Ian Fallon 

In this thesis, I explore the context of the early American Avant-Garde cinema scene and one of its most infamous personalities, the iconoclast filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Influenced heavily by the rise in popularity of both surrealism and psychoanalysis, American Avant-Garde cinema was still a burgeoning artform by the time Anger came along in the late 1940s with his breakout short film Fireworks.

Growing up in the eye of the Hollywood Hurricane, Anger's indomitable passion for film established itself at an early age. By his late teens, he had developed a keen competence in the craft of filmmaking and an acute literacy and appreciation for the Avant-Garde. Ever since the release of Fireworks, Anger has played an invaluable role in American film with his transgressive career spanning more than six decades. His work has been incredibly influential on both the Avant-Garde and mainstream cinematic scenes, inspiring a full range of filmmakers from David Lynch to Martin Scorsese.

In this thesis, I interrogate how a precocious Anger made use of his literacy in the Avant-Garde, technical proficiency in filmmaking, and a developing trend in the surrounding Avant-Garde cinema of the time called the "psychodrama", to bring his sadomasochistic, oneiric film Fireworks to fruition and forever change the trajectory of his career.