Cinema Theresia | Kenneth Anger: Lucifer Rising + 16mm Smokeshow

For the last summer at the former monastery of Theresia, Art Cinema OFFoff presents a ritualistic double bill with Lucifer Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1972) followed by a 16mm Smokeshow.

At the invitation of OFFoff, filmmaker Aurélie Percevault will bring an outdoors expanded cinema performance with two 16mm projectors on smoke instead of a screen and live music by Pierre, Pierre, Pierre. They will initiate a wake around the fire, a cinephile rite in which some 16mm ghosts and remnants of pop culture will emerge from the smoke… 

In anticipation of the smoke show, we will summon Lucifer. Kenneth Anger, the cult hero of American underground cinema who died in May at the age of 96, worked for more than a decade on his magnum opus, Lucifer Rising. A follower of occultist Aleister Crowley, Anger held to an unwavering belief in the magical and ceremonial power of cinema. Egyptian gods summon the angel Lucifer through various rituals. Anger filmed on location among the pyramids of Giza, Icelandic volcanoes and Neolithic stone circles. Alongside Anger himself as Magus and Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, we see singer Marianne Faithfull as a demonic moon goddess. The phenomenal soundtrack was recorded from Death Row in San Quentin prison by Bobby Beausoleil, a member the Charles Manson family. Lucifer, the angel of light and in Anger’s personal hagiology also the patron saint of cinema, heralds the dawn of a new era.

Filmmaker and curator Aurélie Percevault is a core member of Mire, a film lab and experimental film collective based in Nantes (FR). Pierre, Pierre, Pierre is a self-taught sound artist who plays with dysfunctional, hand-made electronics, common and cheap hi-fi devices and audio synthesis coding software.

Under the banner of Cinema Theresia, Kuleshov again invites nine Ghent film exhibitors to the garden of the former monastery. Every Monday evening from June 26 to August 28, they host a screening around the shared theme of ​‘disappearing’ because after this summer we unfortunately have to say goodbye to Theresia as an open-air cinema and meeting spot.

The performance and the film last approximately 30 minutes each. 

16mm copy of Lucifer Rising: Cinedoc Paris