Flaming Creatures
Encyclopedia
Flaming Creatures is an American experimental film
by filmmaker Jack Smith
. Due to its surreal, graphic depiction of sexuality, the film was seized by the police at its premiere, and was officially determined to be obscene by a New York Criminal Court. The 43-minute featurette
attracted media and public attention, and has been described as a "controversial featurette". This also made Jack Smith famous as a film director across North America
. Smith himself described the film as "a comedy set in a haunted music studio."
s, drag shows, a sexually ambiguous vampire, a drug orgy and a well-built cunnilingual
rapist. Sexual ambiguity is a prominent visual theme, which is particularly shown by overlapping images of flaccid penises and breasts.
, James Clancy, representing Citizens for Decent Literature
, showed Flaming Creatures in a room in the capital among other material, inviting senators to view the sorts of things that Fortas had held in several decisions did not constitute obscenity.
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
by filmmaker Jack Smith
Jack Smith (film director)
Jack Smith was an American filmmaker, actor, and pioneer of underground cinema...
. Due to its surreal, graphic depiction of sexuality, the film was seized by the police at its premiere, and was officially determined to be obscene by a New York Criminal Court. The 43-minute featurette
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
attracted media and public attention, and has been described as a "controversial featurette". This also made Jack Smith famous as a film director across North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. Smith himself described the film as "a comedy set in a haunted music studio."
Description
The film features an array of transvestites, hermaphroditeHermaphrodite
In biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes.Many taxonomic groups of animals do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which both...
s, drag shows, a sexually ambiguous vampire, a drug orgy and a well-built cunnilingual
Cunnilingus
Cunnilingus is an oral sex act performed on a female. It involves the use by a sex partner of the mouth, lips and tongue to stimulate the female's clitoris, vulva, or vagina...
rapist. Sexual ambiguity is a prominent visual theme, which is particularly shown by overlapping images of flaccid penises and breasts.
Senate Use
During the confirmation hearings for the chief justice nomination of Abe FortasAbe Fortas
Abraham Fortas was a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice from 1965 to 1969. Originally from Tennessee, Fortas became a law professor at Yale, and subsequently advised the Securities and Exchange Commission. He then worked at the Interior Department under Franklin D...
, James Clancy, representing Citizens for Decent Literature
Citizens for Decent Literature
Citizens for Decent Literature was a pro-censorship advocacy body founded in 1958 by the Roman Catholic anti-pornography campaigner Charles Keating which advocated reading classics, not "smut."...
, showed Flaming Creatures in a room in the capital among other material, inviting senators to view the sorts of things that Fortas had held in several decisions did not constitute obscenity.