Fireworks
1947 · 15m · USA
Directed by Kenneth Anger
Genres: drama, experimental, horror
Tones: dark, provocative, surreal
A young man's sadomasochistic dream unfolds as he ventures into the night seeking a 'light' and encounters a gang of sailors in a surreal, homoerotic fever dream of desire and violence. Filmed by 17-year-old Kenneth Anger in his parents' Beverly Hills home, the film is a landmark of queer and avant-garde cinema.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Seventeen-year-old Anger filming sailors beating up his fantasy self in his parents' house while they were away for the weekend — that's the kind of debut that earns a Supreme Court case. The page is gone, naturally.
Anger made one of the foundational queer films of American cinema at seventeen in his parents' living room, and the resulting California obscenity ruling reshaped first-amendment law for art. The Vimeo upload is dead, however.
Anger at 17 shooting in his parents' Beverly Hills house when they were away - the obscenity trial gave us the California Supreme Court ruling that protects queer artistic expression. Vimeo URL returns 404 though, so the vault link is broken.
Reviews
Fireworks is the inaugural film of postwar queer cinema and a watershed event in the history of the American avant-garde.
Anger's astonishing manifesto comprises his official cinematic debut, a pioneering queer masterpiece that cemented his reputation as a visionary of avant-garde cinema.
Festivals
- Festival du Film Maudit 1949, Poetic Film Prize