Chance to look back at Anger
BEFORE the Hongkong Film Festival there is the American avant-garde cinema series at the Arts Centre. On offer are experimental films, curated by Jonas Meka of the Anthology Film Archives in New York, from film-makers who have made an indelible mark on the industry.
One is Kenneth Anger. Known for his dark, homo-erotic themes, Anger has been a major influence on the style of, among other things, music videos. With short films like Scorpio Rising (1964), Anger played with shadowy, black and white imagery of leather-clad men set to the girl-group sounds of pop svengali Phil Spector.
In turn, Andy Warhol, unfortunately not represented in the first part of this series, was inspired to pursue a similar, rough-and-ready approach. Warhol also added the twist of using a more static, observational camera technique. This was then further adapted by the Canadian multi-media artist Michael Snow. Two of his films, Wavelength (1967) and Back and Forth (1969), are included.
Anger is also the author of Hollywood, Babylon, and to be both critic and film-maker is not so unusual within the avant-garde. Director Stan Brakhage, who has four films in the series, including Scenes From Under Childhood, Part I (1967) and Loud Visual Noises (1986), is also a film critic.
