According to a report in Variety, pioneering experimental queer filmmaker Kenneth Anger, the director of seminal shorts like "Fireworks," "Rabbit's Moon," "Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome," and "Scorpio Rising," has died at the age of 96.
The news was announced on Anger's website by Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers, the managers of Anger's art galleries. He had passed away on May 11, 2023, and the news was only just announced today.
Anger was a firebrand, an artistic rebel who aggressively and provocatively eschewed convention to present the world a new, cohesive type of underground, ultra-queer aesthetic that informs media and culture to this day. His shorts "Fireworks" and "Scorpio Rising" in particular blended traditionally ultra-masculine imagery -- Naval officers, leather-clad bikers -- with unapologetic gay lust, revealing the desire that exists so naturally in those worlds. Anger also blended images of queerness with religious iconography, tearing down conventional Christian morality, and introducing...
The news was announced on Anger's website by Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers, the managers of Anger's art galleries. He had passed away on May 11, 2023, and the news was only just announced today.
Anger was a firebrand, an artistic rebel who aggressively and provocatively eschewed convention to present the world a new, cohesive type of underground, ultra-queer aesthetic that informs media and culture to this day. His shorts "Fireworks" and "Scorpio Rising" in particular blended traditionally ultra-masculine imagery -- Naval officers, leather-clad bikers -- with unapologetic gay lust, revealing the desire that exists so naturally in those worlds. Anger also blended images of queerness with religious iconography, tearing down conventional Christian morality, and introducing...
- 5/24/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Filmmaker and artist Kenneth Anger has passed away. Anger's death was announced on the official website for Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers, who operated his art gallery. While the cause of death and circumstances surrounding his passing were not disclosed, Sprüth and Magers say they must let everyone know about the news that they deliver with "deep sadness" along with the entire gallery team.
"Kenneth was a trailblazer. His cinematic genius and influence will live on and continue to transform all those who encounter his films, words and vision," the statement reads in part. "Anger considered cinematographic projection a psychosocial ritual capable of unleashing physical and emotional energies. The artist saw film as nothing less than a spiritual medium, a conveyer of spectacular alchemy that transforms the viewer.”
Anger was born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer on Feb. 3, 1927. He is known to cinephiles for developing dozens of experimental short films throughout the decades,...
"Kenneth was a trailblazer. His cinematic genius and influence will live on and continue to transform all those who encounter his films, words and vision," the statement reads in part. "Anger considered cinematographic projection a psychosocial ritual capable of unleashing physical and emotional energies. The artist saw film as nothing less than a spiritual medium, a conveyer of spectacular alchemy that transforms the viewer.”
Anger was born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer on Feb. 3, 1927. He is known to cinephiles for developing dozens of experimental short films throughout the decades,...
- 5/24/2023
- by Jeremy Dick
- MovieWeb
Experimental filmmaker, artist and author Kenneth Anger has died. He was 96.
His gallery, operated by Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers, confirmed the news on their website, writing, “Kenneth was a trailblazer. His cinematic genius and influence will live on and continue to transform all those who encounter his films, words and vision.”
Born in 1927 in Santa Monica, Calif., Anger produced over 30 short films from 1937 to 2013, having made his first movie at 10 years old. Known as “one of America’s first openly gay filmmakers,” he gained a reputation for exploring themes of erotica and homosexuality decades before gay sex was legalized in America. Anger received recognition for his homoerotic 1947 film “Fireworks,” which landed him in court on obscenity charges. Filmed in his childhood home in Beverly Hills while his parents were away for the weekend, “Fireworks” is known as the first gay narrative film produced in the U.S.
Afterward, Anger...
His gallery, operated by Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers, confirmed the news on their website, writing, “Kenneth was a trailblazer. His cinematic genius and influence will live on and continue to transform all those who encounter his films, words and vision.”
Born in 1927 in Santa Monica, Calif., Anger produced over 30 short films from 1937 to 2013, having made his first movie at 10 years old. Known as “one of America’s first openly gay filmmakers,” he gained a reputation for exploring themes of erotica and homosexuality decades before gay sex was legalized in America. Anger received recognition for his homoerotic 1947 film “Fireworks,” which landed him in court on obscenity charges. Filmed in his childhood home in Beverly Hills while his parents were away for the weekend, “Fireworks” is known as the first gay narrative film produced in the U.S.
Afterward, Anger...
- 5/24/2023
- by Ethan Shanfeld
- Variety Film + TV
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