Fireworks

Black and white, 16 mm
USA, 1947, 15 min
Section: Midnight Screenings

Synopsis

An iconoclastic and homoerotic look at a man who dreams of sailors, made when Anger was a teenager. Shot over a weekend when his parents were out of town, Anger stated, “This flick is all I have to say about being 17, the United States Navy, American Christmas and the Fourth of July.”

About the director

Kenneth Anger (b. 1930, Santa Monica, USA) is one of the greatest and most notorious living American avant-garde filmmakers. Drawn to cinema, glamour and scandal early on – his grandmother worked in Hollywood as a dresser and he knew Shirley Temple from school dances – he made his first film of note, Fireworks (1947), at the age of 17. It set the mold for his later oeuvre, silent films of intense sensual imagery combined with mesmerizing musical soundtracks. A follower of necromancer Aleister Crowley, Anger describes his lifework as being “Magick”. His films may be seen as cinematic manifestations of his occult practices, appealing directly to the subconscious mind. Anger also wrote Hollywood Babylon. His filmography includes Puce Moment (1949), Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954), Kustom Kar Kommandos (1965), Rabbit’s Moon (1972) and Lucifer Rising (1980).