Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) by Kenneth Anger
Saturday, March 14, 2026, 3:00 pm
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome and Luminous Procuress
Psychedelia & Cinema
Program Introduction by Maria Silk
Presented in association with Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Admission: $18 General / $12 Cinematheque Members
Event tickets here
Psychedelia & Cinema
March 1–May 10, 2026
Organized with the support of the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics, Psychedelia & Cinema presents a kaleidoscopic array of movies that explore expanded or enhanced consciousness, psychedelic experiences and numinous encounters. Realized through psychoactive substances, meditation, deprivation or other means, these experiences have been an important element of many cultures for millennia and have more recently become the object of scientific study, as well as being used for both therapy and recreation. Cinema, the “Seventh Art,” is uniquely suited to explore altered and non-ordinary states of consciousness. From cinema’s earliest flickers to the present day, filmmakers have used techniques from montage to multiple exposures, lens distortion to animation and CGI, to create mystical visions and ecstatic journeys into inner and outer space. (Kate MacKay, BAMPFA Film Curator) Full series details here.
Kenneth Anger filmed Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome at artist Renate Druks’s 1953 “come as your madness” costume party in Hollywood, using vivid color, dramatic lighting, editing and superimposition to enhance the atmosphere of the trippy ritualistic bacchanal. As Steve Seid wrote, “Luminous Procuress brazenly recounts the mystical passage of two lissome hippie lads who enter a strange mansion, where a magic potion promises glimpses of a transformational realm. Led by the mystical ‘Procuress’ (the ever-sculptural Pandora), the two naïfs are privy to a delirious vision of consciousness unbounded by gender or desire… an exotic amalgam of outrageous wearable art, oneiric imagery and erotically charged tableaux—gloriously drags on.”
SCREENING:
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954) by Kenneth Anger (US); 16mm, color, sound, 38 minutes print from BAMPFA. Luminous Procuress (1971) by Steven Arnold (US); 16mm screened as digital video, color, sound, 75 minutes, print from BAMPFA.
TRT: 113 minutes
Presenter’s Bio: Maria Silk is a San Francisco–based artist working in choreography, performance and video. At UC Berkeley, her PhD dissertation research takes an ecological approach to the study of San Francisco queer nightlife.