Hey avant-film geeks! Did Kenneth Anger know about Maya Deren in 1947?

[The_Seventh_Deadly_Finn]

Just rewatched Fireworks (1947) by Kenneth Anger and was struck by how much it reminded me of Maya Deren’s early work. Meshes of the Afternoon was made in 1943— is it known whether Anger saw it before he made Fireworks? Google has failed me.

[MovieMogul]

It wouldn’t surprise me–Anger went to USC around that time and there were film clubs in major cities and universities even back then where experimental filmmaking could find a receptive audience.

[Bridget_Burke]

Not a film geek.

But I’ve been interested in Maya Deren since reading her voodoo book. So I decided to check out Kenneth Anger; I’d certainly heard of him but it will take some time to absorb the details of his fascinating life.

He was born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemeyer & started making films as a child:

In 1944, the Anglemyers moved to Hollywood to live with their grandmother, and Kenneth began attending Beverly Hills High School.

It was here that he met Maxine Peterson, who had once been the stand-in for Shirley Temple, and he asked her, alongside another classmate and an old woman, to appear in his next film project, which he initially called Demigods but which was later retitled Escape Episode. Revolving partially around the occult, it was filmed in a “spooky old castle” in Hollywood and was subsequently screened at the Coronet Theater on North La Cinega(sic), Los Angeles.

Around this time Anger also began attending the screenings of silent films held at Clara Grossman’s art gallery, through which he met a fellow filmmaker, Curtis Harrington, and together they formed Creative Film Associates, whose purpose it was to distribute underground films such as those of Maya Deren.

Deren (born Eleanora Derenkowsky) was born 10 years before Anger & died at 44. He’s still going strong.