Highlight: Kenneth Anger in Person
Kenneth Anger, Ich Will! 2008. Photo © Kenneth Anger.
Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle
Fri 12th March, 7:00-9:00pm
‘The dream of a personal, free, pure cinema can be fulfilled as long as you are modest.’ – Kenneth Anger
Kenneth Anger is a visionary force in avant-garde cinema and a prolific writer about Hollywood’s rich and famous, including his 1959 book of scandals Hollywood Babylon. Creating films since the 1940s, his work explores ritualistic transformation and counterculture appealing directly to our subconscious mind. He has influenced generations of filmmakers from Andy Warhol to Martin Scorsese.
Anger fully embodies the Festival theme of energy: elemental forces including fire, flame, light and love have all been central to his work. He has also had a lifelong interest in the occult, particularly the works of Aleister Crowley, the most influential magician of the 20th century who believed that ‘the key to joy is disobedience’. Anger’s 1954 film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome is a Crowleyan ritual on film and established his trademark hallucinogenic and hypnotic visual style.
His work is pioneering in its use of found footage and sound, and a precursor of MTV and the music video. Scorpio Rising (1963) famously used Bobby Vinton’s song Blue Velvet in addition to tracks by Ray Charles and Elvis Presley. Mick Jagger composed the music for Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969), after Bobby Beausoleil reportedly buried the original footage in Death Valley.
For 20 years from the early eighties, Anger released no new material. However he has made several new films this decade including Mouse Heaven (2004), a montage of toys from the 1930s and Ich Will! (2008) a visual poem about the Hitler Youth. This legendary filmmaker and writer comes to AV Festival 10 to talk about his extraordinary career and screen a selection of his work.
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