Kenneth Anger, one of the foremost filmmakers and LGBTQ+ icons of the 20th century, passed away on July 6 at the age of 96. The American avant-garde filmmaker was the visionary behind surrealist works such as “Scorpio Rising,” “Fireworks,” and “Lucifer Rising,” that are renowned for their use of homoeroticism, occultism, and symbolism. Anger’s oeuvre spanned over seven decades and comprised 36 dialogue-free shorts that left an indelible mark on the counterculture scene of the mid-20th century.
Born in 1927 in Santa Monica, California, Anger began his career as a child actor and later became notorious for his experimental movies that contained scenes of bikers, sadomasochism, and Nazi iconography, making him an unconscious contributor to punk and heavy metal aesthetics. However, it was his book “Hollywood Babylon” that brought him unprecedented public attention. The collection of salacious and unreliable stories that Anger compiled about Hollywood’s underbelly was published in 1959 but banned in the USA until 1965. It earned him a permanent place in pop culture history and, by the end of Anger’s life, had inspired a sequel and offshoots.
Throughout his career, Anger remained an enigmatic figure who never fully revealed himself on camera while pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable in cinema, earning him a reputation as a rebel. Anger’s passing marks the end of an era, one that he helped shape – the era of underground cinema, queer visibility, and artistic experimentation.
Anger’s artistry and oeuvre influenced many filmmakers, including David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, and John Waters. More recently, his films were exhibited at the New Museum in New York, where they were remastered and presented alongside the artist’s retrospective exhibition. His influence resurfaced in contemporary queer cinema through films such as “The Wild Boys” and “Knife + Heart.”
Anger’s legacy will continue to inspire artists, filmmakers, and poets as they search for new ways to create and challenge the status quo, and his films will continue to inspire and excite audiences with their surreal brilliance.
In his own words: “Films are not books, and should never attempt to be. If a film resembles a book, then something has gone horribly wrong. Books have pages; films have the illusion of one continuous image. Films must move.”
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