- Born
- Died
- Birth nameKenneth Wilbur Anglemyer
- Kenneth Anger grew up in Hollywood and started out as a child actor, but his interest in filmmaking was evident at an early age: he made his first film, Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat (1941) , at age 14.
Anger developed into one of the pioneers of the American underground film movement. His gritty, violent, often homosexual-themed films were too strong for American audiences of the time, and many of his productions were filmed in Europe, mainly France.
However, Anger is best known for authoring the landmark "Hollywood Babylon" book series, which detailed a far seamier side of the Hollywood film industry than most people were aware.- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com - Kenneth Anger is an independent filmmaker and author. He claims to have appeared as the child prince in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), but Warner Brothers production reports and casting sheets conclusively document that a little girl, child actress Sheila Brown, actually played the role. Anger did, however, begin making films at an early age. Most of his films are short experimental works, ranging from 3.5-30 minutes. His career has been recognized with life achievement awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Silverlake Film Festival, the Mar del Plata Film Festival, and the Maya Deren Award for Experimental Film/Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Among other notable honors, he received the Poetic Film Prize at Festival du Film Maudit in Biarritz, France in 1949, which was presented by Jean Cocteau. Anger's work has screened around the world, including at the Institut Francais de Vienne in Austria, the Galerie Agnes B. in Paris, the National Film Theatre in London and Anthology Film Archive in New York. He is the author of Hollywood Babylon I & II. Education.- IMDb Mini Biography By: MediaArtists.org
- Occult & Religious Imagery
- Jukebox Soundtracks
- Experimental Editing Techniques (e.g. superimposition, strobe lighting, fast cutting)
- Vibrant Color Palettes, Costumes, Sets & Lighting
- Homoerotic Subject Matter & Explicit Male Nudity
- In 1967 he published his own eulogy in "The Village Voice" because he was upset that the negative of his latest film, Lucifer Rising (1972), which he was carrying on the back of his motorcycle, had been stolen and destroyed by members of the Hell's Angels.
- He was an active esoterist (which some of his films reflect) and a sympathizer of Aleister Crowley's "Thelema" philosophy. He is also a member of a secret society, the Ordo Templi Orientalis.
- Is the subject of the songs "A Film By Kenneth Anger" by The Auteurs and "Kenneth Anger's Bad Dream" by Comet Gain.
- According to some sources (including Jean-Luc Godard in "Cahiers du Cinéma"), Anger edited a version of Sergei Eisenstein's unfinished ¡Que viva Mexico! (1932) during his time in France in the early 1950s. There are no known extant copies of the project and it is not certain it ever actually existed.
- Concocted his stage name at age five.
- Lucifer is the patron saint of the visual arts. Color, form - all these are the work of Lucifer.
- [on unemployed filmmakers] It seems much easier for these people to rent my films, look at them and make notes, than to give them a job.
- Hollywood is very good for producing scandals; it's been producing them since the very beginning. [Nov. 2017]
- [in November 2017] Hollywood is very good for producing scandals; it's been producing them since the very beginning.
- Lucifer is the patron saint of the visual arts. Color, form--all these are the work of Lucifer.
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