Kenneth Anger

Kenneth Anger

(B. 1927, Santa Monica, CA.)

Film-maker and author Kenneth Anger’s fi rst work Fireworks was awarded in 1949 by Jean Cocteau at his Festival du Film Maudit in Biarritz. He soon became notorious for his depictions of violence, homo-eroticism and the male group, subjects he returned to in subsequent works such as Scorpio Rising, about motorcycle gangs in New York, or the unfi nished Kustom Kar Kommandos, a voyeurist look at Californian hot-rod culture. With his evocative narrative imagery and unfailing stylistic sense for the portrayal of an environment, Anger exerted an infl uence on directors such as Martin Scorsese and David Lynch. Elements of the occult frequently recur in his work; this was a lifelong interest for Anger. After the turbulence of the production of Lucifer Rising of during the early 1980s, Anger withdrew from fi lmmaking. Since 2000 he has shown a number of new works at various festivals.

Education:
Cinema Studies, University of Southern California, L.A.

Recent exhibitions:
2001 SITE Santa Fe, NM.; 2006 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Kenneth Anger
Kustom Kar Kommandos, 1965

Courtesy Canyon Cinema, San Francisco

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