Avant Garde Director Kenneth Anger Visits Film Archive

The Crimson reached Kenneth Anger in his hotel room in Chicago last Thursday as he was preparing to come to Harvard for this weekend's "Magick Lantern Show" at the Harvard Film Archive.

Crimson: Why did you decide to come to Harvard this summer?

Anger: I was invited by the Harvard Film Archives, and I'm always interested in meeting new people . I hope to meet some new people.

Crimson: What was it like to grow up as a Hollywood youngster?

Anger: a side from one experience, I never felt that I wanted to be a part of the Hollywood film industry.

Crimson: What led you to write your bestselling Hollywood expose Hollywood Babylon?

Anger: I was living in Paris in the '60s and I told some stories I knew about Hollywood tragedies and scandals to some friends, and they'd never beard of these stories, so they encouraged me to put these in book form Hollywood reacted to the book surprisingly benignly. I've never been sued by any of the celebrities I wrote about except for the Gloria Swanson.

Crimson: Why did Swanson sue you?

Anger: She thought that I was treating her as less than an icon, but I had very carefully researched mu sorry on her as the mistress of Joseph P. Kennedy II.

Crimson: Where did the material for your book come from?

Anger: I'd been collecting these stories and keeping stories and photographs in big scrapbooks since I was a youngster. It was my hobby, keeping those scrapbooks.

Crimson: Who or what inspired you to make your films?

Anger: When I was Young I saw Thunder over Mexico, directed by Serger Eisensteing. The images were so striking that it impressed me with the power of film-making.

Crimson: What kind of an audience do you try to reach with your films?

Anger: I'm and independent film, maker, and basically I make them for myself. If I find an audience I can share it with that's fine. It's the equivalent of poetry. I'm not trying to reach a mass audience; if I was I would have gone into the film industry of mainstream audiences.

Crimson: How did you get started as a film-maker?

Anger: Basically I was quite alone when I started. On the East Coast, I was aware that another woman was working on 16 mm film as I was--it was the media at the time for home movies, and I started with a home movie camera. I was always interested in using film as expression . I just saw the potential to film for this use and I make my money doing other things like writing books.

Over the course of three evenings (July 28-30), Anger will discuss his films his books and the work of other artists at the Harvard Film Archive. His films will also be screened this weekend at the Archive.