Justice & Law Quote by Kenneth Anger

Money is the least interesting part of Kenneth Anger talking about money. The $12,000 figure lands like a dare: he’s signaling both the seriousness of his obsession and the absurdity of what it takes to make “underground” art actually function. Anger is often framed as the patron saint of outlaw cinema, but this quote exposes a more pragmatic truth: the avant-garde still runs on contracts, permissions, and gatekeepers. Even the occult needs paperwork.

The offhand “about double now or whatever” is doing sly work. It shrugs at inflation while keeping the brag intact: I paid real stakes, I was there, I made it happen. Then comes the key insistence: “But I cleared everything.” That’s not just legal hygiene; it’s a statement of authorship. Anger isn’t asking permission from the culture industry, he’s forcing a transaction with it. Hiring “a lawyer in New York” places him in the same infrastructural world as studios and labels, not outside it. The underground’s romance depends on the fantasy of escape; Anger is reminding you that escape is expensive.

The final clause is the knife twist: “cleared for use in a short subject, not a feature.” It hints at a system that tolerates experimentation only when it stays small, bracketed, non-threatening. His intent is to document a constraint, but also to flaunt his resourcefulness: he navigated the rules to smuggle his aesthetic into circulation. Subtext: the line between art and commerce isn’t a boundary; it’s a negotiation, and Anger wanted credit for winning it.