Mike Kuchar, cinematographer, painter and writer and brother of George Kuchar, was born in New York City. He began making 8mm movies in the 1950's, switching over to 16mm film production in 1960, and continues now, producing short motion pictures in the video and digital formats. Mike and George Kuchar were the co-recipients of the "Vanguard Director Award" at the 11th CineVegas Film Festival, 2009, and the 2009 "Frameline Award" at the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.
"Film purists," says Mike, "tend to snub the digital medium — but as far as I'm concerned, if it allows the image to move and make noise, I'll gladly use it... and the format fits perfectly into my budgets too!"
Mike Kuchar is a 2017 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow for his work in film and video.
A high-spirited romp through the (former) campus of San Francisco Art Institute, with two films each from George and Mike Kuchar. Features: Bloodsucker (1975, Mike Kuchar, 21 min.) – 16mm orig presented in digital format; I, an Actress (1977, George Kuch ...
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In the serene zone between twilight and dawn, a lullaby of thoughts floats beneath a blanket of stars. ...
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This outdoor meditation is drenched with sunlight, carressed by breezes and blessed with a young man who discovers his special "role" in Time's dimention. ...
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"I shall walk softly on the Earth but make the footprints deep". A young man contemplates the inevitable passing of time, and the different versions of himself that come along with it. ...
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A sensitive soul with skin receptive to the World's natural elements and who has a mind open for expansive contemplation, embarks on an "inner journey" toward the New Age of awareness. ...
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In the depths of night lurks a beautiful fever that heats a man's blood. ...
Watch NowHigh above the far horizon, a beacon burns cold, bright and calm. ...
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They walk through "life", sometimes with no "compass" in hand and become "lost". ...
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Earth's "garden" is fragrant with temptations but has far too many "thorns". He got "stung" and fell...got up...and fell, again and again! ...
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A rose scented breeze enters a young man's, winding its cool arms around him... Together they will roam the darkness of his life. ...
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A broken god on the stone slab in a desert, waiting for "he" that will dig for him; wipe the sand from his handsome face. ...
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He peels away layers of secrets to you for what you are, and he likes scars because they tell stories. ...
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His written letters will fade at the first light; if indeed he is dreaming the world! ...
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A "painter" casts out the demons that haunt his canvases and who creep into his bed at night. ...
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Many a man has tried to leave the prison of his hide; it's no "paradise" living in skin! ...
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"No man can stay in bed forever...He must rise up; up the steep steps of perfection. ...
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"...Talking to Oneself in the mirror when down in the 'mental dumps. ...
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"...will somebody lend him their sins, because his old worn out ones have become tiresome. ...
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He felt both dead and alive... having 'died' and having come back to the space of his 'living. ...
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His love of Heaven's virtues could not prevent a hunger for God's enticing creatures. ...
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A 'poet' and a 'painter' discover a malign muse, but their fear and anger keep them young. ...
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A kiss can be devine or demonic. A kiss can change your life...alter it. ...
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"...Deep in the garden of the Artist's heart, ghosts of bygone worlds arise on gothic wings, calling forth delicious languors. ...
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Something lies yet unwritten within a poet who lost that 'spark' of having been born brand new onto a sacred stage. ...
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There is a garden in the dark hunger of his psyche where forbidden fruit grows. ...
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...What once was for him "real," is now but a "dream," --for the day comes when we find ourselves stranded with memories. ...
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With lashings of humour and affection, this much-loved filmmaker and his students create a wonderful journey from the chaos of hell to the paradise of poetry, each of them playing a mystical character who helps lead the way. ...
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A club for misfits who descend into a psychedelic underworld. Made at the San Francisco Art Institute. ...
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...Somewhere inside him something slumbers; the myths, the beliefs that flow, fuse and burn through him. ...
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...They had their source in tangled vegetable matter, countless rapes and invasions and enjoy good wine with the girls. ...
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A cavalcade of characters in conflict with consciousness is conjured up within the confines of Studio 8 at the San Francisco Art Institute and digitized for analysis. ...
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OverRiped words from the lips of an OverExposed boy decorates this litany in pink with purple bruises. ...
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Videomaker and spoken word performer David Finkelstein sleepwalks down into subconscious corridors. ...
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"Great woods, you frighten me like some cathedral's gloom, and awaken pastoral pipes on pagan heights. ...
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Ripe fruit in sweaty socks; soft eyes, stained and suffering in the origin of consciousness, and a soul needing refrigeration, for it has nearly gone bad! ...
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He sighs for strange and hidden cities whose walls are pink stone, inlaid with opals, ebony and silver, and for altars where the body is worshiped under the shrine of night. ...
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Once upon a time in the shelled carcass of a man, the Phoenix will rise and fall... and RISE and FALL! ...
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Playwright and performance artist Marc Arthur paves a color-saturated path from 'awake consciousness' to sleeping 'dreamscape'. ...
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Offer a pagan god only simple flowers of spring and the sparkling diamonds and opals of morning dew strung on the threads of the spider... and fear the judgement of holy angels. ...
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Two men and two women attempt to re-assemble the scattered pieces of life's puzzle. ...
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Masked men prowling in the bushes and not touching anything but satin, dandelions and flesh. ...
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A House Wife's hum-drum world dissolves away into a thorny Passion Play of miraculous visions. ...
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A lady alone amid the flowers of a garden becomes the target of mischievous elements therein. ...
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The Vagabond...what does he seek? - ask the River, ask the Wind - but don't ask Him! ...
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Secret number... secret shape... knower of the secret name... God of the realm of night - I summon you, 'Son of Sin'... arise! ...
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Things "go bump in broad daylight" as archetypical characters romp about in a sunny forest...doll like things and beast men. ...
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In this summerland a path opens for Poets, Artists, ...and the 'Dreamer'. ...
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Dialogue taken from the Bible is put in the mouths of three souls in a modern apartment, who must deal with a "fall from grace. ...
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There was plenty of fruit growing in Eden; mangos, pears, oranges...why did Eve have to pick that Apple! ...
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Two city dwellers in a relationship grown "tired," are near a deep forest where one hears the lure of Pan's Pipe calling. ...
Watch NowPart one of Mike Kuchar's Heat Rash series: This audio, visual laxative empties the mind of inhibitions to allow the spectator entrance into the whirlpool of sexual fixations. It also offers a recipe for love potions and recites demonic spells that influen ...
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Part three of Mike Kuchar's Heat Rash: This audio, visual laxative empties the mind of inhibitions to allow the spectator entrance into the whirlpool of sexual fixations. It also offers a recipe for love potions and recites demonic spells that influence bo ...
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Two souls, one aged, the other young, contemplate flowers, fairies and earthbound angels sent to tempt and tease. ...
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Dark, domestic tensions need the cleansing rays of a bright summer afternoon. ...
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It is believed that Life originated in the Sea, and like the Ocean itself, human existance is thus subject to tides and surging currents of emotions stirred up by memory. ...
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Childhood dolls and adult toys populate this moody yet picturesque lullaby. ...
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An angry trollop and a self-doubting college kid collide in his cramped apartment for an episode of claustrophobia and self-analysis. ...
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The dialogue for this production, featuring Cupid, is taken from the pages of a personal diary found under a chair. ...
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A ripe lad embarks on a raw correspondence with his mirrored image, and thus: the dialogue is "fleshed out" to its full potential. ...
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A girl with two male companions in a room is a space where the mind's eye wanders! ...
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In this thespian workout, a troop of stage actors improvises within a kaleidoscopic zone of warped spaces. ...
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Blue skies, babbling brooks, and a big book in a field full of flowers is the departure point for this video. ...
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A "grand dame's" delirious daydream blooms like a voluptous blossom in spring. ...
Watch NowThe stimulus for this dissertation on the reason behind the creative impulse is taken verbatim from an author's preface to his book. ...
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A "birthday boy's" poetic yearnings on paper translate into a quest for perfection. ...
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Like ships in a harbor, men come and go in relationships. But, as one character says to another character who is heartbroken: "You sucked enough juice out of him... don't be greedy! ...
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A naughty romp that is bare, brazen, and "black and blue" too, featuring a playpen of playthings that go on an erotic rampage. ...
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This breezy and flamboyant essay about an afternoon rendezvous is pure candy for the eyes. ...
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Looking for "Mr. Right" in all the wrong places makes for a tragic comedy. ...
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Be careful when you go out into the surf in a skimpy thong... the current can be treacherous and turbulent as is the human heart! ...
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A vain, self centered mother competes with her daughter in the world of carnivorous men and sleazy movies. ...
Watch NowA mother and daughter, both dressed in "shocking pink", clash over men and money. ...
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Artists with brushes need light to paint a picture, but human feelings function just as well in the dark. ...
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Two strippers decide a walk in the park might lift their spirits, which do get a big boost when they contemplate a park monument dedicated to sailors in this audacious, "beefy" romp. ...
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Futuristic story of Carlos and Ben who fall in love in high school despite the racism and and homophobia. When Fundamentalist forces threaten to take over the U.S. the pair join forces with an underground resistance movement. ...
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Armed with an overripe script and ample supply of false eyelashes and lip gloss. ...
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Paint drips and body fluids ooze in this "tell all" and "hide nothing" documentary about two San Francisco males. ...
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Commissioned to be a "promo" for a loud punk rock band, Mr. Kuchar feared that the noise the band made would spoil the mood of his visuals, so he used the sound of a lush orchestra to score the picture and the antics. ...
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A trip through Lotti's horny life -- everything from her Aryan lover and her stay in a concentration camp while he is killed for their forbidden love -- is a fascinating look at this remarkable woman through the eyes and viewfinder of Rosa von Praunheim. ...
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This film powerfully documents New York City's gay community's response to the AIDS crisis as they are forced to organize themselves after the government's failure to stem the epidemic. Activists who are interviewed include playwrite Larry Kramer, People W ...
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AIDS victims and activists cope with hardship and society's ignorance. ...
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Punk icons Lydia Lunch and Henry Rollins star in this cult drama about a pregnant pianist named Hedda whose marriage to husband Neal (Don Bajema) hits the skids with the sudden appearance of a mysterious stranger. ...
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Four women in the throes of frustrated sexual desire. Not making fun of them but rather sending up the absurdities of passion and the ways in which it undermines our dignity. One woman, given to heady, long-winded monologues and carrying on like a silent ...
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Enter a shimmering forest and encounter the Pot Boiling turbulence of pre-history tribes in conflict. See sacrificial virgins, volcanoes, knife fights, spaceships. It's all in this black-and-white saga of pure escapement. ...
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A shady motel manager becomes obsessed with a neglected wife. ...
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A 16mm black and white remake of an 8mm color film done years earlier, this time with students enrolled in a 'dramatic narrative' summer workshop. Deep shadows dominate this spooky saga dealing with reincarnation and revenge. ...
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The windy adventures of a dog in a sea of grass beneath blue skies. ...
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From the elephant house of Bronx Zoo to the eight story tall Tabonga Terrace apartments on Sedgwich Avenue, living Mammals scream for their place in the Sun and drop heavy brown excretions in pots of porcelain that splash and clog and suck like huge toothl ...
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Mike Kuchar'ss lyrical portrait of everyday life, from making art to making love, all as the Vietnam War rages. ...
Watch NowGreen spills over purple ridges and into deep cut valleys. Blue surges up from rounds and hollows, blending with incandescent pink plains, revealing what seems to be the outline of the human face. Scribble spins on blue space in abstract, erratic lines, ga ...
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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. ...
Watch NowA 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. ...
Watch NowA youth wanders the landscape of grass and sky in search of puzzling impulses. ...
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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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A tender and realistic story of a scientist who falls in love with a mummy he has restored to life. ...
Watch Now[A] cautionary tale about past-their-prime thespians caught up in a typically Kucharian vortex of madness. ...
Watch Now"It glows with the embers of desire! It smokes with the revelation of men and women longing for robust temptations that will make them sizzle into maturity with a furnace-blast of unrestrained animalism. A film for young and old to enjoy. ...
Watch NowAn early masterpiece by Mike Kuchar, in which Babette tells all, leaving no turgid stone unturned. ...
Watch NowThe film combines teenage lust and deranged delinquency to create a cautionary tale for the ages. ...
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An eclectic compilation of home movies and early cinematic experiments. Preserved by Anthology Film Archives with support from the National Film Preservation Foundation. "From the age of 12 onward until 17 (the restless years) the Kuchar brothers lived li ...
Watch NowI Was a Teenage Rumpot was made in 1960, when George and Mike, the twin brothers Kuchar, were all of eighteen years old. Though their films would grow in thematic complexity, Rumpot already shows the visual energy, dynamic music, and anarchic, twisted plot ...
Watch NowAn insane, deformed killer stalks the grounds of a resort house, bringing sudden violence to those of easy virtue and godlessness. ...
Watch NowBig…Rousing…Memorable! The incredible war saga of our own boys in a Jap-infested jungle in the Botanical Gardens. Hear Lloyd Thorner sing the title song. You'll come out whistling from both ends. ...
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"A Tub Named Desire," the first movie with Donna Kerness, does not exist anymore, except for one 8mm print that was in George Kuchar's possession. The footage was taken apart, and some of it is included in "The Naked and the Nude." - Carnegie Museum of Art ...
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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 vo ...
Watch NowA moving tribute to New York icon Mike Kuchar, filmed on his last day before leaving Manhattan to relocate to San Francisco ...
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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 budge ...
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Frisco anxiously awaits the pyrotechnic birth of a New Year while the remnants of holiday greenery still burn bright in all the right places. One of those places gives shelter to an Abyssinian animal of lethargic nature, while all about her the rumblings o ...
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This exhibition focuses on Jonas Mekas' 365 Day Project, a succession of films and videos in calendar form. Every day as of January 1st, 2007 and for an entire year, as indicated in the title, a large public (the artist's friends, as well as unknowns) were ...
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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 Ger ...
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BIRD IN THE SKY is a gritty, poetic tale of a young man's spiritual struggle on the streets of New York City. Rob has been given a second chance to right the wrongs of his street-wise past; he must perform a miracle to be saved. His fate lies in his love ...
Watch NowIn this dream-portrait, Mike Kuchar floats through his memories as the sea, space and sky drift past. Wrapped in odd costumes, he frolics with the imaginary creatures surrounding him, and recalls the creatures of his own imagination. ...
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The life and times of Baltimore film maker and midnight movie pioneer, John Waters. ...
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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 o ...
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Based on a short story by Charles Bukowski from the collection "Tales of Ordinary Madness. ...
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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 st ...
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A behind-the-scenes look at the man behind the trophy and the poisons that taint an otherwise jubilant jamboree. ...
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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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A music-filled tour of Christmas good cheer overtakes this gastronomically oriented excursion through the winter season of discontent and yuletime yearnings craving ignition. ...
Watch NowPortrait of American filmmaker Mike Kuchar, shot in New York (United States of America) on December 2, 1988 at 7:30 PM. ...
Watch NowReturn 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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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 ...
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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 th ...
Watch NowA trip to Boston to visit a local filmmaker in his studio is followed by a journey to the cinematic facilities of SUNY College in Purchase, NY, and then to the kitchen and living quarters of my mother in the Bronx. My mother is in her most candid mode as w ...
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A film collage tracing the story of the lives, loves, and deaths within the artistic community surrounding Jonas Mekas. ...
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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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Cinématon is a 156-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It was the longest film ever released until 2011. Composed over 36 years from 1978 until 2006, it consists of a series of over 2,821 silent vignettes (cinématons), each 3 ...
Watch NowPortrait of siblings George and Mike Kuchar, who have made a name for themselves in the US underground scene with low-budget films. ...
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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 b ...
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Seadrift is based on a story The Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft, and was shot partially in Marblehead Mass. Each section represents a synthesis of the various aspects and moods of the story. The sum total of the fragments expresses the atmosphere ...
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"Curt McDowell's NUDES (A Sketchbook) is a paean to the filmmaker's closest friends: a series of portraits (beginning with one of George Kuchar) based on stylized, often graphically sexual interpretations of his or her personality. The portraits also, at t ...
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A real and favorite dream of mine, preserved on film to be relived over and over. ...
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Starring George Kuchar as "Hunk", Mrs. Ruby B. Davis as "Aunt Ruth", and introducing Melinda McDowell as the much-abused, sex bomb "Goldenrod". ...
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An hour-long saga of Mick Terrific, rock 'n' roll star, and the cast of 50 he encounters on his search for "Mr. Wonderful." "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 ...
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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 laun ...
Watch NowMike Kuchar'ss lyrical portrait of everyday life, from making art to making love, all as the Vietnam War rages. ...
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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 r ...
Watch NowThe movie takes a rather negative look at things despite the fact that it was shot in reversal film. It depicts the turbulent relationships of disturbed individuals existing on various levels of an apartment house. Donna Kerness and her husband Hopeton Mor ...
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Made when I was a bit depressed which is nothing new,. Bob Cowan happened to be depressed as well and so we had a wonderful time working together. One of the actresses was separated from her husband at this time and the movie solidifies into concrete the r ...
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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, ...
Watch NowA 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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"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. ...
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Corruption of the Damned might seethe with violence and sex, the two most attractive things you can put on the screen, but beneath them a twisted outlook pervades. ...
Watch Now"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…. Y ...
Watch NowAn early masterpiece by Mike Kuchar, in which Babette tells all, leaving no turgid stone unturned. ...
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