George Kuchar

George Kuchar

Born: August 31, 1942
Died: September 6, 2011
in New York, New York
George Kuchar (August 31, 1942 – September 6, 2011) and his twin brother Mike began making films as teenagers in the 1950s, with 8mm film being their weapon of choice. After shocking their local amateur filmmaking club with their over-the-top stories of lust and angst, they became stars of the NYC underground scene in the 1960s, befriending the likes of Jonas Mekas and Jack Smith. Always working with the constraints of minuscule budgets and nonprofessional actors, the Kuchar’s inspiration comes from classic Hollywood melodrama. Their cheaply made pictures, rather than being held back by lack of funds, blossomed in the shackles of poverty; the garish colors of the cheap makeup and sets were perfectly complemented by the bold color range afforded by Kodachrome reversal stock. The wild (and sometimes the inverse of wild) acting, use of stock music, lack of synch sound, hyperbolic narration, and primitive special effects all combined to make tiny gems unlike anything seen before or since. The Kuchars are cited as major influences by such filmmakers as John Waters, Todd Solondz, and David Lynch.

Movies for George Kuchar...

That Woman
Title: That Woman
Character: Barbara Walters
Released: August 6, 2018
Type: Movie
That Woman uses as source material the original Barbara Walters interview with Monica Lewinsky, which is intercut with a re-staging of the interview. Ms. Lewinsky is played by a women bearing a remarkable physical resemblance to the original, and Barbara Walters is played by George Kuchar. The make-up, costumes, set, lighting, and camera set-ups, are a facsimile of the original, albeit without the stunning high-production values displayed in the network original.
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Oh Hi Anne
Title: Oh Hi Anne
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2017
Type: Movie
An epic tale of love and loss. Made using voicemails the Kuchar brothers left on her home answering machine, the artist reveals George and Mike in all their candid honesty leading up to and following George’s untimely death in 2011. McGuire floats their voices along a river of digital scribbles and her own voice in singer/songwriter mode. The beauty of the piece lies partly in how the voicemails, used as-is and chronologically, contain an entire narrative about love and loss in a DIY style reminiscent of the Kuchars.
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(ir)reverence
Title: (ir)reverence
Released: April 10, 2013
Type: Movie
"George Kuchar meets my mother."
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Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton
Title: Big Joy: The Adventures of James Broughton
Character: Self
Released: March 9, 2013
Type: Movie
A chronicle of the iconoclastic life of gay poet, filmmaker, and spiritual visionary James Broughton, one of the defining voices of the sexual revolution, whose groundbreaking artistic celebrations of sexuality and the body influenced generations of the 1960s and '70s to profoundly embrace life and ‘follow your own weird’.
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The Butchered Beefcake
Title: The Butchered Beefcake
Released: January 1, 2011
Type: Movie
This video diary visits two sites that exhibited Kuchars visual works this past year, culminating at the VOLTA ART SHOW in N.Y.C., where he sold some paintings and a photograph.
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Eat My Makeup!
Title: Eat My Makeup!
Released: April 10, 2010
Type: Movie
With George Kuchar, Marie Losier, Jason Livingston, Paul Shepard. Five winsome damsels picnic on the roof of a warehouse in charming Long Island City, a forest of skyscrapers gleaming across the river. But when a swarm of flies interrupts their feast of chocolate-covered pretzels and cream-pies, the young ladies run amok.
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Webtide
Title: Webtide
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2010
Type: Movie
Once again a seaside serenade of sloshing oils and simmering scallops fills the crannies of Cape Cod with dingle-berries of dubious delight! Join a crew of crustacean craving civilians as they shuck their shells of inhibitions to become the truly truculent trespassers of a salty sanctuary. Visit the chefs of chivalry as they skewer the squeamish with talons of titillating tidbits, each one a calorie crunching course in obese obtrusiveness and opulent oddness. Come one, come all, and sample a smorgasbord of simple pleasures in this vacation video of vicarious vacillations.
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Vintage Visits
Title: Vintage Visits
Released: January 1, 2010
Type: Movie
Another edition to Kuchars weather diary series, this particular one has more social intercourse occurring in the prairie hovel which houses the hidden longings of he who seeks sustenance from the void. The void acts up in the beginning and then simmers warmly in the glow of companionship from fellow travelers on this Route 66 to who knows where? Perhaps to that pillar of pancake perfection known as Denny's (the restaurant, not the deity).
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Tummy Ache Times
Title: Tummy Ache Times
Released: January 1, 2010
Type: Movie
It's the season of joy once again and this video depicts the tasty and the troublesome in big, heaping spoonfuls. Witness a social whirlpool of whipped confections and stripped confessions tastefully prepared in soupy symbolism. See man and domesticated mammals share in the bounty of a cosmopolitan cornucopia. Feast your eyes and ears on the snap-crackle-and-pop culture of a city simmering in smut. Swallow it all in the 4:3 format and good luck in the digestive department.
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Delectable Destinations
Title: Delectable Destinations
Released: January 1, 2010
Type: Movie
This time, the call of the west sends Kuchar packing to Oregon, California and Arizona. You too can experience the dizzy delights of a whirlwind tour and witness wonders seen through the savage eye of a Sony camcorder. Actually, the adventure is rather mellow in mood and should spare the viewer a need for the ever looming and inevitable barf bag. See Phoenix in all its rocky royalty! Relish in the student clogged ivy halls of Portland! Immerse yourself in a technicolor rendering of Irvine, California. And don't worry, the trip isn't that long, as that savage eye has a short attention span.
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The Nutrient Express
Title: The Nutrient Express
Released: January 1, 2010
Type: Movie
A trip to Winnipeg introduces the viewer to moments of Canadian cuisine and to the easily digestible tidbits that make up the WNDX Film/Video Festival. Come join the movie buffs as they beef up on eye candy and tummy truffles, all the while indulging in a masticating miasma of minutia that's easy to swallow. Wash it all down with some river views and Mr. Coffee secretions and you'll get a taste of the treats that await all who head north to appease the more southerly rumblings of the human anatomy.
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Calorie Cottage
Title: Calorie Cottage
Released: January 1, 2010
Type: Movie
Encompassing both Thanksgiving, Christmas and the exploding New Year's Eve celebrations, this holiday video is chock full of chicken and chatter befitting the season. There's a turkey in there too and a hungry clan of consumer ready to eat you out of house and home (with a house made specifically for that purpose). Come join the merry mayhem as young and old devour what's left of the old year to burp up the new one!
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It Came from Kuchar
Title: It Came from Kuchar
Character: Self
Released: September 22, 2009
Type: Movie
It Came from Kuchar is the definitive, feature documentary about the legendary, underground filmmaking twins, the Kuchar brothers. George and Mike Kuchar have inspired two generations of filmmakers, actors, musicians, and artists with their zany, "no budget" films and with their uniquely enchanting spirits.
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Maggots and Men
Title: Maggots and Men
Released: June 21, 2009
Type: Movie
A utopian re-visioning of the Kronstadt Uprising of 1921, featuring film history's first cast of over 100 transgender actors, paints a portrait of formerly pro-Soviet sailors at the Kronstadt naval garrison who rebelled against the perceived failures of the new Bolshevik state.
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Vault of Vapors
Title: Vault of Vapors
Released: January 1, 2009
Type: Movie
One of Kuchars weather diary series out in Oklahoma. The tone is wistful, the surroundings wispy (with some puffs of pungency). The TV is on and the porcelain is smeared with some residue atrocity from a previous passion. But all is well as emptiness persists beyond the four walls of this prairie mausoleum.
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The Hairy Horror
Title: The Hairy Horror
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2009
Type: Movie
A chance encounter with a sober student reveals the mystery of a woodland wonder that has left a mark on his youthful psyche just as it leaves huge footprints on the forest floor. A short meditation on a tall terror in the trees that shade shadowy giants from the glare of sanity.
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3 Stories About Evil
Title: 3 Stories About Evil
Released: March 26, 2008
Type: Movie
A very black mix of comedy about relationships, the media, children's beauty pageants, sex change operations and personal problems.
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Coven of the Heathenites
Title: Coven of the Heathenites
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2008
Type: Movie
A summer sojourn is fleshed out for maximum solar exposure in this video travelogue of sun, sea and epidermal exhibitionism. The states of mind and geographic localities are awash in a flow of imagery that rushes in on a tide of both Pacific and Atlantic origins. The people and places that bathe in this magnificence add both a sacred and profane froth into the salty brew; a witches brew of sculpted creations bubbling up with volatile violations from the depths of unfathomable needs.
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Portrait of Genie
Title: Portrait of Genie
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2008
Type: Movie
An ex-student of mine opens up in the privacy of her home and shows me her etchings (watercolors) as we talk of art and things that slip under the fabric of daily attire. - George Kuchar
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Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Title: Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
Character: Self
Released: April 11, 2007
Type: Movie
In this entrancing documentary on performance artist, photographer and underground filmmaker Jack Smith, photographs and rare clips of Smith's performances and films punctuate interviews with artists, critics, friends and foes to create an engaging portrait of the artist. Widely known for his banned queer erotica film Flaming Creatures, Smith was an innovator and firebrand who influenced artists such as Andy Warhol and John Waters.
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Water Sports
Title: Water Sports
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2007
Type: Movie
A trip to the Marin headlands at the Golden Gate of San Francisco Bay headlines this video diary. The viewer gets to eves and eye drop on various verbal and real time activities that are of a wet nature now and then. There’re boats and bodies and some spoken unspeakables amid the splendor of natural and unnatural expressions befitting the rim of a pacific paradise at low tide.
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Hitchcocked!
Title: Hitchcocked!
Character: Self
Released: August 11, 2006
Type: Movie
A tribute to the work of Alfred Hitchcock, featuring contemporary filmmakers, writers, performers, and cultural critics.
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Meet The Kuchar Brothers
Title: Meet The Kuchar Brothers
Released: January 1, 2006
Type: Movie
Provides a rare glimpse into the world of George and Mike Kuchar, underground filmmaking brothers from the Bronx. Get to know the Kuchars, casually hanging out with John Waters at a party, looking at old yearbook photos with their high school classmate Gerard Malanga. Sit in on an extensive interview with the brothers at Anthology Film Archives.
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Song of the Whoopee Wind
Title: Song of the Whoopee Wind
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2005
Type: Movie
A California Christmas season ushers in an array of holiday visuals designed to feed the hunger of soiled souls in search of truffle filled delights. A glittering seaport of electric lights helps the viewer to see through the murk of isolation as various species claw their way through the bountiful gifts that a rainy season delivers. Awash in joy and Juju statues, the unclean celebrate a rebirth dipped in chocolate as reptile and mammal unite in a dark hunger for foil wrapped ecstasy
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George Kuchar: An Interview
Title: George Kuchar: An Interview
Character: George Kuchar
Released: January 1, 2005
Type: Movie
Since the 1980s, Kuchar has been creating brilliantly edited, hilarious, and often diaristic tapes made with dime-store props and not-so-special effects, using friends as actors and the "pageant that is life" for his studio. In this interview, Kuchar, in a generous, gregarious mood despite the Manhattan summer humidity, discusses his life and the full range of his work from the early collaborative films to his most recent tapes. Conversational anecdotes, frank and witty, provide insight into Kuchar's working methods, as well as the work itself and its reception in various quarters.
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Electrocute Your Stars
Title: Electrocute Your Stars
Released: January 1, 2004
Type: Movie
In this dream portrait, George Kuchar travels through snow confetti, strobe flashes and artificial wind as he describes his weather diaries. Then, George joins Janet Leigh in the shower. Wearing a red raincoat and a shower cap, reading comic books and blowing bubbles, he laughingly describes his bathing rituals and the making of his film, HOLD ME WHILE I'M NAKED.
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Supercell
Title: Supercell
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2004
Type: Movie
Clouds abound in this short meditation on vaporous masses that flow across the borders of our windowpanes, leaving in their wake the wreckage of discarded diets and sugar coated emptiness. Into those holes that surround us with the sweetness of puffy dough we plunge into a landscape of desolation and rebirth, never again to deny the terror that piles up in the sky like a malignant mound of virgin pudding. A mass of revolving turbulence hell-bent on defying gravity in the name of vertical instability and electrical insanity. A supercell for the supersized who flee its windy wrath.
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Burnout
Title: Burnout
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2003
Type: Movie
A metropolis awash in electrical overdrive crashes in the heat of summer and sends a Bronxite into the clutches of a waterworld further north. It is there that we witness the cooling fogs and diving mammals of maritime yore and sail free in winds of a nautical nature. A nature that fills the summer sky with twinkling tidbits and the tummy with protein rich denizens of Neptune’s soup. A tour of the towering turrets of tomorrow land and the spatial splendor of yesterday’s yearnings captured on both chemical and electrical media.
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Visitation Rites
Title: Visitation Rites
Released: January 1, 2003
Type: Movie
Alone in an Oklahoma motel room with a mute companion, the talkative one speaks the language of memory as pussycats feast from a canned cornucopia. Murals plaster the vacancy intrinsic to American angst as horse tails whip from annoyance the nagging gnats of tomorrow’s dung: a heap of uncertainty made impotent by the swashes of chipped paint that depict a netherworld of faded dreams and nostalgic neurosis for the future impaired.
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The Kingdom By The Sea
Title: The Kingdom By The Sea
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2002
Type: Movie
The spirit of poets permeates the space/time occupied by an assortment of dinner engagements that occasionally erupt into physical or verbal assaults on the taste buds. Flowers of evil are absent from this foray into the spoken word, as the message is one of courage in the face of carnivorous tendencies. An archivist shares his dream with us while the dreamers dabble in their own brand of munchies meant to nourish rather than negate. Mortality hovers over the hovels of the hungry as poetry becomes as concrete as the pastry offered we mortals on planet Earth.
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Arizona Byways
Title: Arizona Byways
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 2001
Type: Movie
A cactus-strewn desert becomes the backdrop for this series of filmic stopovers. Great natural beauty clashes with manufactured outdoorsmanship, as a tired body and sluggish mind seek the oblivion of hotel hospitality in an arid region of artistic aspirations. The viewer is introduced to a world of prickly plants and satin-skinned succubi who prowl the alleys of western decay to staple their fig leaflets on the vertical shafts that poke unsheathed at the virgin skies of southern Arizona. The sheaths are administered, and the population prepares for cinematic coupling in a city park earmarked for culture. Enter the masculine caves that spilled forth their glittering guts onto a surface world as desperate for gems as it was for water. Witness this natural spectacle all packaged and delivered in the form of a vacation video, and marvel at the mavens of movie-making as they bombard the public with a cacophony of celluloid under the moonlit, desert sky.
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Divine Trash
Title: Divine Trash
Character: Self
Released: March 31, 2000
Type: Movie
The life and times of Baltimore film maker and midnight movie pioneer, John Waters.
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Metropolitan Monologues
Title: Metropolitan Monologues
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2000
Type: Movie
The New York City summer is fueled by the sultry emanations of hot air that tumble off the tongues of potential thespians as they attempt to decipher the gastric guesswork embedded in the prose of the pre-production process. The video camera flits across the boroughs of NYC in a splash-dash sojourn of sumptuous banquets and bohemian bombast, while the down-to-earth wisdom of the seeing impaired helps to guide the protagonist into detours of wisdom befitting his putrid project. A theatrical play incubates in the balding head of the videomaker and as its presence makes itself felt among the various victims of his vision, we share with them the horror of advancing age and the descriptive diatribes toward the destiny of the decrepit damned.
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Secrets of the Shadow World
Title: Secrets of the Shadow World
Character: Himself
Released: August 31, 1999
Type: Movie
This three-part mini-series explores the mysterious and the mundane in a splash of digital dioramas that wipe across the screen in a cascade of electronic barfs. Zeroing in on the paranormal theories of UFO author John A. Keel, this leisurely exposition, which was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, sweeps the viewer into a candy-colored world of scintillating mysteries made all the more intriguing by culinary digressions.
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Chigger Country
Title: Chigger Country
Released: January 1, 1999
Type: Movie
Pastures filled with the bounty of a meateater's fantasy fill the screen with bellows of bovine origin as testosterone-driven madness runs rampant on 20,000 acres of Oklahoma soil. A lone female turkey stuffer prepares the goodies that will nourish the sunburned as they rocket skyward on the scales of numerical poundage to come crashing earthward in time for marinated hamburgers. A trip to the garden of Eden and its sanctuary for snakes with an appetite for dog meat.
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All Smiles and Sadness
Title: All Smiles and Sadness
Character: Monologue Narrator
Released: January 1, 1999
Type: Movie
McGuire constructs a murky black and white soap-opera world of endless, timeless, and placeless limbo, where the characters talk to each other entirely in clichés, bad poetry, and other contrite forms of speech — a short TV show in which nothing is resolved. The video culminates in an absolutely stunning monologue performance by legendary underground film and videomaker George Kuchar.
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Brakhage
Title: Brakhage
Character: Himself (archive footage)
Released: September 17, 1998
Type: Movie
BRAKHAGE explores the depth and breadth of the filmmaker’s genius, the exquisite splendor of his films, his magic personal charm, his aesthetic fellow travelers, and the influence his work has had on generations of other creators. While touching on significant moments in Brakhage’s biography, the film celebrates Brakhage’s visionary genius, and explores the extraordinary artistic possibilities of cinema, a medium mostly known only for its commercial applications in the form of narratives, cartoons, documentaries, and advertising. BRAKHAGE combines excerpts from Brakhage’s films and films of other avant-garde filmmakers (eg, George Kuchar, Jonas Mekas, Willie Varela, Bruce Elder, and others); interviews with Brakhage, his friends, family, colleagues, and critics; archival footage of Brakhage spanning the past thirty-five years; and location shooting in Boulder, Colorado and New York.
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Bongwater
Title: Bongwater
Character: Homeless Man
Released: April 18, 1998
Type: Movie
David is an artist and a pothead. He's fallen in love with the beautiful and sexy Serena, and things are going simply splendidly until poor David's house burns down. Serena doesn't need the bad vibes, so she splits the scene and runs off to New York with rocker and junkie Tommy. Lonely David finally turns to the sweet, sweet comfort of marijuana and his strange menagerie of friends to forget about his lost home and love
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Domain of the Pixel Pixies
Title: Domain of the Pixel Pixies
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1998
Type: Movie
Sort of a portrait of the videomaker Anne McQuire, who surfaces midway from this waterlogged landscape of El Nino disasters to dispense charm and chocolate within the confines of her concrete office. There is also a flood of imagery that flows in and out of art museums, viewing facilities, and eateries that are perpetually haunted by yours truly along with the spirit of hoboism that feeds on apple pie America.
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Law of Desire
Title: Law of Desire
Released: January 1, 1997
Type: Movie
The story of Trelita, a Chicana sex worker with an abusive boss and a dead boyfriend (who she may or may not have murdered). It is the second episode made in the Clit-o-matic: The Adventures Of White Trash Girl! series about female superhero White Trash Girl. It has been referred to as part #3 in an ongoing series.
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The Inmate
Title: The Inmate
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1997
Type: Movie
The splendor of a mountain lake is clouded by the musings of a brain in memory mode. The head relives the heartbreak of suburbia and the vacancies that fill every motel on the edge of nowhere. The body moves through a rainbow palette of indelible stains that color the journey with the hues of heaven and hell.
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Sunset After Dark
Title: Sunset After Dark
Character: George Kilman
Released: January 1, 1996
Type: Movie
A struggling screenwriter finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation.
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Season of Sorrow
Title: Season of Sorrow
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1996
Type: Movie
Ice falls from the sky as tears plip-plop onto wall-to-wall carpeting. No degree of renovation can enliven the dead that we mourn in our hearts as the storm of the centuries assails our heads with memories of the passing parade that got rained on. A weather diary of May-time misery.
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Uncle Evil
Title: Uncle Evil
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1996
Type: Movie
The young and the innocent at the mercy of a palpable presence oozing menace and scarlet-stained goodness as a strawberry sundae melts under the glare of future hell-firestorms in search of kindling.
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Urchins of Ungawa
Title: Urchins of Ungawa
Released: January 1, 1994
Type: Movie
In a garden of roses and memorabilia from darkest Africa, a man and woman ponder the joy of cooking and the companionship of cats. Goodies for the guts abound in this visual essay on feline friendship and far away places. An electronic voyage beyond the stench of house and garden that transports the viewer- and cat- to the promised land.
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Cellar Sinema
Title: Cellar Sinema
Released: January 1, 1994
Type: Movie
A descent into the blackness of the projected image and the curators who flick the switches and grease up all moveable parts for hot action when the lights go out.
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Sherman Acres
Title: Sherman Acres
Character: Ira
Released: January 1, 1992
Type: Movie
A drama in six episodes involving psychological breakdowns, marital showdowns, and messy obsessions. The characters include a wayward priest, a promiscuous school-teacher and her proctologist husband, teenage thrill killers, and an obsession-driven psychotherapist with an enema bag. Lots of special effects, as it moves quickly from one major crisis to another.
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Going Nowhere
Title: Going Nowhere
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1992
Type: Movie
Writes Kuchar: "It was my 50th birthday this year (1992) and my friend's birthday, so I explored our position in time and dusty place with a prognostication on future inertia." In this chapter of his ongoing Video-8 diary, Kuchar's birthday becomes an occasion to ponder mortality, dust, agoraphobia and relationships. Documenting the hilarious yet ultimately melancholy dramas of the everyday within the claustrophobic confines of his apartment, Kuchar may be going nowhere, but, as he notes, "at least we're going nowhere together."
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Award
Title: Award
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1992
Type: Movie
A behind-the-scenes look at the man behind the trophy and the poisons that taint an otherwise jubilant jamboree.
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Scarlet Droppings
Title: Scarlet Droppings
Character: Himself
Released: August 1, 1991
Type: Movie
Taped in Normal, Illinois, during the height of autumn, a snapshot of a young girl triggers a meditation on dying innocence and sizzling sausages as a low, winter sun ignites the smoke of greasy longings and meat-eating hunger.
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Weather Watch
Title: Weather Watch
Released: January 1, 1991
Type: Movie
A window or two on the outside world is not enough, especially when you have such a lousy view of things as I had in this Oklahoma residential care home. The majesty of the console-model TV gave new dimension to the concept of time and space, and shrank it all down to a 21-inch lump of nature—a 21-incher that didn’t smell and permeate the atmosphere with discomfiture. A meditation on the elsewhere and wanting to be there.
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Foto Spread
Title: Foto Spread
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1991
Type: Movie
A photographer comes to my home to take pictures and gets a lensful. His mouth and his shutter snap away as I aim my finest attributes at his cold and hard equipment.
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Indian Summer
Title: Indian Summer
Released: January 1, 1991
Type: Movie
The colors of fall are muted by the fog of a lingering summer and the memory of that which is dark and naked among the dappled crimson.
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Gastronomic Getaway
Title: Gastronomic Getaway
Released: January 1, 1991
Type: Movie
Writes Kuchar, "The magnificent Mono Lake becomes the centerpiece for this car trip through Yosemite National Park and the splendors of roadside pastry. Majestic mineral deposits rise from the salt laden waters as the bloated and bulimic revel in nature's nutrients."
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Kiss of the Veggie Vixen
Title: Kiss of the Veggie Vixen
Character: Self
Released: January 2, 1990
Type: Movie
A portrait of Marion Eaton, film and stage actress, etched with a green thumb and a brown nose.
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Rocky Interlude
Title: Rocky Interlude
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1990
Type: Movie
A trip to a barren landscape of jagged peaks and deep crevasses becomes a playground for an over-dressed hiker and his beefcake buddy as they secrete and imbibe fluids from various containers.
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The Warming of the Hell House
Title: The Warming of the Hell House
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1990
Type: Movie
A trip across the bay to Concord yields a harvest of non-fruit-like beings who celebrate a housewarming that simmers with macho machinations and family discord. The mood is upbeat while the company is lowbrow, and coming out of the bushes rather than the woodwork.
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Snap 'n Snatch
Title: Snap 'n Snatch
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1990
Type: Movie
A sort-of music video that focuses on and under young women and men engaged in focusing video and movie cameras on other young men and women.
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A Passage to Wetness
Title: A Passage to Wetness
Released: January 1, 1990
Type: Movie
An island. A mountain. A City of Angels who scoop up the pellets dropped by other winged creatures.
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Swamp
Title: Swamp
Character: Uncle George
Released: January 1, 1990
Type: Movie
Swamp uses the soap opera format to play with the structure and expectations of the family melodrama. Following the melodramatic format that "if it can happen, it will happen," coincidence and unlikely events abound in a gleeful send-up of lurid intrigue, threatened morality, and endless double-crosses. With looped and repeated edits, fast-paced action, and aggressively funky video effects, Child layers on artifice and excess in an overdone remake of the TV serial.
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Chili Line Stops Here
Title: Chili Line Stops Here
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1989
Type: Movie
A journey that begins in a Kansas City hotel and ends up in New Mexico. The bumpy ride is fuelled with libidinous juices as it lurches through college dormitories and sun-baked ghost towns. Rocks are lifted and things crawl out for all to see.
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Pictures at an Exhibitionist’s
Title: Pictures at an Exhibitionist’s
Released: January 1, 1989
Type: Movie
A wide-ranging look at pictures I collect on my walls and in my head. A look at pictures I concoct with my students at the San Francisco Art Institute, and objects d’art collected by those whose picture is taken by my picture-taking machine.
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Migration of the Blubberoids
Title: Migration of the Blubberoids
Released: January 1, 1989
Type: Movie
"The whiteness of winter cannot bury the blubbery things that splash and frolic among the frozen memories of Heathen harvests, in a land haunted by lard and ancestral lip-smacking." The collision of an overly dramatic film score/soundtrack with the banal yet enigmatic images of snow covered streets leads to a dissonant effect; the expectation of one is not fulfilled by the other.
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Fill Thy Crack with Whiteness
Title: Fill Thy Crack with Whiteness
Released: January 1, 1989
Type: Movie
A music-filled tour of Christmas good cheer overtakes this gastronomically oriented excursion through the winter season of discontent and yuletime yearnings craving ignition.
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Point 'n Shoot
Title: Point 'n Shoot
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1989
Type: Movie
A lavish home is visited, shutters click, bottoms are exposed, water splashes and a welcome wetness stains an area unquenched for so long. A jacuzzi bubbles to life in a bedroom community that floats to sleep on aqua-filled rubber.
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Precious Products
Title: Precious Products
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1989
Type: Movie
In Precious Products we are subtly reminded of this country’s obsession with consumerism and narcissism. George, with his ever-present video-8 camera, attends an opening of Precious Products—an exhibition of artworks satirizing art as commodity. He leaves the art world of San Francisco to spend a Christmas holiday with friends in their opulent home. Ironically, this is the home of a celebrity (another kind of commodity), Russian defector/ballerina Natalia Makanova. Surrounded by all the luxuries of life and Makanova’s image, George muses about death. Panning over a dressing table laden with products, he focuses on a People magazine and comments, 'We are precious products, all of us.'
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500 Millibars to Ecstasy
Title: 500 Millibars to Ecstasy
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1989
Type: Movie
The dark and sloppy side of touring college towns with your work. An internal expose of external secretions that unfortunately make it to the boob tube in full color.
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Weather Diary 3
Title: Weather Diary 3
Released: January 1, 1988
Type: Movie
Set in and around a Reno motel, the tape records George's growing friendship with a young weather expert.
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Xmas 1987 New Years
Title: Xmas 1987 New Years
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1988
Type: Movie
A sweet and savory journey in the company of George traveling from Christmas to New Years, stopping for snacks, drinks, and pets.
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Return to the House of Pain
Title: Return to the House of Pain
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1988
Type: Movie
Return to the House of Pain documents my walking through the turf and sludge of the Big Apple and many worm holes... I chomp my way back west and gnaw on all that sinks stomachward and beyond in vertiginous aching.
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Rainy Season
Title: Rainy Season
Released: November 19, 1987
Type: Movie
Thanksgiving in California is the setting in which the viewer experiences "the depression inherent to festive occasions. There were many things bothering me at this time, or maybe it was one thing that broke into many pieces.
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The Creeping Crimson
Title: The Creeping Crimson
Released: October 31, 1987
Type: Movie
A short film by George Kuchar.
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Cult of the Cubicles
Title: Cult of the Cubicles
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1987
Type: Movie
Writes Kuchar: "It's New York in the summer and I set out to track down some high school friends who have burrowed deep into the 'big apple.' The viewer gets to see how far they've eaten their way to the core in this 45-minute study of urban denizens in the grip of Newtonian damnation." Here, Kuchar visits his mother in the Bronx, chats and eats with old friends in their claustrophobic New York apartments, and muses about friendship, growing older, and a time when the "streets of New York were cleaner, and so was I."
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Video Album 5: The Thursday People
Title: Video Album 5: The Thursday People
Released: January 1, 1987
Type: Movie
The comings and goings of the late underground filmmaker, Curt McDowell—and the people and activities that came and went along with him—are the themes that run through this existential diary of daily life. McDowell was dying from AIDS-related illnesses during the production of the diary. “An elegy for McDowell, the videowork captures Kuchar’s mournful remembrances of his long-lasting friendship with the young filmmaker. But it also has the inquisitive charm, perverse humor, and quirky candor that places Kuchar’s visual expressions in a gritty niche all their own.”
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Xmas 1986
Title: Xmas 1986
Character: Himself
Released: December 25, 1986
Type: Movie
"In Xmas 1986, George Kuchar’s mother Stella has come to stay with him for the holidays. After a series of dinners with friends, Stella’s repeated discussions about her shingles and Kuchar’s ominous film-noirish narration, Kuchar rescues the morale of a dinner party gone bad thanks to an undercooked ham by presenting his hosts with a very memorable holiday gift." – Kyle Riley
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He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Title: He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life
Character: Self
Released: February 22, 1986
Type: Movie
A film collage tracing the story of the lives, loves, and deaths within the artistic community surrounding Jonas Mekas.
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Weather Diary 1
Title: Weather Diary 1
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 1986
Type: Movie
George Kuchar travels to Oklahoma in search of tornadoes, spends most of his time watching TV and eating food.
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Christmas 85
Title: Christmas 85
Character: Self
Released: December 25, 1985
Type: Movie
Another Holiday Diary film from George Kuchar
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Screamplay
Title: Screamplay
Character: Martin
Released: November 1, 1985
Type: Movie
A talented writer, Edgar Allen, arrives in Hollywood with big dreams but is quickly pulled into a world of madness and depravity. A detective investigating a series of murders discovers that they are similar to the murders that occur in the new script by Edgar. Who will survive and what parts will be left for them?
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Sparkle's Tavern
Title: Sparkle's Tavern
Character: Mr. Pupik
Released: June 1, 1985
Type: Movie
A brother and sister who run a bordello worry that their conservative mother will find out what they do for a living. But all of their worlds are rocked when a mysterious magic man unexpectedly arrives at their mother's door.
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George Kuchar: The Comedy of the Underground
Title: George Kuchar: The Comedy of the Underground
Character: Himself
Released: April 1, 1983
Type: Movie
A documentary portrait of filmmaker George Kuchar conducting a tour of his apartment where he displays memorabilia and his toys which were used for props.
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Taboo: The Single and the LP
Title: Taboo: The Single and the LP
Released: January 1, 1980
Type: Movie
Blend of documentary and domestic melodrama featuring a series of sexually charged vignettes inspired by a piece of toilet graffiti.
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The Mongreloid
Title: The Mongreloid
Character: Himself
Released: September 21, 1978
Type: Movie
A man, his dog, and the regions they inhabited, each leaving his own distinctive mark on the landscape. Not even time can wash away the residue of what they left behind.
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I, an Actress
Title: I, an Actress
Character: Director
Released: December 9, 1977
Type: Movie
An actress and a director run through a melodramatic scene, speaking to a mannequin.
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Wild Night in El Reno
Title: Wild Night in El Reno
Released: September 6, 1977
Type: Movie
"In the late spring of each year the Great Plains states of the U.S. experience a season characterised by destructive tornadoes of awesome force. This is the time of year when the underground film- and video-maker George Kuchar leaves his San Francisco home to make his annual pilgrimage to the nidus of these frightening storms. As hail and twisters batter the heartland, Kuchar holes up with his video camera in an inexpensive motel room somewhere in the vast prairies of Oklahoma and waits." - Jesse Lerner, Storm Squatting at El Reno (at cabinetmagazine.org)
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George and Mike Kuchar
Title: George and Mike Kuchar
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1977
Type: Movie
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The Shadow Glass
Title: The Shadow Glass
Released: January 1, 1976
Type: Movie
The Shadow Glass is roughly based on Ewers' 'Student of Prague'. It concerns a young man who, feeling incapable of surmounting the harsh realities of love and life, sends his reflection cut to procure and win for him the object of his desire. Rather than being his servant and slave, the reflection takes over and controls the life of the man. In frustration and anger the man kills his reflection in order to be set free. The reality of the situation is the reality of suicide. The entire film could be interpreted as taking place in a brief second–for as long as it takes pull the trigger.
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Thundercrack!
Title: Thundercrack!
Character: Bing / Medusa
Released: December 29, 1975
Type: Movie
An eccentric and alcoholic widow hosts a motley assortment of travelers - four men, three women and one gorilla - who arrive one eventful night to get out of a torrential rainstorm.
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Andy Warhol's Unfinished Symphony
Title: Andy Warhol's Unfinished Symphony
Released: January 1, 1975
Type: Movie
A clarification of the '60s and its plastic society; taking archetypes of the American landscape to deal with the search for human identity and our alienation.
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A Night with Gilda Peck
Title: A Night with Gilda Peck
Released: January 1, 1974
Type: Movie
A vehicle for the talented Mrs. Kathleen Hohalek, as the tenant of the Pyramid Penthouse, with George Kuchar and Bob Hohalek as the burglars, "Slug," and "Boom Boom," John Thomas as "the Cooper" and Ainslie Pryor as "the maid."
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Beaver Fever
Title: Beaver Fever
Character: Hunk
Released: January 1, 1974
Type: Movie
A short comedy by Curt McDowell. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015.
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True Blue and Dreamy
Title: True Blue and Dreamy
Released: January 1, 1974
Type: Movie
"A surreal meditation on a cigarette billboard using a very strange ballerina as an allegory for something or other Indescribably funny." - Seattle International Film Festival, 1978
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Nudes: A Sketchbook
Title: Nudes: A Sketchbook
Released: January 1, 1974
Type: Movie
A series of vignettes illustrating sexual fantasies.
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Boggy Depot
Title: Boggy Depot
Character: Damon
Released: January 1, 1973
Type: Movie
Two men hypnotize their roommate and attempt to force him to fall in love.
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Wieners and Buns Musical
Title: Wieners and Buns Musical
Character: Forrest
Released: May 12, 1972
Type: Movie
A musical about an unhappy couple and the man that stands between them.
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Confessions
Title: Confessions
Released: March 15, 1972
Type: Movie
Curt McDowell has a confession for his parents. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015.
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Peed Into the Wind
Title: Peed Into the Wind
Released: January 1, 1972
Type: Movie
“PEED INTO THE WIND smears across the screen like one of those dirty underground comic books. It’s loaded with a lot of big scenes and unusual looking people that make this epic resemble a clogged toilet. Unfortunately, since several of the performers were not as loyal as Ainslie Pryor and John Thomas, the plot is difficult to follow but in no way hinders the sewer-like sequences. It’s quite enjoyable and possesses the releasing power of an enema.” –George Kuchar
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Portrait of Ramona
Title: Portrait of Ramona
Released: January 1, 1971
Type: Movie
This movie was made mostly in Brooklyn during some very hot and empty evenings. Since the evenings were so empty, Jane Elford, the star, urged me to get started making another movie (we had completed PAGAN RHAPSODY the year before). I said "okay," and launched her in a photographed series of telephone calls, not really knowing who was going to be on the other end. I was interested at the time in irrational, neurotic responses and so the heroine was put into unstable situations that I dreamt up because I was making a movie with a plot and there should be some action .... Many of the stars appear nude and all I can say is that because of the heat and the general, overall feeling of the film which is one of the usual desperation and explosive emotions, I couldn't see any other way of them playing it. The general tone of everything was ... "Why even bother to get dressed?"
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Chronicles
Title: Chronicles
Released: January 1, 1969
Type: Movie
Mike Kuchar'ss lyrical portrait of everyday life, from making art to making love, all as the Vietnam War rages.
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Underground New York
Title: Underground New York
Character: Self
Released: January 1, 1968
Type: Movie
A rare behind-the-scenes view of the exploding New York “underground” in the late sixities, a turbulent time and place that was to change American culture forever. A German TV crew, led by journalist Gideon Bachmann, explores the epicenter of the sixties revolution in art, music, poetry and film and interviews the main players in the “New American Cinema,” that was born on the streets of New York. Against a backdrop of cultural upheaval in all of the arts and growing political agitation against the Vietnam War, Bachman interviews the most prominent figures in “underground film,” including Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, the Kuchar Brothers and Bruce Connor, and visits the most notorious location in the New York art world of the era - Andy Warhol’s Factory - to conduct an interview with the genius of Pop Art himself.
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Encyclopedia of the Blessed
Title: Encyclopedia of the Blessed
Released: January 1, 1968
Type: Movie
" ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BLESSED culminates my involvement with artist Red Grooms and Mimi Gross. It is a diary of our work as we head for the Pacific Ocean in a suicidal plunge for theatrical infamy. The film traces the construction of two craven images made in the likeness of myself by Grooms and Gross. Then it switches to the sandhills of Nebraska where fat cattle walk around. There the film explores Grooms' biggest construction, "The Chicago Installation." The film rolls relentlessly onward to the West Coast showing, for the first time on any screen, a theatrical production we three put in the University of California. It marks my directorial debut on the stage and Red Grooms' comeback after ten years of exile from live theatre." - George Kuchar
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The Craven Sluck
Title: The Craven Sluck
Character: Morton
Released: December 21, 1967
Type: Movie
A desperate, married woman meets a mysterious man who she blatantly desires. Through some twists and turns, things do not go over as well as she seems to wish.
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The Unclean
Title: The Unclean
Character: Himself
Released: August 12, 1967
Type: Movie
Lost film featuring vignettes of individual couples in a bathtub
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Bill's Hat
Title: Bill's Hat
Released: January 1, 1967
Type: Movie
"The whole film are non-art portraits of people in which they do what they want with this hat – and therefore, act or stand in front of my camera. It’s only love: therefore it can’t harm you". Joyce Wieland.
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Galaxie
Title: Galaxie
Character: Himself
Released: September 3, 1966
Type: Movie
In March and April of 1966, Markopoulos created this filmic portrait of writers and artists from his New York circle, including Parker Tyler, W. H. Auden, Jasper Johns, Susan Sontag, Storm De Hirsch, Jonas Mekas, Allen Ginsberg, and George and Mike Kuchar, most observed in their homes or studios. Filmed in vibrant color, Galaxie pulses with life. It is a masterpiece of in-camera composition and editing, and stands as a vibrant response to Andy Warhol's contemporary Screen Tests. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2001.
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The Secret of Wendel Samson
Title: The Secret of Wendel Samson
Released: July 1, 1966
Type: Movie
A young man's struggle with his sexuality overtakes his life, driving him deep into his subconscious where guilt and fears of physicality chase him still further. Cornered by an intangible terror, he realises he must either break out or break down.
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Hold Me While I'm Naked
Title: Hold Me While I'm Naked
Released: April 23, 1966
Type: Movie
Presented as loosely autobiographical, Hold Me While I’m Naked centres on the tribulations of an independent filmmaker, frustrated at every turn as he tries to make a film that pretends to artistic merit.
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River Windows
Title: River Windows
Released: January 1, 1966
Type: Movie
"A film counterpointing the hard reality of the present with the fantastic actuality or imagining of the idyllic past. This is best realized in the halting transition from the journey through time back to the watery one that evoked." –Ken Kelman
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Sins of the Fleshapoids
Title: Sins of the Fleshapoids
Character: Prince Gianbeno
Released: January 4, 1965
Type: Movie
One million years in the future, the human survivors of a nuclear war are served by robots called "fleshapoids." One day, fleshapoid Xar runs wild, kills its mistress and seeks its mate, a servant of wicked Prince Gianbeno.
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Anita Needs Me
Title: Anita Needs Me
Released: March 11, 1964
Type: Movie
An overheated tale of lust, guilt, and Mom, made as a response to the French New Wave.
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Born of the Wind
Title: Born of the Wind
Released: March 4, 1964
Type: Movie
A tender and realistic story of a scientist who falls in love with a mummy he has restored to life.
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Lust for Ecstasy
Title: Lust for Ecstasy
Character: Father Nelson
Released: March 4, 1964
Type: Movie
“LUST FOR ECSTASY is my most ambitious attempt since my last film…. I wrote many of the pungent scenes on the D train, and when I arrived on the set I ripped them up and let my emotional whims make chopped meat out of the performances and the story…. Yes, LUST FOR ECSTASY is my subconscious, my own naked lusts that sweep across the screen in 8mm and color with full fidelity sound.” – George Kuchar
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Tootsies in Autumn
Title: Tootsies in Autumn
Released: September 23, 1963
Type: Movie
[A] cautionary tale about past-their-prime thespians caught up in a typically Kucharian vortex of madness. - Anthology Film Archives
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Confessions of Babette
Title: Confessions of Babette
Released: January 1, 1963
Type: Movie
An early masterpiece by Mike Kuchar, in which Babette tells all, leaving no turgid stone unturned.
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Night of the Bomb
Title: Night of the Bomb
Released: January 1, 1962
Type: Movie
The film combines teenage lust and deranged delinquency to create a cautionary tale for the ages.
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The Slasher
Title: The Slasher
Released: January 1, 1958
Type: Movie
An insane, deformed killer stalks the grounds of a resort house, bringing sudden violence to those of easy virtue and godlessness.
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Web of Fire
Title: Web of Fire
Released: December 31, 1969
Type: Movie
Short film.