Flaming Creatures1962

Note: sound on film. "[Jack Smith] has graced the anarchic liberation of new American cinema with graphic and rhythmic power worthy of the best of formal cinema. He has attained for the first time in motion pictures a high level of art which is absolutely lacking in decorum; and a treatment of sex which makes us aware of the restraint of all previous filmmakers. "He has shown more clearly than anyone before how the poet's license includes all things, not only of spirit, but also of flesh; not only of dreams and of symbol, but also of solid reality. In no other art but the movies could this have so fully been done; and their capacity was realized by Smith." – Film Culture "During its final deliberation, the selection jury decided to state explicitly that the majority of its members recognized the aesthetical and experimental qualities of the film FLAMING CREATURES by Jack Smith, but had to ascertain unanimously that the showing of it was impossible in regard to Belgian laws." – Program Notes, Third International Experimental Film Competition, Knokke-Le-Zoute, Belgium, 1964 Awards: Fifth Independent Film Award, Film Culture; Prix Film Maudit, Third Int'l Film Exposition, Knokke-Le-Zoute, Belgium, 1964. Brand New distribution print courtesy of Gladstone Gallery.