with an introduction by Martina Furlan

American experimental directors Jack Smith and Kenneth Anger are known for their outrageous mixing of biblical epics, art deco, lurid sin, and redeeming morality. By pairing Flaming Creatures (1963) and Lucifer Rising (1972) we will endure a visceral, sensory experience that questions established norms and defies conventional narratives and aesthetics, embracing dreamlike imagery, provocative symbolism, and a radical reimagining of identity, sexuality, and spirituality. Flaming Creatures, Smith’s surreal, gender-fluid fantasy, unfolds in a decadent, decaying world where boundaries between the real and the mythical dissolve. In this feverish cinematic landscape, drag queens, vampires, and otherworldly creatures drift through a series of performances that blur the line between the grotesque and the sublime. Anger’s Lucifer Rising complements this aesthetic with its hypnotic, esoteric dive into the mythological and the cosmic. In line with his adherence to Thelema, an esoteric and occult spiritual philosophy, Anger reinterprets the mythology of Lucifer as a bringer of light and agent of transformation.

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