Título: Kenneth Anger
Seção: 1947-49: Fireworks and early career
Background: Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer; February 3, 1927) is an American underground experimental filmmaker, actor and author. Working exclusively in short films, he has produced almost forty works since 1937, nine of which have been grouped together as the "Magick Lantern Cycle". His films variously merge surrealism with homoeroticism and the occult, and have been described as containing "elements of erotica, documentary, psychodrama, and spectacle". Anger himself has been described as "one of America's first openly gay filmmakers, and certainly the first whose work addressed homosexuality in an undisguised, self-implicating manner", and his "role in rendering gay culture visible within American cinema, commercial or otherwise, is impossible to overestimate", with several being released prior to the legalization of homosexuality in the United States.

Conteúdo: As Anger discovered his homosexuality, at a time when homosexual acts were still illegal in the United States, he began associating with the underground gay scene. At some point in the mid-1940s, he was arrested by the police in a "homosexual entrapment", after which he decided to move out of his parents' home, gaining his own sparse apartment largely financed by his grandmother, and abandoning the name Anglemyer in favor of Anger. He started attending the University of Southern California, where he studied cinema, and also began experimenting with the use of mind-altering drugs like cannabis and peyote. It was then that he decided to produce a film that would deal with his sexuality, just as other gay avant-garde film makers like Willard Maas were doing in that decade. The result was the short film Fireworks, which was created in 1947 but only exhibited publicly in 1948.  Upon release of the work, Anger was arrested on obscenity charges. He was acquitted, after the case went to the Supreme Court of California, which deemed it to be art rather than pornography. Anger made the claim to have been seventeen years old when he made it, despite the fact that he was actually twenty, presumably to present himself as more of an enfant terrible. A homoerotic work lasting only 14 minutes, Fireworks revolves around a young man (played by Anger himself) associating with various navy sailors, who eventually turn on him, stripping him naked and beating him to death, ripping open his chest t

user: What was fireworks?

assistant: The result was the short film Fireworks, which was created in 1947 but only exhibited publicly in 1948.

user: Was it successful?

assistant: Upon release of the work, Anger was arrested on obscenity charges.

user: What he convicted?

assistant: charges. He was acquitted, after the case went to the Supreme Court of California, which deemed it to be art rather than pornography.

user: Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?

assistant: A homoerotic work lasting only 14 minutes, Fireworks revolves around a young man (played by Anger himself) associating with various navy sailors,

user: Who released the film?

assistant: He would continuously alter and adapt the film up until 1980, with it finally being distributed on VHS in 1986.

user: Did it sell well?

assistant: CANNOTANSWER

user: What other work did he do?

assistant: That same year, Anger directed The Love That Whirls,

user: What was it about?

assistant: a film based upon Aztec human sacrifice but, because of the nudity that it contained,