George Kuchar

Infobox Person
name = George Kuchar


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caption = Teaching/Working at SFAI' by Whitler Pratphall 2008
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occupation = Artist, Actor, Director
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George Kuchar (born 31 August 1942, New York City) is an American film director, known for his "low-fi" aesthetic, playful use of no-talent actors, plotless plots, and themeless themes. Trained as a commercial artist in a vocational high school, the School of Industrial Art, he drew weather maps for a local news show. During this period, he and his twin brother Mike Kuchar were making 8mm movies which were showcased in the then-burgeoning underground film scene alongside films by Andy Warhol, Kenneth Anger, and Stan Brakhage.

After being laid off from a commercial art job in New York City, Kuchar was offered a teaching job in the film department of the San Francisco Art Institute, where he has taught since 1971. It was in San Francisco that he became involved with underground comics via his neighbors Art Spiegelman and Bill Griffith. They both wound up in his movies and George wound up in their publications.

"Planet Kuchar", a biopic of the life of George Kuchar, is being developed by Los Angeles production company Automat Pictures and producer Jeffrey Schwarz.

The Kuchar brothers collaborated on a book, "Reflections from a Cinematic Cesspool". It is a humorous memoir discussing four decades of filmmaking and includes an introduction by filmmaker John Waters.

Films

George Kuchar has directed over 200 films (including over 15 with his twin brother Mike), many of them short films by students in his courses at San Francisco Art Institute.

Filmography (George and Mike Kuchar)

"(it should be noted that the Kuchar brothers, in British punctuation tradition, capitalize articles, prepositional phrases, and contractions in their movie titles, when working together or independently)"
* "The Wet Destruction Of The Atlantic Empire" (1954)
* "Screwball" (1957)
* "The Naked And The Nude" (1957)
* "The Slasher" (1958)
* "The Thief And The Stripper" (1959)
* "A Tub Named Desire" (1960)
* "I Was A Teenage Rumpot" (1960)
* "Pussy On A Hot Tin Roof" (1961)
* "Born Of The Wind" (1961)
* "A Woman Distressed" (1962)
* "A Town Called Tempest" (1962)
* "Night Of The Bomb" (1962)
* "Lust For Ectsasy" (1963)
* "The Confessions Of Babette" (1963)
* "Tootsies In Autumn" (1963)
* "Anita Needs Me" (1963)
*"The Lovers Of Eternity" (1963)

Partial Filmography (George Kuchar)

*"Corruption Of The Damned" (1965)
*"Hold Me While I'm Naked" (1966)
*"Leisure" (1966)
*"Mosholu Holiday" (1966)
*"Color Me Shameless" (1967)
*"Eclipse Of The Sun Virgin" (1967)
*"The Lady From Sands Point" (1967)
*"Knocturne" (1968)
*"Unstrap Me" (1968)
*"House Of The White People" (1968)
*"Encyclopedia Of The Blessed" (1968)
*"The Mammal Palace" (1969)
*"Pagan Rhapsody" (1970)
*"Portrait Of Ramona" (1971)
*"The Sunshine Sisters" (1972)
*"The Devil's Cleavage" (1973)
*"Thundercrack!" (screenplay only)(1975)
*"Back To Nature" (1976)
*"A Reason To Live" (1976)
*"La Casa De Chorizo" (1977)
*"KY Kapers" (1977)
*"Wild Night In El Reno" (1977)
*"Forever And Always" (1978)
*"Mongreloid" (1978)
*"Blips" (1979)
*"Aqueerius" (1980)
*"The Nocturnal Immaculation" (1980)
*"Yolando" (1980)
*"Cattle Mutilations" (1983)
*"Mom" (1983)
*"Untitled Musical" (1984)
*"The X-People" (1984)
*"Ascension Of The Demonoids (1985)Produced at the San Francisco Art Institute:
*"Destination Damnation" (1972)
*"Carnal Bipeds" (1973)
*"I Married A Heathen" (1974)
*"The Desperate And The Deep" (1975)
*"I, An Actress" (1977)
*"The Asphalt Ribbon" (1977)
*"One Night A Week" (1978)
*"Prescrition [sic] In Blue" (1978)
*"The Power Of The Press" (1979)
*"Remember Tomorrow" (1979)
*"Symphony For A Sinner" (1979)
*"How To Chose [sic] A Wife" (1980)
*"The Woman And The Dress" (1980)
*"Ochokpug" (1980)
*"Boulevard Kishka" (1981)
*"The Oneers" (1982)
*"Ms. Hyde" (1983)
*"Club Vatican" (1984)
*"The Legend Of Thelma White" (1985)
*"Motel Capri" (1986)
*"La Noche D'Amour" (1986)
*"PRC Musical" (1986)
*"Insanitorium" (1987)
*"Summer Of No Return" (1988)
*"La Verbotene Voyage" (1989)

Partial Filmography (Mike Kuchar)

*"The Pervert" (1963)
*"Born Of The Wind" (1964)
*"Sins Of The Fleshapoids" (1965)
*"Green Desire" (1966)
*"The Secret Of Wendel Samson" (1966)
*"Fragments" (1967)
*"The Craven Sluck" (formerly titled "Madonna" ) (1967)
*"Variations" (1968)
*"Cycles" (1968)
*"Tales Of The Bronx" (1969)
*"Chronicles" (1969)
*"Abode Of The Snow" (1970)
*"Aqua Circus" (1971)
*"Didgeridoo" (1972)
*"Faraway Places" (1972)
*"Death Quest Of The Ju-Ju Cults" (1976)
*"Dwarf Star" (1977)
*"Fable For A New Age" (1984)
*"Tone Poem" (1984)
*"Seascape" (1984)Produced at the San Francisco Art Institute:
*"The Masque Of Valhalla" (1972)
*"The Wings Of Muru" (1973)
*"Blood Sucker" (1975)
*"The Passions: A Psycho-Drama" (1977)
*"Isle Of The Sleeping Souls" (1979)
*"Circe" (1984)Produced at the Collective For Living Cinema's Dramatic Narrative Class:
*"Scream Of The Damned" (1987)

Work Cited

Filmographies courtesy of: Stevenson, Jack "Desperate Visions 1: The Films Of John Waters and George & Mike Kuchar" 1996, Creation Books, UK ISBN 1-871592-34-8

George & Mike Kuchar. "Reflections from a Cinematic Cesspool". Berkeley: Zanja Pr Dangerous Concepts, 1997. ISBN 0915906341

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0473647/ George Kuchar at IMDB]
* [http://www.sfbg.com/Goldies99/george.html Goldie awards 1999]
* [http://www.thekitchen.org/MovieCatalog/Directors/Kuchar.html Short filmography with descriptions]
* [http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?KUCHARG George Kuchar] in the [http://www.vdb.org/ Video Data Bank]
* [http://entertainment.msn.com/celebs/celeb.aspx?c=225081 MSN filmography]
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/04/32/hold_me_while_im_naked.html Review of "Hold Me While I'm Naked"]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0473648/ Mike Kuchar at IMDB]
* [http://www.ubu.com/film/kuchar.html/ George Kuchar's films on UBUWEB]
* [http://www.experimentalchannel.com/2007/07/07/ec-docs-camera-tricks-this-is-george-kuchar/ Behind-the-Scenes Documentary filmed at SFAI by Ronaldo Barbachano during the class production of "Queen Conga"]
* [http://marielosier.net/video/Electrocute-your-stars-web.mov Underground filmmaker Marie Losier's portrait of George Kuchar]