April 10, 2013 | Film,

LEGENDARY EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKER KENNETH ANGER AT ARTSEMERSON!

 

One of the most acclaimed underground filmmakers of all time, Kenneth Anger has been cited as an important influence on directors Martin Scorsese, David Lynch and John Waters. But did you know that he met Shirley Temple, whom he danced with on one occasion as a child? That he claims to have played the role of the Changeling Prince in the 1935 Warner Brothers film A Midsummer Night’s Dream despite production documents contradicting his story? That he once made a film that was destroyed by technicians at the film lab, who deemed it to be too obscene? That he wrote a book of wild celebrity gossip entitled Hollywood Babylon whose research method was, according to Anger, “Mental telepathy, mostly”? That he was once enlisted by Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page to help exorcise a building of what Page believed to be a headless man’s ghost? That he screened his film Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome exclusively to people on LSD? That he placed a full page ad in the Village Voice declaring “In Memoriam. Kenneth Anger. Filmmaker 1947–1967”? Kenneth Anger did not die in 1967, is alive and well, and will be in person to discuss his work between screenings of his films April 19th and 20th at ArtsEmerson. Click here for full details.