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On Oscar night, New Generation Thinker Diarmuid Hester celebrates a film that's often included in lists of 'great movies' but struggles to be viewed other than through the lens of its own notorious reputation. Flaming Creatures fell foul of New York obscenity laws in the early 1960s, when it was first seen. The creation of avant-garde film-maker Jack Smith, it follows an ensemble of artists, including for the first time on film drag performers through several disconnected scenes including a camp parody of a lipstick commercial. It was made in the rooftop studio Smith shared with Tony Conrad who provided the soundtrack. But the look, the challenge and the concept of the film was very quickly swamped by its reputation as 'pornographic' and, according to New York legislation of the time, 'obscene'. Diarmuid talks to people who knew Smith, and visits the film-maker's archive to see what Smith himself thought of both the film and its reputation, over which he had increasingly little control.

Producer: Tom Alban