Kenneth Anger is an independent filmmaker and author. He claims to have appeared as the child prince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), but Warner Brothers production reports and casting sheets conclusively document that a little girl, child actress Sheila Brown, actually played the role. Anger did, however, begin making films at an early age. Most of his films are short experimental works, ranging from 3.5-30 minutes. His career has been recognized with life achievement awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Silverlake Film Festival, the Mar del Plata Film Festival, and the Maya Deren Award for Experimental Film/Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. Among other notable honors, he received the Poetic Film Prize at Festival du Film Maudit in Biarritz, France in 1949, which was presented by Jean Cocteau. Anger’s work has screened around the world, including at the Institut Francais de Vienne in Austria, the Galerie… read more
Honestly the main reason it took me so long to become a fan of him is because most of his films scared me. But having re-watched many of his films repeatedly there's no denying his view of cinema as magic is one of the most unique perspectives in film. As Scorsese put it in regards to 'Scorpio Rising' his films function like a sort of evocation of something per-existing and oddly the more his style is imitated (With imitators ranging from Scorsese himself to Lady Gaga) the more inherently modern his approach feels. While "Hollywood Babylon" is mostly nonsense I believe its key in understanding his perspective, where the appeal of Hollywood is the juxtaposition of the cities glamorous surface and its morbid underbelly. Anger's films embrace both extremes simultaneously.
You read where he said he believed that "the cinematograph" was inherently an instrument of evil? :)