Fireworks, 1947, 14 min
A landmark of both experimental and gay cinema, Kenneth Anger's film (made when he was 17) is a bizarre, disturbing dreamscape of violation, rape, and homoerotic sadomasochism. Recalling other surrealist masterpieces such as Un Chien Andalou and Meshes in the Afternoon, this film uses elliptical narrative structure and dream-like visual metaphors and puns.

Puce Moment, 1949, 6 min
"A lavishly colored evocation of Hollywood now gone, as shown through an afternoon in the milieu of a 1920's film star." (Kenneth Anger) Puce Moment is a fragment from an abandoned film project entitled Puce Woman, reflecting Anger's concerns with the myths and decline of Hollywood.

Rabbit's Moon, 1950-1979, 16 mins
"The rabbit in the moon is lifted out of Japanese myth, with the moon in Crowleyan terms representing the female principal. Highly stylized mime movements recall both Kabuki and commedia dell'arte, and the set resembles the art deco forest in A Midsummer Night's Dream." (Bill Landis, Anger)

Eaux D'Artifice, 1953, 13 min
"Hide and seek in a night-time labyrinth of levels, cascades, balustrades, grottoes, and ever-gushing leaping fountains, until the water witch and the fountain become one." - Kenneth Anger. Shot in black & white and printed through a blue filter; the Lady's "Fan of Exorcism" was hand-tinted by Anger. A technical and atmospheric masterpiece.

Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, 1954-56, 40 min
A key work of American experimental film, it has been cited as an influence on Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe series and on certain shots in Martin Scorsese's Kundun. Subtitled "Lord Shiva's Dream", the film is a complex meditation of ideas that Anger absorbed from his interest in the occultist Aleister Crowley. Includes appearances by eroticist Anaïs Nin and avant-garde filmmaker Curtis Harrington.

Scorpio Rising, 1963, 30 min
Originally decried as obscene, this short feature contains no dialogue and rapidly inter-cuts images against a score of slyly selected pop tunes, predating the advent of the music video by a decade and a half. Delving into the homoerotic world of bikers, Anger focuses on Scorpio (Bruce Byron), a leather-wearing, crystal meth-snorting bad boy who is alternately compared to Jesus Christ, Adolf Hitler and the Devil. The film was popular only on the underground circuit, but its style influenced various filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese.

Kustom Kar Kommandos, 1964, 3 min
Anger's take on the California teenager's obsession with the customized car, an elegant hymn to the hot rod as contemporary fetish-object. Anger made this to raise funds for an 8 part, 30 min version of the film, but was unable to do so and the project was abandoned.

Invocation Of My Demon Brother, 1969, 15 min
In 1967, the original footage for Anger's Lucifer Rising was allegedly stolen by Anger's "Lucifer", Bobby Beausoleil, who was later convicted for his participation in the Manson murders (Beausoleil denies stealing the footage to this day). Anger went into a deep depression and publicly renounced filmmaking, but he continued to work with his remaining footage to make Invocation (including an eerie synth soundtrack by Mick Jagger).

Lucifer Rising, 1980, 45 min
Perhaps Anger's most elaborate film, Lucifer Rising takes place at various historically magick spots in Egypt, England and Germany. The odd soundtrack (recorded by Beausoleil in prison, after a reconciliation with Anger) pulls viewers through a series of obsessively staged and hauntingly realized ceremonies, movements and rituals. Experimental editing techniques, mixed with more traditional cinematic structures, add to the eerie and compelling visual quality of this avant-garde masterpiece. Marianne Faithfull, the Rolling Stones, Satanism, lightning and pyramids bring this film to a fever pitch of strangeness and cultural abstraction.

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