February 3rd marks the 82nd birthday of Kenneth Anger. If for some odd reason you don't know that name, how you have survived through this journal is beyond me...that said, Fantoma has released in the past year or so two DVDs collecting his films. Go watch.
Much has been written about how he almost single handily started the music video, or that this was the first gay cinema to receive a wide audience, and his connection to The Rolling Stones / Led Zeppelin / Charles Manson, etc.
All of that is true, but if you can watch the works with out the post modern malady of explaining everything, you will be rewardingly immersed in a world of frightful symmetry - Jungian ideas flying toward your subconscious with strobe light precision, and the self shrouded mysteries of Magick tantalizingly revealed.For someone with a vast reputation he has surprisingly a small catalog. There are rumors of other titles, but either they are part of Anger's own myth making or they do exist and will be shown after his passing. I am never sure which to believe. But what is available is enough to keep me coming back. With each viewing I find new visual layers not perceived from the last time. These are films shot on limited budget yet they are amazing in their opulence. For a few minutes - his longest work runs roughly 38 minutes, the outside world falls away and you are transported to the time of Busby Berkley and the smell of opium...it is for these feats of Magick, I say Salute!
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