Disgusted by the way his 1962 film Flaming Creatures was co-opted into a test case for defying censorship, director/performance artist Jack Smith decided never to make a completed work again. While he influenced Andy Warhol and John Waters, his refusal to compromise helps explain why he's now so much more obscure than them. Documentarian Mary Jordan doesn't try to replicate Smith's radicalism, but her film gives him plenty of room to speak about it for himself, relying heavily on tape recordings of the late Smith talking about his political beliefs. While the usual procession of talking heads is present, Jordan's greatest talent may be knowing how and when to make room for her subject.
Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis details Smith's life in chronological order, concentrating most intently on the '60s. His films explored the subtext of campy B-movies in an explicit manner that had few precedents at the time. Although Smith's gayness is oddly underemphasized by Jordan, Flaming Creatures is queer in the most expansive sense of the word. Like kindred spirit Kenneth Anger, Smith remains challenging and vibrant. Jordan doesn't gloss over Smith's paranoia, which ended many of his friendships, but her film presents him as an artist whose inability to conform still has something to teach us. — Steve Erickson