‘CINEMATIC GENUIS’

‘Trailblazing’ Experimental Filmmaker Kenneth Anger Dies at 96

He was known for exploring themes of homoeroticism in his daring films.

Kenneth Anger, a bold and daring experimental filmmaker and artist who explored themes of queer sexuality in his work, has died at 96, his gallery Sprueth Magers confirmed in a tweet Wednesday. Anger was said to have made his first film at only 10 years old, according to Variety, and his decades-long career spanned from 1937 to 2013 with over 30 short films. An icon in the avant-garde art and underground filmmaking worlds, Anger challenged the status quo as an openly gay artist and enfant terrible, incurring obscenity charges for his homoerotic 1947 short Fireworks, and being hit with a ban in the U.S. for his scandalous 1959 exposé book Hollywood Babylon. In 2022, his experimental 1963 short, Scorpio Rising, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” “Kenneth was a trailblazer,” Sprueth Magers wrote in a statement on its website. “His cinematic genius and influence will live on and continue to transform all those who encounter his films, words and vision.”