Before the light there was darkness. A white-bearded wizard invites us into his dimly lit lair to hang with his mysterious friends in Jesse Malmed’s magick-al Goth Movie (Chemirocha) before the film swerves into a desert travelogue, then back inside in a conceptually contrasting yet complementary whole.
The whole notion of practicing magick is, ostensibly, about connecting to the Earth. It’s not about the supernatural, but celebrating what’s super about the natural. (Ok, that’s kind of bad pun-ny, but lets stick with it.) Malmed makes this allusion by giving us brief glimpses of the denizens of a dark interior space, then our introduction to the exterior desert space is a focusing on the gaping maw of an entrance into a cave. Are the wizard — who, by the way, really gives a fantastic, piercing look as if he can actually see the viewer — and his cohorts performing...
The whole notion of practicing magick is, ostensibly, about connecting to the Earth. It’s not about the supernatural, but celebrating what’s super about the natural. (Ok, that’s kind of bad pun-ny, but lets stick with it.) Malmed makes this allusion by giving us brief glimpses of the denizens of a dark interior space, then our introduction to the exterior desert space is a focusing on the gaping maw of an entrance into a cave. Are the wizard — who, by the way, really gives a fantastic, piercing look as if he can actually see the viewer — and his cohorts performing...
- 9/19/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
It might seem like an obtuse question, but does a film festival that puts “underground” in its name under any sort of obligation to screen only “underground films”? And — as Bad Lit, the self-proclaimed Journal of Underground Film asked a few years ago — who’s deciding what’s an underground film, anyway?
First popularized in the 1960s, the term “underground film” was typically applied to the movies coming out of the New York City avant-garde and experimental scene. More importantly, the term implied that these films had elements that were dangerous to normal society.
Watching an underground film, it was assumed one could witness degenerate acts such as the queer vamping of Jack Smith‘s Flaming Creatures or the black mass rituals of Kenneth Anger‘s Invocation of My Demon Brother, or — hopefully — bare boobs.
Eventually, though, the degeneracy of the ’60s underground film scene gave way to the more formal,...
First popularized in the 1960s, the term “underground film” was typically applied to the movies coming out of the New York City avant-garde and experimental scene. More importantly, the term implied that these films had elements that were dangerous to normal society.
Watching an underground film, it was assumed one could witness degenerate acts such as the queer vamping of Jack Smith‘s Flaming Creatures or the black mass rituals of Kenneth Anger‘s Invocation of My Demon Brother, or — hopefully — bare boobs.
Eventually, though, the degeneracy of the ’60s underground film scene gave way to the more formal,...
- 3/29/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Trailer for The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol 1,
released by Fantoma in 2007
Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer was born on this day in 1927 and if you pay him a call at his official site, you'll find a biographical overview he's got to relish. In 2003, Maximilian Le Cain, writing for Senses of Cinema, cut straight to the chase in his opening paragraph: "Offering a description of himself for the program of a 1966 screening, Kenneth Anger stated his 'lifework' as being Magick and his 'magical weapon' the cinematograph. A follower of Aleister Crowley's teachings, Anger is a high level practitioner of occult magic who regards the projection of his films as ceremonies capable of invoking spiritual forces. Cinema, he claims, is an evil force. Its point is to exert control over people and events and his filmmaking is carried out with precisely that intention."
Then: "Whatever one's view of this belief may be,...
released by Fantoma in 2007
Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer was born on this day in 1927 and if you pay him a call at his official site, you'll find a biographical overview he's got to relish. In 2003, Maximilian Le Cain, writing for Senses of Cinema, cut straight to the chase in his opening paragraph: "Offering a description of himself for the program of a 1966 screening, Kenneth Anger stated his 'lifework' as being Magick and his 'magical weapon' the cinematograph. A follower of Aleister Crowley's teachings, Anger is a high level practitioner of occult magic who regards the projection of his films as ceremonies capable of invoking spiritual forces. Cinema, he claims, is an evil force. Its point is to exert control over people and events and his filmmaking is carried out with precisely that intention."
Then: "Whatever one's view of this belief may be,...
- 2/2/2012
- MUBI
“The day that cinema was invented was a black day for mankind.” That’s a quote by Kenneth Anger made back in 1969 in an article in the British magazine Cinema and reprinted in P. Adams Sitney’s book Visionary Film. In a much more jovial mood in the above embedded video, watch Anger entertain the crowd live onstage at the 48th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival during a retrospective of his films. The video reveals lots of interesting things, like he loathes Marilyn Manson and hangs out backstage at Jonas Brothers concerts.
That’s how you know that Anger is the real deal. Wearing a bright red sweater and an ecstatic smile, he looks more like your eccentric uncle at the family Christmas gathering than the master of Satanic cinema like Scorpio Rising, Lucifer Rising, Invocation of My Demon Brother, Ich Will! and more. The man, if anything, is no poseur.
That’s how you know that Anger is the real deal. Wearing a bright red sweater and an ecstatic smile, he looks more like your eccentric uncle at the family Christmas gathering than the master of Satanic cinema like Scorpio Rising, Lucifer Rising, Invocation of My Demon Brother, Ich Will! and more. The man, if anything, is no poseur.
- 12/29/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Flaming Creatures midnight screening
Jonas Mekas’ Movie Journal: The Rise Of The New American Cinema 1959-1971 is essential reading for anybody interested in underground film. The book contains excerpts from the “Movie Journal” column Mekas wrote for the Village Voice alternative weekly newspaper for a dozen years. Also included in the book are a couple of movie posters and newspaper ads from that era, which I’ve scanned and uploaded to a photo gallery. If you click on each image in this post, it will take you to an embiggened version of it so you can look at them in better detail.
It’s tough for me to pick an absolute favorite poster out of the bunch, but I inserted the most striking above. It’s for a special midnight screening of Jack Smith’s classic Flaming Creatures. I’m guessing from the date on the poster and the year the film was completed,...
Jonas Mekas’ Movie Journal: The Rise Of The New American Cinema 1959-1971 is essential reading for anybody interested in underground film. The book contains excerpts from the “Movie Journal” column Mekas wrote for the Village Voice alternative weekly newspaper for a dozen years. Also included in the book are a couple of movie posters and newspaper ads from that era, which I’ve scanned and uploaded to a photo gallery. If you click on each image in this post, it will take you to an embiggened version of it so you can look at them in better detail.
It’s tough for me to pick an absolute favorite poster out of the bunch, but I inserted the most striking above. It’s for a special midnight screening of Jack Smith’s classic Flaming Creatures. I’m guessing from the date on the poster and the year the film was completed,...
- 11/23/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
"Cinema has always been suffused with magic," writes Brecht Andersch, outlining some of the thoughts behind Bay Area Ecstatic, an evening of "mystically inclined experimental filmmaking that seeks to induce ecstasy in viewers," as Sfmoma phrases it. Andersch has been working on an oral history, An Ecstatic Cinema, that "will embrace many disparate modes of filmmaking — from whatever can be gleaned in the collective memory regarding the largely lost rhythmic abstract animations of hipster/trickster Hy Hirsch, to the outrageous, visionary camp absurdism of George Kuchar and Curt McDowell. [Tonight's] show focuses on several of the major figures of the Great 60s generation" — Kenneth Anger, for example, whose Invocation of My Demon Brother (1969, image above) is on the program — "and on a few of their key successors who came of age in the 90s."...
- 11/18/2010
- MUBI
The second annual Arkansas Underground Film Festival returns to Hot Springs, Ar on Aug. 13-15 for an eclectic mix of both classic and modern films and videos.
Actually, after the festival’s official website vanished from the web following their inaugural edition last year, I thought Arkuff had called it quits. But, they’ve simply moved to a new website and are apparently somehow affiliated with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.
It also seems to be a totally curated festival sans submissions from filmmakers. The fest mostly consists of themed short film blocks, such as first films by filmmakers like David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Jim Henson and Guy Maddin; a night of classic avant-garde films by Bruce Conner and Kenneth Anger; a William Wegman retrospective; and a block devoted to Riot Grrrl cinema by Sadie Benning and Miranda July.
The two features that are being screened are David Lynch...
Actually, after the festival’s official website vanished from the web following their inaugural edition last year, I thought Arkuff had called it quits. But, they’ve simply moved to a new website and are apparently somehow affiliated with the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.
It also seems to be a totally curated festival sans submissions from filmmakers. The fest mostly consists of themed short film blocks, such as first films by filmmakers like David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Jim Henson and Guy Maddin; a night of classic avant-garde films by Bruce Conner and Kenneth Anger; a William Wegman retrospective; and a block devoted to Riot Grrrl cinema by Sadie Benning and Miranda July.
The two features that are being screened are David Lynch...
- 8/12/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
First the history, then the list:
In 1969, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas decided to open the world’s first museum devoted to film. Of course, a typical museum hangs its collections of artwork on the wall for visitors to walk up to and study. However, a film museum needs special considerations on how — and what, of course — to present its collection to the public.
Thus, for this film museum, first a film selection committee was formed that included James Broughton, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, Jonas Mekas and P. Adams Sitney, plus, for a time, Stan Brakhage. This committee met over the course of several months to decide exactly what films would be collected and how they would be shown. The final selection of films would come to be called the The Essential Cinema Repertory.
The Essential Cinema Collection that the committee came up with consisted of about 330 films.
In 1969, Jerome Hill, P. Adams Sitney, Peter Kubelka, Stan Brakhage, and Jonas Mekas decided to open the world’s first museum devoted to film. Of course, a typical museum hangs its collections of artwork on the wall for visitors to walk up to and study. However, a film museum needs special considerations on how — and what, of course — to present its collection to the public.
Thus, for this film museum, first a film selection committee was formed that included James Broughton, Ken Kelman, Peter Kubelka, Jonas Mekas and P. Adams Sitney, plus, for a time, Stan Brakhage. This committee met over the course of several months to decide exactly what films would be collected and how they would be shown. The final selection of films would come to be called the The Essential Cinema Repertory.
The Essential Cinema Collection that the committee came up with consisted of about 330 films.
- 5/3/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Kenneth Anger's crazy, gorgeous, disturbing films almost landed him in jail. The avant-garde pioneer talks Simon Hattenstone through all his demons
The gallery is so tiny I think I've walked into somebody's front room. A 10-minute film plays on a loop. Weirded-out rock stars who look like Mick Jagger, or who are Mick Jagger, preen, strut and do their late-1960s satanic thing. White dots form a pyramid on a black background, naked boys lounge on a sofa, marines jump from a helicopter. There's a cat, a dog, an all-seeing Egyptian eye, people smoking dope out of a skull. A synthesiser makes an unbearable noise. There are no words, no story.
Around the screen, in London's Sprüth Magers gallery, a bunch of 21st-century trendies and stoners are watching this film, called Invocation of My Demon Brother, in awe, their ages ranging from late teens to late 80s. Next door,...
The gallery is so tiny I think I've walked into somebody's front room. A 10-minute film plays on a loop. Weirded-out rock stars who look like Mick Jagger, or who are Mick Jagger, preen, strut and do their late-1960s satanic thing. White dots form a pyramid on a black background, naked boys lounge on a sofa, marines jump from a helicopter. There's a cat, a dog, an all-seeing Egyptian eye, people smoking dope out of a skull. A synthesiser makes an unbearable noise. There are no words, no story.
Around the screen, in London's Sprüth Magers gallery, a bunch of 21st-century trendies and stoners are watching this film, called Invocation of My Demon Brother, in awe, their ages ranging from late teens to late 80s. Next door,...
- 3/10/2010
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
Kenneth Anger's crazy, gorgeous, disturbing films almost landed him in jail. The avant-garde pioneer talks Simon Hattenstone through all his demons
The gallery is so tiny I think I've walked into somebody's front room. A 10-minute film plays on a loop. Weirded-out rock stars who look like Mick Jagger, or who are Mick Jagger, preen, strut and do their late-1960s satanic thing. White dots form a pyramid on a black background, naked boys lounge on a sofa, marines jump from a helicopter. There's a cat, a dog, an all-seeing Egyptian eye, people smoking dope out of a skull. A synthesiser makes an unbearable noise. There are no words, no story.
Around the screen, in London's Sprüth Magers gallery, a bunch of 21st-century trendies and stoners are watching this film, called Invocation of My Demon Brother, in awe, their ages ranging from late teens to late 80s. Next door,...
The gallery is so tiny I think I've walked into somebody's front room. A 10-minute film plays on a loop. Weirded-out rock stars who look like Mick Jagger, or who are Mick Jagger, preen, strut and do their late-1960s satanic thing. White dots form a pyramid on a black background, naked boys lounge on a sofa, marines jump from a helicopter. There's a cat, a dog, an all-seeing Egyptian eye, people smoking dope out of a skull. A synthesiser makes an unbearable noise. There are no words, no story.
Around the screen, in London's Sprüth Magers gallery, a bunch of 21st-century trendies and stoners are watching this film, called Invocation of My Demon Brother, in awe, their ages ranging from late teens to late 80s. Next door,...
- 3/10/2010
- by Simon Hattenstone
- The Guardian - Film News
The 48th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival is another exciting celebration of underground film past and present, featuring two retrospectives of two master filmmakers and dozens of short films and features from some of the most gifted talents working today.
For the retrospectives, first, Kenneth Anger will be in attendance at the festival for two programs of his classic work, including Fireworks and Scorpio Rising. Plus, for the first Anger screening, the filmmaker will be joined on-stage by film critic Dennis Lim for a discussion of his work and career. The second retrospective is of the work of the late Chick Strand, who sadly passed away in 2009. Strand’s Angel Blue Sweet Wings (1966) will actually open the entire festival, then there will be two retrospective screenings of her work, the first of which will be presented by film scholar Irina Leimbacher.
The rest of the Aaff lineup reads like a...
For the retrospectives, first, Kenneth Anger will be in attendance at the festival for two programs of his classic work, including Fireworks and Scorpio Rising. Plus, for the first Anger screening, the filmmaker will be joined on-stage by film critic Dennis Lim for a discussion of his work and career. The second retrospective is of the work of the late Chick Strand, who sadly passed away in 2009. Strand’s Angel Blue Sweet Wings (1966) will actually open the entire festival, then there will be two retrospective screenings of her work, the first of which will be presented by film scholar Irina Leimbacher.
The rest of the Aaff lineup reads like a...
- 3/8/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Opening in the UK today is Bronson, director Nicolas Winding Refn’s violently surreal screen biography of notorious British thug Michael Petersen. Adopting the name Charles Bronson, after the Death Wish movie star, for his bare-knuckle fighting persona, Petersen has spent most of his adult life in prison solitary confinement.
Refn’s nihilistic tribute, with nods to Stanley Kubrick and Kenneth Anger, has provoked a huge controversy and much critical acclaim, with actor Tom Hardy (from Lethal Dose, Minotaur, The Killing Gene and Star Trek: Nemesis) attracting stunning reviews for his fearless, raw and powerful lead performance. At the London premiere, Refn (pictured) introduced Hardy on stage with the words “My Aleister Crowley.” Afterward, the director (whose credits also include Fear X and the Pusher trilogy) gave Fango the exclusive on what he meant.
“I’m a massive fan of filmmaker Kenneth Anger,” explains the Danish filmmaker, who’s currently...
Refn’s nihilistic tribute, with nods to Stanley Kubrick and Kenneth Anger, has provoked a huge controversy and much critical acclaim, with actor Tom Hardy (from Lethal Dose, Minotaur, The Killing Gene and Star Trek: Nemesis) attracting stunning reviews for his fearless, raw and powerful lead performance. At the London premiere, Refn (pictured) introduced Hardy on stage with the words “My Aleister Crowley.” Afterward, the director (whose credits also include Fear X and the Pusher trilogy) gave Fango the exclusive on what he meant.
“I’m a massive fan of filmmaker Kenneth Anger,” explains the Danish filmmaker, who’s currently...
- 3/13/2009
- Fangoria
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