Mekas marketed underground filmmakers as mythic occult figures

Evidence

Does Harry Smith really exist? Is he a black or a white magician? Who will be the next victim of Harry Smith? What horrors is he preparing, and for whom? … For years, Harry Smith has been a black and ominous legend and a source of strange rumors. Some even said that he had left this planet long ago—the last alchemist of the Western world, the last magician. Then one day, last summer, a year ago, Harry Smith gave up the darkness and appeared in the open. He was still full of evil, hate, small curses, and sneers, but he came out. — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 688

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the gentrification/art-world promotion thread — underground artists were being actively hyped and commodified long before the market fully caught up.