Kenneth Anger Night

I went to the Cube Cinema on Thursday for Tom Marshman's Kenneth Anger Night, as part of his Beacons, Icons & Dykons project.  I'd never been before and didn't know what to expect.  In the bar people were discussing performance artists bleeding in the name of art and I was wondering how long I'd last in the audience.  As it turned out, I needn't have worried (this time).

The atmosphere in the tiny cinema was good-humoured, chaotic, relaxed, exciting, boundless - I think that covers it :)

The evening was MC'd by Tom (I affectionately referred to him as Tom of Finland as he made his entrance in tight leather trousers, with keyboard braces being the only concession to clothing his torso.  We were introduced to 'Fireworks' by a short piece of performance from Tom and a silent sailor (reminiscent of a scene from 'Querelle').

'Fireworks' (1947) is a short homoerotic film, dealing with a young man (Anger himself) and his fantasies involving a sailor.

We were treated to further movies, including 'Puce Moment' (1949) , 'Scorpio Rising' (1963),  'Kustom Kar Kommandos' (1965) - which prepared us for a performance piece in the car park - and finally 'Rabbit's Moon' (1950)

We had a Skype link with a woman who had briefly met Kenneth Anger at a film seminar and a guy read out the manifesto of Ra-Hoor-Khuit which guided the activities of Aleister Crowley's Thelema.  The guy thought this manifesto was key to Lucifer Rising, which we weren't shown tonight.  I still found it informative for the sensibility of the short film 'Puce Moment' with its soundtrack declaring 'I'm a hermit and ecstacy's my game'.

I managed to sketch a couple of times, in the half light of the cinema - Tom's appearance on the stage introducing the evening and the sight of the skype interview spread across the movie screen with the sharp silhouette Tom created standing in front of the projection.  Not brilliant sketches, but an attempt to  capture the event.