Kenneth Anger, filmmaker
Fireworks, 1947, 15 min., 35mm
Rabbit’s Moon, 1950/1971, 16 min., 16mm
Scorpio Rising, 1963, 29 min., 35mm
Kustom Kar Kommandos, 1964, 3 min., 35mm
Image: Kenneth Anger, Scorpio Rising (1963), still; image courtesy and copyright of Kenneth Anger
Preservation made possible by the Film Foundation; prints courtesy of the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Films by Kenneth Anger, American underground cinema’s dark star, ignite the screen with occult symbolism and lush baroque sensibilities while smashing the atoms of pop culture. The selection of early short films in this event — a reverie of homoerotica, fetishism, machismo, myth, and ironic spectacle — paved the way for queer cinema and captured the attention of directors from Jean Cocteau to Martin Scorsese. Anger introduces the program and participates in a post-screening Q&A.
These films were recently restored at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.