NEW YORK, NY July 17, 2009 —The filmmaker Kenneth Anger grew up in Santa Monica, went to dancing school with Shirley Temple and Judy Garland, and gained notoriety in the late 50s for writing a tell-all book about Hollywood’s rich-and-famous.

He’s become an influential experimental filmmaker with an interest in the occult and in queer issues, who often lavishes his movies with bubble gum pop songs.

This weekend the Anthology Film Archives is screening his early work, and a lot of his new work. Melissa Anderson is a film critic and member of the New York Film Critics Circle, and she joins me to discuss Anger's work.