Anthology Programme 4 at BFI Southbank

Geography of the Body (Willard Maas, 1943, 7min); Glen Falls Sequence (Douglas Crockwell, 1946, 8min); Fireworks (Kenneth Anger, 1947, 20min); Thanatopsis (Ed Emshwiller, 1962, 5min); Pull My Daisy (Robert Frank & Alfred Leslie, 1959, 28min); Oz: The Tin Woodman’s Dream (Harry Smith, 1967, 15min). Surrealism and the poetic sensibility were among the defining traits of the post-war avant-garde. In 1947, the teenage Kenneth Anger drew inspiration from Jean Cocteau to make Fireworks, a bold, astounding, homoerotic vision. Pull My Daisy was narrated by Jack Kerouac and includes Allen Ginsberg, Alice Neel and Delphine Seyrig among its illustrious cast. The programme concludes with fragments from Harry Smith’s abandoned Wizard of Oz project.