The Cinesexuals

Kenneth Anger, one of the key figures in American avant-garde cinema, passed away on May 11. His legacy endures in a distinct body of films and in an array of enigmatic stories, some woven from the threads of reality, others spun from the fabric of dreams and fictions. Since the very beginning of his foray into filmmaking in the late 1940s, Anger’s distinctive style, replete with explorations of sexuality and its diverse iconographies, has set him apart from the mainstream norms of American cinema.

Kenneth Anger, a monumental figure in American avant-garde cinema and moving image art, died on 11 May at an assisted-living facility in Yucca Valley, California. He was 96 years old. His death was confirmed by Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers, the gallerists who have represented Anger since 2009.Anger was best known for his transgressive, boundary-pushing cinematic works, including such films as Fireworks (1947) and Scorpio Rising (1963), which went against the formal and social constraints of their day and, in the process, helped map new terrain for American underground film and ultimately pop culture at large.

If Close is “melodramatic” because it dares to explore—and express—male grief in a direct, if aesthetically attuned, manner, how much does that say about what we expect as viewers? When it comes to depictions of suffering, what is it about sentimentality that pains us so? And how or why is it that this becomes even more painful between boys or men?

As a gay viewer whose experience of watching movies changed drastically after coming out, I have found that my motivating force has remained the same pre and post-coming out: to bear witness. To myself, to the community, to the possibilities of life.