Phantoscope – where cinema comes to be reborn!
The second decade of Phantoscope, Triskel Arts Centre’s experimental film event, is being launched with a new trailer featuring images by me and a wonderful soundtrack by Gabbie Bam Bam. As the main programmer of Phantoscope (often working in cahoots with Triskel’s head of cinema, Chris O’Neill), I’ve been committed to bringing Cork audiences a rich mixture of classic and contemporary experimental film – cinematic experiences that they would be unlikely to encounter on the big screen elsewhere. And we venture into the next ten years with a truly iconic programme: three timeless and seminal classics of underground cinema by Kenneth Anger.
20:30, Thur Jan 30th 2025
Triskel Christchurch Cinema, Cork
Anger is one of the most influential visionaries of not only experimental film but of cinema in general. His visually dazzling, witty and unsettling films take influence from the occult teachings of Aleister Crowley as well as cues from both high and popular culture to cast delirious cinematic spells that remain as bewitching today as when they were first made. The legendary SCORPIO RISING follows a biker gang’s orgiastic gathering spiralling into hysteria and death, while being perhaps the most notable harbinger of the modern music video. Set to a jarring score by Mick Jagger, INVOCATION OF MY DEMON BROTHER is perhaps the darkest of Anger’s ritual films and a haunting document of 1960s San Francisco counterculture. The magisterial LUCIFER RISING adopts a more raptly cosmic tone as Egyptian gods summon the angel Lucifer to usher in a new age.