Introduced by Linda Williams

The Kiss (Thomas Edison, U.S., 1896): The landmark bout of osculation that some thought smacked of immorality. (Less than a minute, Silent, B&W, 16mm, PFA Collection)

Kiss (Andy Warhol, U.S., 1963) becomes a meditation on what the camera can find in a human face, so that the most minute movement of cheekbone or eyelash becomes action. Documentary, anti–genre, realism, put–on, Kiss is also a cinematic act of voyeurism, innocent foreplay to Couch. (58 mins, Silent, 16fps, B&W, 16mm, From MoMA Circulating Film Library)

Christmas on Earth (Barbara Rubin, U.S., 1963): Barbara Rubin at the age of seventeen startled the burgeoning New York underground film scene with this sexually explicit film with superimposed projection. "Image after image, the most private territories of the body are laid open for us," wrote Jonas Mekas, whose camera Rubin used. (c. 30 mins, B&W, 16mm, From Film-Makers' Cooperative)

Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, U.S., 1963): Smith's casually outrageous style interpreted the B movie in a sexually inventive manner. The setting for this pre-Cockettes fantasy of sexual confusion is a transvestite orgy where Smith's "creatures" go in for the kind of role playing and exhibitionism that made him the (il)legitimate daddy of camp. (45 mins, B&W, 16mm, From Canyon Cinema)