Item #5620 Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising

Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising

New York: Filmmakers’ Cooperative, ca. 1964. Offset. 8 1/2 x 11 in. Slight toning at eges; else near fine. Item #5620

An excellent flyer for the distribution of Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising by the FIlmmmaker’s Cooperative, in remarkable condition.

The influential underground film, which premiered in New York in 1963, is now widely celebrated for its usage of occultism, outlaw biker culture, and queer imagery. In March 1964, copies of the film were seized and destroyed by police in Los Angeles. Around the same time, a screening of Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures by the Filmmakers’ Cooperative was shut down and organizers, including Jonas Mekas, were arrested on obscenity charges. That year, the Filmmakers’ Cooperative founded an Anti-Censorship Fund and took out ads in the Village Voice to counter the crackdown. Despite the state’s attempts to limit their access, Scorpio Rising (and Flaming Creatures) remain cornerstones of post-war underground cinema - and the Filmmakers’ Cooperative continues today as an essential New York film institution.

An artifact of underground cinema, the fight against censorship, and the potential lasting effect of ephemera.

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