Kenneth Anger
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/* Filmography */
{{refimprove|date=April 2008}}
{{Infobox actor
| name = Kenneth Anger
|image = replace this image male.svg
| birthname = Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer
| birthdate = {{birth date and age|1927|02|03}}
| birthplace = [[Santa Monica, California]]
| deathdate =
| deathplace =
| othername =
| occupation = underground [[Film director]], [[Actor]]
| yearsactive = [[1941 in film|1941]] - present
| awards ='''Maya Deren Independent Film and Video Artists Award'''<br>1996''<br> ''' Spirit of Silver Lake Award'''<br>2000''<br>'''Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award'''<br>2001''<br>'''Independent/Experimental Film and Video Award''''<br>2002''
| imdb_id = 0001910
}}
<!-- Commented out because image was deleted: [[Image:Kenneth anger photograph.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Kenneth Anger in ''[[Fireworks (1947 film)|Fireworks]]'' (1947)]] -->
'''Kenneth Anger''' (born [[February 3]], [[1927]]) is an American [[Underground film|underground]] [[Experimental film|avant-garde film-maker]] and author. In [[August 2007]] he announced that he is "dying of [[prostate cancer]]" and has predicted that his own death will occur on [[Halloween]] night 2008.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/obituaries/645/curtis_harrington.html|title=Curtis Harrington: Obituary|last=Persky|first=Lisa Jane|date=2007-08|publisher=Fortean Times UK}}</ref>
==Early life==
Kenneth Anger was born in [[Santa Monica, California]] as '''Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glbtq.com/arts/anger_k.html|title=Anger, Kenneth (b.1927) |publisher=glbtq.com}}</ref> and attended the Maurice Kossloff Dancing School with [[Shirley Temple]]. He gained fame and notoriety from the publication of the [[France|French]] version of ''[[Hollywood Babylon]]'' in [[Paris]] in 1959, a tell-all book of the scandals of [[Hollywood]]'s rich and famous. A pirated (and incomplete) version was first published in the U.S. in 1965. The official U.S. version was not published until 1974.
He became fascinated with the [[supernatural]] and [[Aleister Crowley]], as well as becoming an adherent of Crowley's religion of [[Thelema]], sometime in his late teens. Many of his films reflect [[occult]] themes.
==Career==
He began making films around age nine, but his early films are now lost. His first film to see distribution was ''[[Fireworks (1947 film)|Fireworks]],'' filmed in [[Los Angeles]] in 1947, which gained the attention of [[Jean Cocteau]], who then invited him to go to Paris. In 1949, Anger directed ''The Love That Whirls'' which according to the 1972 book ''Experimental Cinema'' contained (faked) nudity, and was thus confiscated by the film lab. While most of his films are short subject (ranging from 3.5 minutes to 30 minutes) mood pieces, in 1955 he made a [[documentary film]] of the ruins of Crowley's [[Abbey of Thelema|Thelema Abbey]] in [[Cefalù]], [[Sicily]], which is now considered a [[lost film]].
He developed a close friendship with Dr. [[Alfred Kinsey]] of the [[Institute for Sex Research]]. Anger would later recall that Kinsey was his first customer after Kinsey purchased a copy of ''Fireworks'' when they first met in 1947. Anger eventually helped Kinsey build his film archive. The Anger Collection includes correspondence between the two men, as well as letters to and from former Institute director John Bancroft. Anger would later speak openly of his participation in Kinsey's research, including being filmed masturbating.
During the late 1960s he associated with [[The Rolling Stones]], as well as [[Bobby Beausoleil]] (before he gained notoriety as an associate of the [[Charles Manson]] family). Beausoleil, a musician who had played with [[Arthur Lee]], was cast as Lucifer in Anger's proposed film, ''[[Lucifer Rising (film)|Lucifer Rising]]''. Beausoleil and Anger had a falling out and Beausoleil left, taking most of the completed film with him <ref name="Illuminate">[http://www.illuminati-news.com/art-and-mc/lucifer-rising.htm Illuminati News "I Sold My Soul to Rock & Roll & Mind Control: Anger Rising"]</ref> (Beausoleil is also rumored to have buried the film's negative in the desert at one of Manson's former hangouts.) British singer [[Marianne Faithfull]] later appeared in Anger's re-shot version of the film. Some footage from the earlier version of ''Lucifer Rising'' (including Beausoleil) ended up in Anger's ''[[Invocation of My Demon Brother]]''.
Kenneth Anger had a widely publicized spat with [[Led Zeppelin]] guitarist [[Jimmy Page]] over the ''[[Lucifer Rising (album)|Lucifer Rising]]'' soundtrack. <ref>Chris Salewicz, [http://www.rocksbackpages.com/article.html?ArticleID=4544 Anger Rising: Jimmy Page and Kenneth's Lucifer]; ''NME'', 1977. </ref> <ref> [http://victorian.fortunecity.com/updike/723/page.html Anger Rising] </ref> Anger claimed Page took three years to deliver the music, and the final product was only 25 minutes of droning and was useless. Anger also accused Page of "having an affair with the White Lady" and being too strung out on drugs to complete the project. Page countered claiming he had fulfilled all his obligations, even going so far as to lend Anger his own film editing equipment to help him finish the project. Page's music was dumped eventually and replaced in 1979 by music written and recorded by Bobby Beausoleil - the only movie soundtrack in history recorded inside a prison.
In the mid-1980s, Anger sold a 16mm print of the incomplete ''[[Lucifer Rising (film)|Lucifer Rising]]'', containing the Page soundtrack, to [[Christopher Dietler]], who eventually released the soundtrack taken from film on an album titled ''Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising Jimmy Page Soundtrack''.<ref> Barton, David [http://www.lashtal.com/nuke/module-subjects-viewpage-pageid-127.phtml Carmichael Man Delves Into Led Zeppelin Star's Past] ''The Sacramento Bee'', May 24, 1987 </ref> Anger filed a [[lawsuit]] and won an [[injunction]] against Dietler who turned over the digitally enhanced master and agreed not to press or sell anymore record albums.{{Fact|date=September 2007}}
Anger's lifelong interest in the occult brought him into contact with a variety of groups and individuals. He was a lifelong friend of [[Anton Szandor LaVey]], both before and after the founding of the [[Church of Satan]] in the 1960s, and lived with LaVey and his family during the 1980s. In more recent years Anger accepted initiation into the [[Ordo Templi Orientis]] in a semi-honorary fashion. For 20 years from the early eighties, Anger released no new material. In the new millennium he has since returned to filmmaking.
Anger makes an appearance in the 2008 feature documentary by Nik Sheehan about [[Brion Gysin]] and the [[Dreamachine]] entitled ''FLicKeR''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.flickerflicker.com/flash/TheStory/TheStory.html|title=''FLicKeR'': A Flim by Nik Sheehan|accessdate=2008-04-21}}</ref>
==Filmography==
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*''Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat'' (1941)#
*''Tinsel Tree'' (1941-1942)#
*''Prisoner of Mars'' (1942)#
*''The Nest'' (1943)#
*''Escape Episode'' (1944)#
*''Drastic Demise'' (1945)#
*''Escape Episode'' (shorter sound version) (1946)#
*''[[Fireworks (1947 film)|Fireworks]]'' (1947)*
*''Puce Moment'' (1949)*
*''The Love That Whirls'' (1949)#
*''Maldoror'' (1951-1952, unfinished)#
*''Eaux d'Artifice'' (1953)*
*''Le Jeune Homme et la Mort'' (1953)#
*''[[Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome]]'' (1954, recut as "Sacred Mushroom Edition" in 1966)*
*''Thelema Abbey'' (1955)#
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*''Histoire d'O'' (1959-1961)#
*''[[Scorpio Rising (film)|Scorpio Rising]]'' (1963)*
*''Kustom Kar Kommandos'' (1965)*
*''Invocation Of My Demon Brother'' (1969)*
*''[[Lucifer Rising (film)|Lucifer Rising]]'' (1970-1980)*
*''[[Rabbit's Moon]]'' (1950-1972)*
*''Senators in Bondage'' (1976)#
*''[[Rabbit's Moon]] shorter 'jump printed' version'' (1979)*
*''The Man We Want to Hang'' (1995-2002)
*''Don't Smoke that Cigarette!'' (2000)
*''Anger Sees Red'' (2004)
*''Mouse Heaven'' (2004)
*''Elliott's Suicide'' (2004)
*''Ich Will!'' (2000-2007)
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<nowiki>*</nowiki> part of ''Magick Lantern Cycle''
<nowiki>#</nowiki> Are currently considered [[lost film]]s
==Bibliography for English Works==
* '''Hollywood Babylon'''. ''Kenneth Anger'' (1959)
* '''Hollywood Babylon II'''. ''Kenneth Anger'' (1986)
* '''The Devil's Notebook'''. ''Kenneth Anger and [[Anton Szandor LaVey]]'' (1992)
* '''Satan Speaks!'''. ''Kenneth Anger and [[Anton Szandor LaVey]]'' (1998)
* '''Suicide in the Entertainment Industry'''. ''Kenneth Anger and David K. Frasier'' (2001)
==See also==
* [[Experimental film]]
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
{{External links|date=April 2008}}
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*{{imdb name|id= 001910|name= Kenneth Anger}}
*[http://www.glbtq.com/arts/anger_k.html Anger, Kenneth] on [[glbtq.com]]
*[http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/1162/HCAngerBio_html.html Biography by Robert Haller]
*[http://www.mysticfire.com/ntsc/archives/bios/NIAnger.html Biography by Mystic Fire]
*[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,1287683,00.html The Observer: Look Back at Anger]
*[http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/anger.html Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database]
*[http://www.ratso.net/anger.html Interview: Ratso.net]
*[http://www.reel.com/reel.asp?node=features/interviews/anger Interview: Reel.com]
*[http://www.sfbg.com/AandE/35/05/kenneth.html Interview: San Francisco Bay Guardian]
*[http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/11-17-97/austin_screens_feature2.html Interview: The Austin Chronicle]
*[http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos/topy/angerris.txt Interview: T.O.P.Y. Chaos]
*[http://www.greylodge.org/occultreview/glor_014/anger.htm Interview: ARTE (QuickTime)]
*[http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2006-10-12/movie_interview.php Interview: NOW Magazine], October 2006
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*[http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/publications/newsletterFall2004.htm Kinsey Institute article on Kenneth Anger]
*[http://www.subcin.com/anger.html Magick Lantern Cycle: Images & Synopses]
*[http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/08/46/eaux-artifice.html Essay on Eaux d'Artifice]
*[http://www.plugincinema.com/plugin/articles/scorpio.htm Essay on Scorpio Rising]
*[http://www.bentclouds.com/films/kustom.html Essay on Kustom Kar Kommandos]
*[http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/05/34/invocation_demon_brother.html Essay on Invocation of My Demon Brother (1)]
*[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_200409/ai_n12802915 Essay on Invocation of My Demon Brother (2)]
*[http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=146736 Essay on Lucifer Rising]
*[http://www.filmsinreview.com/Features/CampDavid/campdavid4_nov.htm Kenneth Anger anecdote: Films in Review]
*[http://www.phinnweb.org/links/cinema/underground/anger/ Kenneth Anger @ pHinnWeb]
*[http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue12/anger.html Review of Alice Hutchison's book on Anger]
*[http://www.nndb.com/people/195/000112856/ NNDb profile]
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<!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]] -->
{{Persondata
|NAME= Anger, Kenneth
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION= [[Film director]], author
|DATE OF BIRTH= [[February 3]], [[1927]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH= [[Santa Monica, California]]
|DATE OF DEATH=
|PLACE OF DEATH=
}}
{{Kenneth Anger}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anger, Kenneth}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American experimental filmmakers]]
[[Category:American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Gay artists]]
[[Category:LGBT directors]]
[[Category:LGBT people from the United States]]
[[Category:LGBT screenwriters]]
[[Category:American Thelemites]]
[[Category:Ordo Templi Orientis]]
[[Category:People from Santa Monica, California]]
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[[he:קנת אנגר]]
[[ja:ケネス・アンガー]]
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[[ru:Энгер, Кеннет]]
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