R.I.P. Kenneth Anger, the third (or is it more?) filmmaking giant who shaped me immeasurably, and who passed away this this year. Anger left us on May 11, but I am just hearing about his death today. Before I had ever seen his films, or any experimental films, I was under Anger’s spell because of a transcript of a talk he did at the Funnel that was published in the first issue of a Toronto fanzine called Hide. I instal recognized that this subculture was for me. That was 1981 and I was still in high school. Four years later I helped revive a dormant student film society at Innis College, and turned it into an experimental/independent film exhibitor, publisher and forum. The first screening was Kenneth Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle (letraset poster exhibited here!). Over the next ten years we would show all or part of it many times. Kate MacKay, Bart Testa and I met him at the Ann Arbor 8 fest in 1989, and in 1992 we brought him to Toronto, in collaboration with the AGO (I was wearing two hats then, one paid, and one purely love), as well as Public snd Pleasure Dome. We showed the whole Cycle at the original CineCycle (Spadina and Baldwin) twice, two very intense nights. We took him to Casa Loma and to John’s Italian Cafe. The AGO owns a 16mm print of Scorpio Rising, which is one of my favourite films - top 10 for sure. When I came back to the AGO and collaborated with Sophie Hackett on the Outsiders exhibition, we decided to open the show with Scorpio Rising, which confused some and delighted others. A giant.
