The screening's organizers (Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, and Florence Karpf) were prosecuted, and the film was ruled to be in violation of New York's obscenity laws.

Judge Abe Fortas, who had spoken in favor of reversing the convictions, faced scrutiny for his position years later when he was nominated to become Chief Justice of the United States.

[6] He began taking seminude black-and-white photographs with her as a model, along with Francis Francine, Joel Markman, Mario Montez, Arnold Rockwood, and Irving Rosenthal.

The earthquake sequence was shot in intense summer heat, with Smith and Ronald Tavel throwing dust from ceiling plaster onto the actors.

[12] Smith had observed the effects of using out-of-date film while working on Ken Jacobs' Star Spangled to Death and decided to use the technique after seeing Ron Rice's The Flower Thief.

[19] Smith admired von Sternberg's films for their extravagant, exoticist settings; their preferential treatment of visual texture over plot; and the androgynous sexuality of actress Marlene Dietrich.

[20] Smith was interested in Maria Montez, a Dominican actress who starred in exotic adventure films during the 1940s, because of her intense, passionate acting style.

[28] Flaming Creatures premiered on April 29, 1963 as part of a double feature with Blonde Cobra at the Bleecker Street Cinema in Manhattan, New York.

[30] It rented the Tivoli Theatre, known for showing sexploitation films, and planned a screening of Flaming Creatures, excerpts from Smith's Normal Love, and Andy Warhol's Newsreel.

[31] At the third Knokke-Le-Zoute Experimental Film Festival [fr], the selection committee rejected Flaming Creatures out of concern that it fell afoul of Belgium's obscenity laws.

[32] Mekas smuggled in the film in a canister for Stan Brakhage's Dog Star Man and held continuous private screenings out of his hotel.

[32][33] On New Year's Eve, Mekas, Rubin, and P. Adams Sitney forced their way into a projection booth to screen Flaming Creatures and pretended to tie up the projectionist, filmmaker Jean-Marie Buchet.

[30] They arrested Mekas, Jacobs, Florence Karpf, and Jerry Sims and seized the film reels and projection equipment.

[30] Mekas held a benefit screening of Un chant d'amour to raise money for a legal defense fund, but was arrested again for violating obscenity laws.

[34] Civil rights lawyer Emile Zola Berman accepted the case, believing it would potentially reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

[44] Fifty years later, the prosecutor for the case issued an apology to Mekas, writing, "Although my appreciation of free expression and aversion to censorship developed more fully as I matured, I should have sooner acted more courageously.

[50] Critic J. Hoberman and performer Penny Arcade saved Smith's belongings and had a restoration of the film made, a project which took five years.

[50] When Flaming Creatures was released in 1963, Film Culture reviewer Ken Kelman described it as a Miltonian "ancient ritual chant…not for the Paradise Lost, but for the Hell Satan gained.

"[56] Pete Hamill, writing for The Saturday Evening Post, described it as "a sophomoric exercise in the kind of sex that Henry Miller dealt with 30 years ago.

"[57] Following the seizure of the film, the director of the Homosexual League of New York called Flaming Creatures "long, disturbing and psychologically unpleasant".

[62] According to The Village Voice Film Guide, Gregory Markopoulos "was only slightly exaggerating when he commented that ... early audiences were astounded when their secret Hollywood fantasies burst upon the screen".

[66] James Clancy, representing Citizens for Decent Literature, showed the film among other material, inviting senators to view what Fortas had held in several decisions did not constitute obscenity.

[67] Nixon adviser Pat Buchanan, who dubbed it the "Fortas Film Festival", identified it as one of the most effective tactics in undercutting the nomination.

"[71] Video artist Bec Stupak, having never seen the original film, created a "remake" of Flaming Creatures in 2006 based only on descriptions of it.

[72] Todd Haynes alluded to the film with a fictional band named the Flaming Creatures in his 1998 feature Velvet Goldmine.