Scorpio Rising (1964) Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965) Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969) Rabbit's Moon (1979 version) Lucifer Rising (1981)
Disinfo.Con contains an amazing 4 hours of footage from The Disinformation Company's massive counterculture event in New York City's Hammerstein Ballroom. New York hadn't seen anything like this since the Nova Convention in 1978 which saw Frank Zappa, Patti Smith and others anoint William Burroughs as king of the counterculture. A quarter century later Disinformation's keynote speakers Richard Metzger and Douglas Rushkoff ushered in a dizzying, day-long array of performances ranging from sword-swallowing to sanskrit chanting, interspersed with lectures and conversations with counterculture luminaries like Mondo 2000 founder R.U. Sirius, industrial music progenitor Genesis P-Orridge, Grant Morrison, Robert Anton Wilson, theorists, performance artists and others from the extremes of popular culture. Nothing beats actually experiencing an event like this in the flesh, but this DVD comes pretty close to capturing the spirit of the counterculture as we lurch into the 21st century.
"Secrets of a Hollywood Star" is another documentary made after "Calling Hedy Lamarr" in 2006. It features interviews with Hedy's friends in both Europe and Hollywood and her film/studio partners.
Starring the color red, we see a chap in a blue shirt & blue baseball cap walking down a pink street (thanks to camera filters). Discarding the shirt he takes a nap in the sun, but soon sits up & introduces himself as Red. His missing blue shirt reappears & he goes for a walk looking at stop signs, because they're red, & walks past walls painted red, arriving home to look out the window with binoculars, presumedly at something red.
"The Man We Want to Hang" is a 12-minute short, consisting of Anger filming borrowed paintings done by legendary and controversial occultist Aleister Crowley.
A collection of interviews recorded for the making of the 1995 documentary "The Celluloid Closet," on the subject of LGBT representation in film history.
An homage to Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon, shot at the Museum of Death.
This is a compilation of TV commercials, interviews and propaganda regarding the cigarette and tobacco industry.
SexTV is a Canadian documentary television series which explores many issues about human sexuality. The show premiered in 1998 and spun off a television channel called SexTV: The Channel in 2001. The series uses two Leonard Cohen songs, "Everybody Knows" and "Ain't No Cure for Love", as theme music.
A German documentary that explores the connections between the Beach Boys, the Manson Family, and Anton LeVay's Church of Satan.
Filmmaker Jonas Mekas films 160 underground film people over four decades.
A biography of Darryl F. Zanuck, mogul and the power behind 20th Century Fox throughout the Golden Age.
Not a documentary in the strictest sense of the word. Rather, it is a journey through the world of the artist Jonas Mekas - one of the exponents of independent U.S. movies; founder and director of the New York Anthology Film Archive.
Profile of Kenneth Anger, looking at the uproar his books on Hollywood scandals caused and journeying through the darker side of Hollywood's history, including film clips, and Anger playing a guide with comedian Mike McShane playing the God of Hollywood. It also includes a look at some of Anger's own work.
A film collage tracing the story of the lives, loves, and deaths within the artistic community surrounding Jonas Mekas.
Rabbit's Moon is an avant-garde short film by American filmmaker Kenneth Anger, and released in two different versions. It was filmed in 1950, but not completed (nor released) until 1971. This, the second version, was re-released in 1979, sped up and with a different soundtrack.
A short film by Kenneth Anger, only available to private collectors and never publicly released.
Egyptian gods summons the angel Lucifer - in order to usher in a new occult age.
A collage-style documentary of one of Kenneth Anger's visits to Pittsburgh in the early 1970s
Shot in the Films du Panthéon Studio in Paris 1950. Shooting was never completed. Anger retrieved the footage from Cinémathèque Française in 1970 and released a sixteen minute version in 1971. A seven minute version was released in 1979. Pierrot waxes romantic, entranced by the moon. Harlequin appears and bullies him, then uses a magic lantern to project an image of Columbine. Pierrot tries to court the illusory Columbine unsuccessfully, then enters a mystical moon-realm from which he returns dead.A Japanese fairy tale meets commedia dell'Arte. All in white, the naïf Pierrot lies in a wood. Doo-wop music plays as he rises, stares about, and reaches for the moon. Although music abounds and the children of the wood are there at play, Pierrot is melancholy and alone. Harlequin appears, brimming with confidence and energy. He conjures the lovely Colombina. Pierrot is dazzled. But can the course of true love run smooth?
Anger discusses his Aleister Crowley-inspired theories of art: How he views his camera like a wand and how he casts his films, preferring to consider his actors, not human beings but as elemental spirits. In fact, he reveals that he goes so far as to use astrology when making these choices. This is as direct an explanation of Anger’s cinemagical modus operandi as I have ever heard him articulate anywhere. It’s a must see for anyone interested in his work and showcases the Magus of cinema at the very height of his artistic powers. Fascinating. (Dangerous Minds)
The shadowing forth of Our Lord Lucifer, as the Power of Darkness gather at a midnight mass. The dance of the Magus widdershins around the Swirling Spiral Force, the solar swastika, until the Bringer of Light—Lucifer—breaks through.
A man in tight jeans buffs his car to the strains of The Paris Sisters’ “Dream Lover”.
A gang of Nazi bikers prepares for a race as sexual, sadistic, and occult images are cut together.
Filmed at the Alhambra in Spain in just one day, according to Marie Menken. Arabesque for Kenneth Anger concentrates on visual details found in Moorish architecture and in ancient Spanish tile. The date 1961 refers to the addition of Teiji Ito's soundtrack and its subsequent completion, but the film was likely shot in 1960 or earlier. - David Lewis
Lord Shiva wakes. A convocation of magicians in the guise of figures from mythology; a masquerade party at which Pan is the prize. The wine of Hecate is poured: Pan's cup is poisoned by Shiva. Kali blesses the assembly as a bacchic rite ensues.
A woman dressed elegantly walks purposely through the water gardens at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, as the music of Vivaldi's Winter movement of The Four Seasons plays. Heavy red filters give a blue cast to the light; water plays across stone, and fountains send it into the air. No words are spoken. Baroque statuary and the sensuous flow of water are back lit. Anger calls it water games.
Puce Moment is a short 6 minute film by Kenneth Anger, author of the Hollywood Babylon books, filmed in 1949. Puce Moment resulted from the unfinished short film Puce Women. The film opens with a camera watching 1920s style flapper gowns being taken off a dress rack. The dresses are removed and danced off the rack to music. (The original soundtrack was Verdi opera music; in the 1960s, Anger re-released the film with a new psychedelic folk-rock soundtrack performed by Jonathan Halper.) A long-lashed woman, Yvonne Marquis, dresses in the purple puce gown and walks to her vanity to apply perfume. She lies on a chaise lounge which then begins to move around the room and eventually out to a patio. Borzois appear and she prepares to take them for a walk.
Fireworks revolves around a young man (played by Anger himself) associating with various navy sailors, who eventually turn on him, stripping him naked and beating him to death, ripping open his chest to find a clock ticking inside. Several fireworks then explode, accompanied by a burning Christmas tree and the final shot shows the young man lying in bed next to another topless man.
A silent black-and-white film in which a brother (played by Bob Jones) and sister (Jo Whittaker) are examining mirrors when a third figure (Dare Harris), causes them to act violently against one another, before a magical rite takes place in which the sister's binding spell is destroyed by the brother.
Kenneth Anger plays a "chosen adolescent" who is elected to be sent on a trip to Mars in a rocket. He awakes in a Martian maze only to find that he not the first to arrive from Earth, as evidenced by the human bones littered about. Although circulated on 16 mm through 1967, Anger then withdrew Prisoner of Mars. It is possible that the film no longer exists, but it may be among a few extant titles that Anger has stated he prefers not to show. This science-fiction drama was particularly interesting, as it was a structured as a serial chapter, and made use of miniatures and models.
Made when Anger was only 14 years old, Tinsel Tree is a short that demonstrated his early disdain for the Christmas season. Anger shows the Christmas tree as it is decorated in a series of close-ups, then the post-Christmas tree is shown burning in a garbage can colored in a burst of hand-painted gold flame. Although circulated on 16 mm through 1967, Anger then withdrew Tinsel Tree. It is possible that the film no longer exists, but it may be among a few extant titles that Anger has stated he prefers not to show. From written descriptions, the connectivity of this very-short short to Kenneth Anger's later work is obvious. (allmovie.com)
Filmed on a playground, Who Has Been Rocking My Dream Boat begins with what was described by Anger as a “montage of American children at play…in the last summer before Pearl Harbor”.
