Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.FESTIVALSMay Days.As many as 200 French film festival workers plan to stage labor actions during Cannes, citing insufficient pay and the exclusion of many festival staff from unemployment benefits when they are not under contract. The movement is being organized under the banner of Sous Les Écrans La Dèche: Collectif Des Précaires Des Festivals De Cinéma.A new report outlines the institutional dysfunction at the Toronto International Film Festival, which recently lost the support of the telecommunications company Bell as its major sponsor. Citing a desire for “greater accessibility,” Slamdance Film Festival will relocate from Park City, Ut, to Los Angeles in 2025.NEWSHarlan County, U.S.A..Now that all thirteen IATSE locals have reached tentative agreements with the AMPTP,...
- 5/1/2024
- MUBI
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Anyone But You (Will Gluck)
If anything, Anyone But You‘s spirit is encapsulated in having a running joke about “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield (gags involving that artist’s back catalog seeming to be the Will Gluck auteurist touch) as if the movie’s wholly bland pop soundtrack puts it above that at-least-memorable 2000s ditty. Slight self-awareness with no effort to actually do anything new is the definition of unearned arrogance. This is why it fails as a romcom: too much smarm and not enough charm. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Garrett Bradley: Devotion
If you’ve only seen Garrett Bradley’s staggering, Oscar-nominated documentary Time, it’s prime time to catch up on a pair of her earlier work.
Anyone But You (Will Gluck)
If anything, Anyone But You‘s spirit is encapsulated in having a running joke about “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield (gags involving that artist’s back catalog seeming to be the Will Gluck auteurist touch) as if the movie’s wholly bland pop soundtrack puts it above that at-least-memorable 2000s ditty. Slight self-awareness with no effort to actually do anything new is the definition of unearned arrogance. This is why it fails as a romcom: too much smarm and not enough charm. – Ethan V. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Garrett Bradley: Devotion
If you’ve only seen Garrett Bradley’s staggering, Oscar-nominated documentary Time, it’s prime time to catch up on a pair of her earlier work.
- 4/26/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
“Time is all we have and every second that ticks away is one less second we’re alive,” Kenneth Anger told an interviewer from The Guardian 16 and a half years before his death this May at the age of 96. “The sands of time are going through the hourglass but it doesn’t frighten me.”
If Woody Allen’s Zelig was found rubbing elbows with the storied and famous of the ’20s and ’30s, starting in the 1950s Anger was for some decades more than a match for him. His legacy is poised between the pathbreaking cinematic auteur who made such avant-garde shorts as “Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome” (1954) and “Scorpio Rising” (1963) and the purveyor of at times fictionalized Hollywood scandal in the sensational and frequently updated “Hollywood Babylon” (1959).
He was not immune from his own brushes with dark history — the very bikers he incorporated in some of his middle-period work...
If Woody Allen’s Zelig was found rubbing elbows with the storied and famous of the ’20s and ’30s, starting in the 1950s Anger was for some decades more than a match for him. His legacy is poised between the pathbreaking cinematic auteur who made such avant-garde shorts as “Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome” (1954) and “Scorpio Rising” (1963) and the purveyor of at times fictionalized Hollywood scandal in the sensational and frequently updated “Hollywood Babylon” (1959).
He was not immune from his own brushes with dark history — the very bikers he incorporated in some of his middle-period work...
- 5/24/2023
- by Fred Schruers
- Indiewire
Devo’s Gerald Casale joins us for a discussion of the movies that made Devo!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Truth About De-Evolution (1976)
Island Of Lost Souls (1932)
Akran (1969)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Fail Safe (1964)
Valley Of The Dolls (1967)
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970)
The President’s Analyst (1967)
The Atomic Cafe (1982)
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Village Of The Damned (1960)
Children Of The Damned (1964)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Parallax View (1974)
Soylent Green (1973)
Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
Rocky (1976)
A Face In The Crowd (1957)
Whisky Galore! (1949)
No Time For Sergeants (1958)
Network (1976)
JFK (1991)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Lost Highway (1997)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Expresso Bongo (1959)
Gremlins (1984)
I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)
Other Notable Items
Paul McCartney
Slash
Willie Nelson
Devo
Elliot Roberts
Lorne Michaels
Saturday Night Live TV series (1975- )
Michael O’Donoghue
The Muppets
Neil Young
Walter Williams
Mr. Bill
Richard Myers
George Kuchar
Mike Kuchar
John F.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Truth About De-Evolution (1976)
Island Of Lost Souls (1932)
Akran (1969)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Fail Safe (1964)
Valley Of The Dolls (1967)
Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970)
The President’s Analyst (1967)
The Atomic Cafe (1982)
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Village Of The Damned (1960)
Children Of The Damned (1964)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954)
Planet Of The Apes (1968)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
The Parallax View (1974)
Soylent Green (1973)
Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)
Rocky (1976)
A Face In The Crowd (1957)
Whisky Galore! (1949)
No Time For Sergeants (1958)
Network (1976)
JFK (1991)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Lost Highway (1997)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Expresso Bongo (1959)
Gremlins (1984)
I Was A Teenage Werewolf (1957)
Other Notable Items
Paul McCartney
Slash
Willie Nelson
Devo
Elliot Roberts
Lorne Michaels
Saturday Night Live TV series (1975- )
Michael O’Donoghue
The Muppets
Neil Young
Walter Williams
Mr. Bill
Richard Myers
George Kuchar
Mike Kuchar
John F.
- 12/22/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Mike Kuchar, Manuel DeLanda And Carolee Schneemann At Redcat | 631 W 2nd St.
For fans of classic experimental cinema, there are three screenings to make note of this month at downtown’s Redcat theater. First, on Feb. 3, is a program of films by twin brothers Mike and George Kuchar. Legends of the 1960s New York Underground, the Kuchars produced a series of delightfully perverse re-imaginings of Hollywood melodramas that did as much as any films of that era to advance notions of camp and queer representation in cinema. Mike Kuchar himself will be in person to discuss the program,...
For fans of classic experimental cinema, there are three screenings to make note of this month at downtown’s Redcat theater. First, on Feb. 3, is a program of films by twin brothers Mike and George Kuchar. Legends of the 1960s New York Underground, the Kuchars produced a series of delightfully perverse re-imaginings of Hollywood melodramas that did as much as any films of that era to advance notions of camp and queer representation in cinema. Mike Kuchar himself will be in person to discuss the program,...
Mike Kuchar, Manuel DeLanda And Carolee Schneemann At Redcat | 631 W 2nd St.
For fans of classic experimental cinema, there are three screenings to make note of this month at downtown’s Redcat theater. First, on Feb. 3, is a program of films by twin brothers Mike and George Kuchar. Legends of the 1960s New York Underground, the Kuchars produced a series of delightfully perverse re-imaginings of Hollywood melodramas that did as much as any films of that era to advance notions of camp and queer representation in cinema. Mike Kuchar himself will be in person to discuss the program,...
For fans of classic experimental cinema, there are three screenings to make note of this month at downtown’s Redcat theater. First, on Feb. 3, is a program of films by twin brothers Mike and George Kuchar. Legends of the 1960s New York Underground, the Kuchars produced a series of delightfully perverse re-imaginings of Hollywood melodramas that did as much as any films of that era to advance notions of camp and queer representation in cinema. Mike Kuchar himself will be in person to discuss the program,...
Underground Cinema 12 was a midnight movie screening series of underground films that ran in theaters owned by Louis Sher, who founded “the nation’s largest circuit of art houses” in 1954.
While Sher was the head of the Art Theatre Guild, Underground Cinema 12 was run by his nephew Mike Getz. The series began at the Cinema Theater in Hollywood, California on Columbus Day 1963; and when it proved to be a big hit there, Getz came up with the idea to run the series at all of his uncle’s theaters. A program would run on a Saturday night at one theater, then that theater would ship the films to the next theater, and so on.
The industry magazine Boxoffice profiled Louis Sher in their July 9, 1962 issue, over a year prior to the start of Underground Cinema 12. Sher came to cinema operations in his early forties as an outsider to the industry.
While Sher was the head of the Art Theatre Guild, Underground Cinema 12 was run by his nephew Mike Getz. The series began at the Cinema Theater in Hollywood, California on Columbus Day 1963; and when it proved to be a big hit there, Getz came up with the idea to run the series at all of his uncle’s theaters. A program would run on a Saturday night at one theater, then that theater would ship the films to the next theater, and so on.
The industry magazine Boxoffice profiled Louis Sher in their July 9, 1962 issue, over a year prior to the start of Underground Cinema 12. Sher came to cinema operations in his early forties as an outsider to the industry.
- 3/2/2019
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
In December 1966, the Canyon Cinema Cooperative in San Francisco, California published their first Catalogue of experimental and avant-garde films to rent. This was four years after the Film-Makers’ Cooperative had begun distributing underground films in New York City.
Canyon first listed films to rent in the November ’66 edition of their News newsletter, then published the catalog separately one month later. In the book Canyon Cinema, Scott MacDonald notes that the News listed just 31 filmmakers with films. Only six of them had multiple films listed; while the rest listed just a single film each.
The first standalone catalogue expanded on that first listing of filmmakers, but is still a modest publication at just sixteen pages, plus the covers. The catalogue includes 45 filmmakers — some are listed as pairs — and many more filmmakers have multiple films listed. For example, Larry Jordan has eight films listed, Robert Nelson six and Bruce Baillie four.
There...
Canyon first listed films to rent in the November ’66 edition of their News newsletter, then published the catalog separately one month later. In the book Canyon Cinema, Scott MacDonald notes that the News listed just 31 filmmakers with films. Only six of them had multiple films listed; while the rest listed just a single film each.
The first standalone catalogue expanded on that first listing of filmmakers, but is still a modest publication at just sixteen pages, plus the covers. The catalogue includes 45 filmmakers — some are listed as pairs — and many more filmmakers have multiple films listed. For example, Larry Jordan has eight films listed, Robert Nelson six and Bruce Baillie four.
There...
- 5/6/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
In 1966, after six years of existence, the Canyon Cinema experimental film collective of San Francisco, California started its own cooperative distribution center, first listing films in the November ’66 issue of their News newsletter, in which they stated that they would be following in the footsteps of New York City’s Film-Makers’ Cooperative that had been distributing underground films since 1962.
This origin of the Canyon Cinema cooperative is covered in Scott MacDonald’s exhaustive history of the organization, in which he lays out the timeline of publication of the first two catalogs:
November 1966: Canyon lists films to rent in their News publication
December 1966: Canyon Cinema Cooperative Catalog, Number 1
1968: Catalog Number 2
1969: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 1
1970: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 2
1970: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 3
MacDonald states that the second Catalog was 128 pages long, but the Supplement Number 1 begins its numbering on its title page with Page 125. The...
This origin of the Canyon Cinema cooperative is covered in Scott MacDonald’s exhaustive history of the organization, in which he lays out the timeline of publication of the first two catalogs:
November 1966: Canyon lists films to rent in their News publication
December 1966: Canyon Cinema Cooperative Catalog, Number 1
1968: Catalog Number 2
1969: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 1
1970: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 2
1970: Catalog Number 2, Supplement Number 3
MacDonald states that the second Catalog was 128 pages long, but the Supplement Number 1 begins its numbering on its title page with Page 125. The...
- 4/15/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This is an article about the second issue of the avant-garde arts zine Idiolects. An article on the first issue can be read here.
For a small publication with no advertising to support it, publishing on a quarterly basis was an ambitious and impressive achievement for Idiolects. This second issue covers avant-garde happenings in New York City from August to November 1976, primarily film, but not exclusively.
While again there is special thanks given to the Collective for Living Cinema in issue #2’s indicia, there’s no indication that the Collective was providing financial support. The first issue had a cover price of 10 cents, but the second issue has no price and offers a complicated subscription scheme where potential subscribers are invited to send in whatever amount they want that Idiolects would deduct the price for each issue until subscribers’ accounts reach zero.
This issue also actively encourages submissions from authors...
For a small publication with no advertising to support it, publishing on a quarterly basis was an ambitious and impressive achievement for Idiolects. This second issue covers avant-garde happenings in New York City from August to November 1976, primarily film, but not exclusively.
While again there is special thanks given to the Collective for Living Cinema in issue #2’s indicia, there’s no indication that the Collective was providing financial support. The first issue had a cover price of 10 cents, but the second issue has no price and offers a complicated subscription scheme where potential subscribers are invited to send in whatever amount they want that Idiolects would deduct the price for each issue until subscribers’ accounts reach zero.
This issue also actively encourages submissions from authors...
- 3/25/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
MoMA’s latest film series sees the institution search deep and wide for the best in out-there science fiction. Here’s a selection that pushes at ideas of humanity
When putting together MoMA’s new film series, Future Imperfect: The Uncanny in Science Fiction, its curator, Josh Siegel, set out to compile a list of pictures that defined the genre within more earthly parameters. He decided to seek out sci-fi that took place on Earth, had no aliens or invasions, and instead investigated what it meant to be human at the time of the film’s release. Before the retrospective, Siegel, along with museum’s chief curator of film, Rajendra Roy, discussed their favorite films in the series.
Related: George and Mike Kuchar: attack of the killer twins
Continue reading...
When putting together MoMA’s new film series, Future Imperfect: The Uncanny in Science Fiction, its curator, Josh Siegel, set out to compile a list of pictures that defined the genre within more earthly parameters. He decided to seek out sci-fi that took place on Earth, had no aliens or invasions, and instead investigated what it meant to be human at the time of the film’s release. Before the retrospective, Siegel, along with museum’s chief curator of film, Rajendra Roy, discussed their favorite films in the series.
Related: George and Mike Kuchar: attack of the killer twins
Continue reading...
- 7/14/2017
- by Interviews by Jake Nevins
- The Guardian - Film News
Actress Lucie Lucas, director Gabe Klinger, and actor Anton YelchinYou may already know the work of Brazilian-born American Gabe Klinger, perhaps through his writing as a critic for Cinema Scope and Sight & Sound, or through his programming at such venues as the Museum of Modern Art and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. In 2013, Klinger leapt behind the camera for his delightfully idiosyncratic debut film, Double Play, a documentary twofer chatting with and exploring the work of two distinctively different yet unexpectedly compatible American filmmakers, Richard Linklater and James Benning. This move to documenting (and combining) favorite filmmakers seemed like a natural extension of Klinger's advocacy in print and work at cinematheques and film festivals. Yet rather than remaining in the documentary mode, for his follow-up Klinger has gone overseas to Portugal to make a cleverly time-addled romance that's at once elated and melancholy. Porto, taking place in a dreamy, remembered...
- 9/20/2016
- MUBI
Thundercrack!
Directed by Curt McDowell
Written by George Kuchar
USA, 1975
When one looks at the underground cult film scene of the 1960s and 1970s, the names Mike Kuchar and George Kuchar definitely come to mind. Twin-brothers who have spent the majority of their lives making short films, Mike and George utilized over-the-top titles and experimental storylines, all of the home movie variety shot on a rather “stylized” no-budget that Ed Wood would’ve been jealous of. Mike Kuchar’s work seemed to be inspired by pop genre films with a dash or two of wild fantasy: his best known film (well, best known in regards to the underground) is Sins of the Fleshapoids (1965), a trippy sci-fi/fantasy whatsit, all shot in color 16mm inside various rooms with limited art direction, utilizing dubbed-in narration and on-screen dialogue represented by optical cartoon-like speech-bubbles, and cribbing some music cues of Bernard Herrmann’s...
Directed by Curt McDowell
Written by George Kuchar
USA, 1975
When one looks at the underground cult film scene of the 1960s and 1970s, the names Mike Kuchar and George Kuchar definitely come to mind. Twin-brothers who have spent the majority of their lives making short films, Mike and George utilized over-the-top titles and experimental storylines, all of the home movie variety shot on a rather “stylized” no-budget that Ed Wood would’ve been jealous of. Mike Kuchar’s work seemed to be inspired by pop genre films with a dash or two of wild fantasy: his best known film (well, best known in regards to the underground) is Sins of the Fleshapoids (1965), a trippy sci-fi/fantasy whatsit, all shot in color 16mm inside various rooms with limited art direction, utilizing dubbed-in narration and on-screen dialogue represented by optical cartoon-like speech-bubbles, and cribbing some music cues of Bernard Herrmann’s...
- 1/20/2016
- by Christopher Koenig
- SoundOnSight
December 8th is a light week in terms of horror and sci-fi home entertainment releases, but for all you X-Philes out there, this Tuesday is pretty much like second Christmas, as 20th Century Fox is releasing The X-Files series in its entirety in a Collector’s Edition Blu-ray set (complete with a space for the upcoming TV event series in January).
Other notable titles being released this week include Knock Knock, Ant-Man, and the cult classics Thundercrack and Women’s Prison Massacre.
Knock Knock (Lionsgate Blu/Digital HD & DVD/Digital)
When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse. A sexy new thriller from director Eli Roth, Knock Knock stars Keanu Reeves as the family...
Other notable titles being released this week include Knock Knock, Ant-Man, and the cult classics Thundercrack and Women’s Prison Massacre.
Knock Knock (Lionsgate Blu/Digital HD & DVD/Digital)
When a devoted husband and father is left home alone for the weekend, two stranded young women unexpectedly knock on his door for help. What starts out as a kind gesture results in a dangerous seduction and a deadly game of cat and mouse. A sexy new thriller from director Eli Roth, Knock Knock stars Keanu Reeves as the family...
- 12/8/2015
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Why don’t we take humor seriously? There have been exceptions to the pattern. Bruce Conner’s films were funny, but he “made up” for it by having an instantly recognizable style. The avant-garde comic whose work has probably been afforded the most serious attention over the years is Owen Land, but this is owing to the nature of his jokes. They are academic, abstruse and deeply hermetic, lending them an air of the “funny-strange” that offsets any perceived frivolity in his moments of “funny-ha-ha” (jokes about salted plums, giant pandas or outright parodies of Hollis Frampton). As I often point out, P. Adams Sitney’s classic tome Visionary Film, now in its third edition, addresses pranksters George and Mike Kuchar in a single sentence, which strikes me as damning evidence for the prosecution.>> - Michael Sicinski...
- 9/22/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Why don’t we take humor seriously? There have been exceptions to the pattern. Bruce Conner’s films were funny, but he “made up” for it by having an instantly recognizable style. The avant-garde comic whose work has probably been afforded the most serious attention over the years is Owen Land, but this is owing to the nature of his jokes. They are academic, abstruse and deeply hermetic, lending them an air of the “funny-strange” that offsets any perceived frivolity in his moments of “funny-ha-ha” (jokes about salted plums, giant pandas or outright parodies of Hollis Frampton). As I often point out, P. Adams Sitney’s classic tome Visionary Film, now in its third edition, addresses pranksters George and Mike Kuchar in a single sentence, which strikes me as damning evidence for the prosecution.>> - Michael Sicinski...
- 9/22/2014
- Keyframe
The 21st annual Chicago Underground Film Festival, which will run April 2-6 at the Logan Theater, will be extra special this year. Why? Because Mike Everleth, the Executive Editor of the Underground Film Journal, is sitting on this year’s festival jury! And looking over the fest lineup below, he is incredibly excited to witness this visual extravaganza of revolutionary cinematic madness. (Other jurors are Brian Chankin, Therese Grisham and Alison Cuddy.)
Opening Night Film: What I Love About Concrete is the debut feature by the directing team of Katherine Dohan and Alanna Stewart and is a surreal suburban tale about a teenage girl who believes she is transforming into a swan.
Closing Night Film: Usama Alshaibi will be making his triumphant return to Chicago with his latest documentary, American Arab, a personal and sociological examination of what it means to be an Arab in a post-9/11 United States. This...
Opening Night Film: What I Love About Concrete is the debut feature by the directing team of Katherine Dohan and Alanna Stewart and is a surreal suburban tale about a teenage girl who believes she is transforming into a swan.
Closing Night Film: Usama Alshaibi will be making his triumphant return to Chicago with his latest documentary, American Arab, a personal and sociological examination of what it means to be an Arab in a post-9/11 United States. This...
- 3/28/2014
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Sept. 2, 15 & 25
7:30 p.m. & 10:00 p.m.
Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd Street
Brooklyn, New York 11211
Hosted by: Matthew Bonner
Curated by Matthew Bonner, Brooklyn’s Spectacle Theater will be screening movies by twin underground filmmaking legends, George and Mike Kuchar. The program will screen on three different nights in September with one program each devoted to each brother. (Full screening schedule is below.)
What makes this particular program stand-out from other Kuchar screenings is that Bonner — a former film student of George’s — has selected rarely screened, relatively modern work by the sibling enfant terribles. After becoming giants in the underground film world of the early 1960s, the Kuchars were the rare filmmakers who gleefully embraced using video to make their “pictures” later in their careers.
Although they began making films together as teenagers, as the brothers got older they went in separate directions and their creative tastes veered off in wildly different directions.
7:30 p.m. & 10:00 p.m.
Spectacle Theater
124 South 3rd Street
Brooklyn, New York 11211
Hosted by: Matthew Bonner
Curated by Matthew Bonner, Brooklyn’s Spectacle Theater will be screening movies by twin underground filmmaking legends, George and Mike Kuchar. The program will screen on three different nights in September with one program each devoted to each brother. (Full screening schedule is below.)
What makes this particular program stand-out from other Kuchar screenings is that Bonner — a former film student of George’s — has selected rarely screened, relatively modern work by the sibling enfant terribles. After becoming giants in the underground film world of the early 1960s, the Kuchars were the rare filmmakers who gleefully embraced using video to make their “pictures” later in their careers.
Although they began making films together as teenagers, as the brothers got older they went in separate directions and their creative tastes veered off in wildly different directions.
- 8/31/2012
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
First things first. There's an announcement from last week to catch up with: "Aldo Tambellini's Black Films and pioneering experimental works by four other filmmakers — Ian Hugo, the international banker-turned-artist who worked with Anaïs Nin; Mike Kuchar; Gregory Markopoulos; and Jud Yalkut — will soon be saved through the 2012 Avant-Garde Masters Grants from the National Film Preservation Foundation and The Film Foundation." Martin Scorsese, who began the initiative in 2003 through seed money from The Film Foundation: "There's no other program of its kind. I'm thrilled that the work of such artists as George Kuchar, Shirley Clark, and Kenneth Anger has been preserved and — equally important — made available so audiences can actually see these extraordinary films."
On a somewhat related note, Marilyn Ferdinand has put out a call regarding For the Love of Film: The Film Preservation Blogathon, taking place in just a couple of weeks now: "Bloggers, we need to...
On a somewhat related note, Marilyn Ferdinand has put out a call regarding For the Love of Film: The Film Preservation Blogathon, taking place in just a couple of weeks now: "Bloggers, we need to...
- 4/23/2012
- MUBI
The National Film Preservation Foundation and The Film Foundation have awarded their annual Avant-Garde Masters Grants for 2012. The overall grant award, which equals $50,000, will help restore and preserve an impressive selection of classic experimental and avant-garde films from the 1950s and ’60s by five legendary underground filmmakers: Mike Kuchar, Gregory Markopoulos, Ian Hugo, Aldo Tambellini and Jud Yalkut.
This year’s grant award will be split among five different archivist organizations, each one working on a different filmmaker’s work.
Three filmmakers will have one film each preserved: The Temenos will be preserving Cycle VII of Gregory J. Markopoulos’ epic 22-cycle film Eniaios; Anthology Film Archives will be preserving one of Mike Kuchar‘s more obscure works, Green Desire (1965); and the Trisha Brown Dance Company will be preserving Jud Yalkut’s Planes (1968), which features choreography by Trisha Brown.
Meanwhile, the Library of Congress has been awarded the opportunity to preserve...
This year’s grant award will be split among five different archivist organizations, each one working on a different filmmaker’s work.
Three filmmakers will have one film each preserved: The Temenos will be preserving Cycle VII of Gregory J. Markopoulos’ epic 22-cycle film Eniaios; Anthology Film Archives will be preserving one of Mike Kuchar‘s more obscure works, Green Desire (1965); and the Trisha Brown Dance Company will be preserving Jud Yalkut’s Planes (1968), which features choreography by Trisha Brown.
Meanwhile, the Library of Congress has been awarded the opportunity to preserve...
- 4/18/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This week’s Must Read: Michael Varrati excellent profile of filmmaker, actor and all-around B-movie icon Paul Bartel. Not only is the article a terrific overview of Bartel’s amazing career, but the personal angle Varrati uncharacteristically tosses in is very moving.What do Abel Ferrara and John Carpenter have in common? Um, well, the Phantom of Pulp has some not nice words for them, of which he’s completely correct. Plus, a rave review of the little seen film Boy Wonder.I already urged people to do this on Facebook, but now I’m urging you all over again: Please encourage Mark Toscano to write more about the projects he’s preserving at the motion picture academy. These are articles we need to read!I have never heard of the horror movie Burning Moon (1997) and no matter how much Rick Trembles claims its awful in his latest Snubdom, he...
- 3/25/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Underground film-maker with a bent for the tawdry and camp
If ever there were an exemplar of Susan Sontag's definitions of camp, it would be the work of the underground film-maker George Kuchar, who has died of prostate cancer aged 69. Although Kuchar was unknown to Sontag at the time she wrote Notes on Camp (1964), she could have been referring to his no-budget pictures with her general description of camp as being "serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious. The essence of camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration. Camp sees everything in quotation marks. The ultimate camp statement is it's good because it's awful."
Around the time of Sontag's seminal essay, there emerged a series of influential "outrageous" camp films such as Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures (1963), which depicted a transvestite orgy, Andy Warhol's Blow Job (1963) and Kenneth Anger's gay biker movie...
If ever there were an exemplar of Susan Sontag's definitions of camp, it would be the work of the underground film-maker George Kuchar, who has died of prostate cancer aged 69. Although Kuchar was unknown to Sontag at the time she wrote Notes on Camp (1964), she could have been referring to his no-budget pictures with her general description of camp as being "serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious. The essence of camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration. Camp sees everything in quotation marks. The ultimate camp statement is it's good because it's awful."
Around the time of Sontag's seminal essay, there emerged a series of influential "outrageous" camp films such as Jack Smith's Flaming Creatures (1963), which depicted a transvestite orgy, Andy Warhol's Blow Job (1963) and Kenneth Anger's gay biker movie...
- 10/19/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
The name George Kuchar (right, with Marion Eaton in Thundercrack!) will probably not ring a bell to the vast majority of moviegoers anywhere in the world. Yet, Kuchar, who died of cancer last night, September 6, directed more than 200 movies — mostly shorts and video productions — from the mid-1950s to the late 2000s. The New York-born (Aug. 31, 1942) Kuchar brothers' penchant for experimental, micro-budget underground films with bizarre plots and characters would inspire the likes of John Waters in the '70s. “The Kuchar brothers,” Waters wrote in the introduction to the Kuchars' memoirs Reflections in a Cinematic Cesspool, “gave me the self confidence to believe in my own tawdry vision.” Of course, whether or not that's a good thing depends on whether or not you appreciate Waters' "tawdriness." As for George Kuchar, among his efforts, solo or with his twin brother Mike Kuchar, are A Bathtub Named Desire (1956), The Naked and...
- 9/7/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
If you've never seen a movie by the Kuchar Brothers, you really should. When George and Mike Kuchar were in their heyday, their work was the epitome of 1960s underground cinema: 8mm, no budget, wild ideas, wilder content. Unless you went to film school or lived near a cool theater or museum? They were almost impossible to see. Now? They're a click away on YouTube. Which is the perfect forum for the Kuchars' work: it's short, low-fi, and bursting with energy and ideas. In a way, the Kuchars were YouTube before YouTube. They didn't go to film school. They got a camera as a gift when they were 12 and just started shooting.
Sadly, David Hudson over at The Daily reports that George Kuchar passed away last night at the age of 69. Kuchar made his first movies with his brother in the 1950s and basically never stopped. His Wikipedia page says he directed over 200 films,...
Sadly, David Hudson over at The Daily reports that George Kuchar passed away last night at the age of 69. Kuchar made his first movies with his brother in the 1950s and basically never stopped. His Wikipedia page says he directed over 200 films,...
- 9/7/2011
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
Word is spreading across Facebook and Twitter that George Kuchar passed away last night. Just last week, on August 31, he turned 69.
"In the history of experimental film, George and Mike Kuchar stand out like a luridly lit, throbbing purple thumb," wrote Steve Lafreniere, introducing interviews with each of the brothers for Vice some time back. "Along with Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, Ken Jacobs, et al., the twin Kuchars are among the most emblematic avant-garde filmmakers of their generation. Unlike some of their more educated fellows, their careers began in 1954 when they tore the wrapping paper off an 8-mm camera on their 12th birthday. They quickly taught themselves to use it and set about shooting brilliant, exotic, absurd features starring their friends, inspired by the Hollywood blockbusters and B movies they obsessed over at their local theaters in the Bronx. George and Mike were still in their teens when, years later,...
"In the history of experimental film, George and Mike Kuchar stand out like a luridly lit, throbbing purple thumb," wrote Steve Lafreniere, introducing interviews with each of the brothers for Vice some time back. "Along with Jack Smith, Andy Warhol, Ken Jacobs, et al., the twin Kuchars are among the most emblematic avant-garde filmmakers of their generation. Unlike some of their more educated fellows, their careers began in 1954 when they tore the wrapping paper off an 8-mm camera on their 12th birthday. They quickly taught themselves to use it and set about shooting brilliant, exotic, absurd features starring their friends, inspired by the Hollywood blockbusters and B movies they obsessed over at their local theaters in the Bronx. George and Mike were still in their teens when, years later,...
- 9/7/2011
- MUBI
Above is a video intro George Kuchar made for a retrospective of his films in Los Angeles in 2008. The video does show off George’s offbeat humor, calling the piece “The Man Behind the Film” and then hiding his face behind the image of a filmstrip.
George Kuchar has, of course, been making underground films since the early 1950s. He began his career working with his twin brother Mike, making campy, but loving, spoofs of Hollywood melodramas when the two were teenagers growing up in NYC.
Eventually, the brothers went in their own directions and George moved to the West Coast to become a film professor at the San Francisco Art Institute. At the school, George began collaborating with his students to direct no-budget, largely improvised films. Outside the classroom, he would obsessively videotape events in his life, including the trips he would take regularly to the midwest to witness tornadoes and other weather phenomenon.
George Kuchar has, of course, been making underground films since the early 1950s. He began his career working with his twin brother Mike, making campy, but loving, spoofs of Hollywood melodramas when the two were teenagers growing up in NYC.
Eventually, the brothers went in their own directions and George moved to the West Coast to become a film professor at the San Francisco Art Institute. At the school, George began collaborating with his students to direct no-budget, largely improvised films. Outside the classroom, he would obsessively videotape events in his life, including the trips he would take regularly to the midwest to witness tornadoes and other weather phenomenon.
- 8/5/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Senses of Cinema editor Rolando Caputo introduces the new issue: "For some time now, Senses has wanted to publish an English language translation of Jean-Baptiste Thoret's seminal article, 'The Seventies Reloaded: (What does the cinema think about when it dreams of Baudrillard?),' first published in French in 2005. So, it has been some wait, but finally we've got our wish thanks to a translation by Daniel Fairfax that does full justice to the original. Thoret is both one of the most esteemed scholars on Baudrillard's writings (a long-term Editor-in-Chief of Panic, a French journal closely associated with Baudrillardian thought), and a specialist of the American cinema of the post-classical Hollywood period (author of Le Cinéma américain des années 70, 2006). Both strands come together in sticking fashion in 'The Seventies Reloaded.'"
Among the other highlights of Issue 59: Jiwei Xiao on Jia Zhangke, Peter Tonguette on King Vidor, Graham Daseler on...
Among the other highlights of Issue 59: Jiwei Xiao on Jia Zhangke, Peter Tonguette on King Vidor, Graham Daseler on...
- 6/28/2011
- MUBI
Filmmaker Bob Moricz has reported that legendary underground film actor Bob Cowan has passed away. While Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film hasn’t completely confirmed the report, it appears that Cowan died on Tuesday, June 23, in his home in Toronto, Canada. He is survived by his wife Jane.
Cowan was a regular performer and collaborator with the filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar, and is most well-known as starring as the robot Xar in the classic film Sins of the Fleshapoids. (Pictured) But, more than just acting in the movie, Cowan also served as the film’s narrator and assembled its memorable music score.
In the ’60s and ’70s, Cowan was one of a few underground film acting “superstars,” along with performers such as Taylor Mead, Jack Smith, Gerard Malanga, Mario Montez and Donna Kerness.
Other Kuchar films Cowan appeared in were George’s Lust for Ecstasy and The...
Cowan was a regular performer and collaborator with the filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar, and is most well-known as starring as the robot Xar in the classic film Sins of the Fleshapoids. (Pictured) But, more than just acting in the movie, Cowan also served as the film’s narrator and assembled its memorable music score.
In the ’60s and ’70s, Cowan was one of a few underground film acting “superstars,” along with performers such as Taylor Mead, Jack Smith, Gerard Malanga, Mario Montez and Donna Kerness.
Other Kuchar films Cowan appeared in were George’s Lust for Ecstasy and The...
- 6/23/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
While no real trailer for Mike Kuchar‘s classic ’60s underground film Sins of the Fleshapoids actually exists, embedded above is the trailer Other Cinema cut together for their DVD release of the film a few years back.
Included in the trailer is a couple title cards from the opening title sequence, male stars George Kuchar and Bob Cowan camping it up, Donna Kerness’ memorable flower barely-there outfit, all wrapped around a couple choice pieces from the overly dramatic music soundtrack. For a trailer, it sells the movie extremely well.
Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film reviewed the DVD release over three years ago, praising the quality film transfer and the inclusion of two other great Mike Kuchar films, The Secret of Wendell Samson and The Craven Sluck. Plus, there’s a fantastic modern-day director’s commentary.
This is a film you either already know and love or need to see immediately.
Included in the trailer is a couple title cards from the opening title sequence, male stars George Kuchar and Bob Cowan camping it up, Donna Kerness’ memorable flower barely-there outfit, all wrapped around a couple choice pieces from the overly dramatic music soundtrack. For a trailer, it sells the movie extremely well.
Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film reviewed the DVD release over three years ago, praising the quality film transfer and the inclusion of two other great Mike Kuchar films, The Secret of Wendell Samson and The Craven Sluck. Plus, there’s a fantastic modern-day director’s commentary.
This is a film you either already know and love or need to see immediately.
- 6/20/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The 2011 SXSW Film Festival will feature the North American premiere of Marie Losier‘s The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, a much-anticipated documentary that chronicles the love story of industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge and his late wife Lady Jaye. Screening times have not been released yet, but the festival runs this year on March 11-19 at its regular home of Austin, Texas.
Genesis and Lady Jaye had a unique relationship in which, in addition to getting married, they attempted to meld together as a single pandrogynous entity known as Breyer P-Orridge. (The “Breyer” portion of the name coming from Jaye’s maiden name.) The couple both underwent plastic surgery and hormone therapy together, as well as starting to cross-dress and adopt perfectly identical mannerisms and behaviors.
Unfortunately, Jaye passed away in 2007, although Genesis continues to live his life as Breyer P-Orridge.
Production on the film began a few...
Genesis and Lady Jaye had a unique relationship in which, in addition to getting married, they attempted to meld together as a single pandrogynous entity known as Breyer P-Orridge. (The “Breyer” portion of the name coming from Jaye’s maiden name.) The couple both underwent plastic surgery and hormone therapy together, as well as starting to cross-dress and adopt perfectly identical mannerisms and behaviors.
Unfortunately, Jaye passed away in 2007, although Genesis continues to live his life as Breyer P-Orridge.
Production on the film began a few...
- 2/14/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Feb. 5
8:00 p.m.
Millennium Film Workshop
66 East 4th St.
New York, New York 10003
Hosted by: Millennium Film Workshop
The twin titans of underground filmmaking, George and Mike Kuchar, are still cranking out their wildly inventive and insane mini-epics. This screening will feature two new films by George and a whopping six by Mike. (Note: The brothers will not be in attendance for this screening)
Although the two began their movie making careers working together, their individual styles have evolved in wildly different directions since going their separate ways in the early ’60s.
George Kuchar generally sticks with two styles of film. First are his el cheapo sci-fi and horror spoofs he produces with students at the San Francisco Art Institute. The other are his obsessive videotapings of his personal life. While there isn’t too much info on his two films screening at this event, Lingo of the Lost...
8:00 p.m.
Millennium Film Workshop
66 East 4th St.
New York, New York 10003
Hosted by: Millennium Film Workshop
The twin titans of underground filmmaking, George and Mike Kuchar, are still cranking out their wildly inventive and insane mini-epics. This screening will feature two new films by George and a whopping six by Mike. (Note: The brothers will not be in attendance for this screening)
Although the two began their movie making careers working together, their individual styles have evolved in wildly different directions since going their separate ways in the early ’60s.
George Kuchar generally sticks with two styles of film. First are his el cheapo sci-fi and horror spoofs he produces with students at the San Francisco Art Institute. The other are his obsessive videotapings of his personal life. While there isn’t too much info on his two films screening at this event, Lingo of the Lost...
- 2/2/2011
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
Dec. 7 & 8
7:30 p.m.
Clinton Street Theater
2522 Southeast Clinton Street
Portland, Or 97202
Hosted by: Cinema Project
For their last screening for 2010, Portland’s Cinema Project celebrates the art of melodrama with a selection of both new and classic underground films and videos curated by Cinema Project‘s co-founder Pablo De Ocampo.
Each of the five short films selected all “pursue the melodramatic and use it as the basis for exploring cinematic narrative,” according to De Ocampo. However, stylistically, the films couldn’t be more different.
The films range from Bruce Baillie‘s actor-less, single-take left-ward pan All My Life (1966) to the disconnected couple in Keren Cytter’s Four Seasons (2009) to Ming Wong’s Angst Essen / Eat Fear (2008), a recasting of Fassbinder’s Ali, Fear Eats the Soul; to Laida Lertxundi‘s desert-set Footnotes to a House of Love (2007) to George Kuchar‘s short musical Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof...
7:30 p.m.
Clinton Street Theater
2522 Southeast Clinton Street
Portland, Or 97202
Hosted by: Cinema Project
For their last screening for 2010, Portland’s Cinema Project celebrates the art of melodrama with a selection of both new and classic underground films and videos curated by Cinema Project‘s co-founder Pablo De Ocampo.
Each of the five short films selected all “pursue the melodramatic and use it as the basis for exploring cinematic narrative,” according to De Ocampo. However, stylistically, the films couldn’t be more different.
The films range from Bruce Baillie‘s actor-less, single-take left-ward pan All My Life (1966) to the disconnected couple in Keren Cytter’s Four Seasons (2009) to Ming Wong’s Angst Essen / Eat Fear (2008), a recasting of Fassbinder’s Ali, Fear Eats the Soul; to Laida Lertxundi‘s desert-set Footnotes to a House of Love (2007) to George Kuchar‘s short musical Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof...
- 12/7/2010
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
Dec. 4
8:00 p.m.
Millennium Film Workshop
66 East 4th St.
New York, New York 10003
Hosted by: Film-Makers’ Cooperative
Once again, the Millennium Film Workshop is hosting its annual December benefit screening and party to help benefit its fellow cinema institution, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative.
The Coop had a rough 2009 after being kicked out of its longtime home at the Clocktower Gallery, but soon settled nicely into its new location at 475 Park Ave. thanks solely to the generosity of real estate maven Charles S. Cohen.
While hopefully serious disastrous situations like that aren’t regular occurances, small cultural organizations these days need as much help as they can get, so if you’re in NYC think about going to support this phenomenal, scrappy and important institution.
I don’t have specific titles of films that will be screening at this event, there will be a program of recent films and videos deposited...
8:00 p.m.
Millennium Film Workshop
66 East 4th St.
New York, New York 10003
Hosted by: Film-Makers’ Cooperative
Once again, the Millennium Film Workshop is hosting its annual December benefit screening and party to help benefit its fellow cinema institution, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative.
The Coop had a rough 2009 after being kicked out of its longtime home at the Clocktower Gallery, but soon settled nicely into its new location at 475 Park Ave. thanks solely to the generosity of real estate maven Charles S. Cohen.
While hopefully serious disastrous situations like that aren’t regular occurances, small cultural organizations these days need as much help as they can get, so if you’re in NYC think about going to support this phenomenal, scrappy and important institution.
I don’t have specific titles of films that will be screening at this event, there will be a program of recent films and videos deposited...
- 12/3/2010
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
The Filmmaker’s Cooperative is having a benefit screening tonight at the Millennium Film Workshop. As the accompanying graphic states, there are films by Jonas Mekas, Jackie Raynal, Mike Kuchar, Jennifer Reeves and more. Tickets are only $10 and include free pizza and wine courtesy of Two Boots. The event starts at 8:00Pm, so come out for good films and a good cause.
- 11/27/2010
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Flaming Creatures midnight screening
Jonas Mekas’ Movie Journal: The Rise Of The New American Cinema 1959-1971 is essential reading for anybody interested in underground film. The book contains excerpts from the “Movie Journal” column Mekas wrote for the Village Voice alternative weekly newspaper for a dozen years. Also included in the book are a couple of movie posters and newspaper ads from that era, which I’ve scanned and uploaded to a photo gallery. If you click on each image in this post, it will take you to an embiggened version of it so you can look at them in better detail.
It’s tough for me to pick an absolute favorite poster out of the bunch, but I inserted the most striking above. It’s for a special midnight screening of Jack Smith’s classic Flaming Creatures. I’m guessing from the date on the poster and the year the film was completed,...
Jonas Mekas’ Movie Journal: The Rise Of The New American Cinema 1959-1971 is essential reading for anybody interested in underground film. The book contains excerpts from the “Movie Journal” column Mekas wrote for the Village Voice alternative weekly newspaper for a dozen years. Also included in the book are a couple of movie posters and newspaper ads from that era, which I’ve scanned and uploaded to a photo gallery. If you click on each image in this post, it will take you to an embiggened version of it so you can look at them in better detail.
It’s tough for me to pick an absolute favorite poster out of the bunch, but I inserted the most striking above. It’s for a special midnight screening of Jack Smith’s classic Flaming Creatures. I’m guessing from the date on the poster and the year the film was completed,...
- 11/23/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The autobiographical documentary The Marina Experiment by Marina Lutz, which is embedded in full above, is extremely Nsfw and distills down into 17 minutes a lifetime of child abuse. This is a difficult, painful film to watch, but not in ways that are entirely obvious. When one thinks of abuse, two forms immediately come to mind: Physical and verbal. But, Lutz’s abuse by her father was entirely photographic.
The film opens with modern-day shots of the obsessive amount of photographs, audio recordings and home movies that professional photographer Abbot Lutz took of his daughter, Marina. The stacks of bins filled with this documentary evidence is astounding. Then, when the film begins to show exactly what that evidence is of, it becomes sickening.
While there are some standard holiday and vacation photographs that any father may take of his daughter, many others are wholly inappropriate, especially those of a young teenage...
The film opens with modern-day shots of the obsessive amount of photographs, audio recordings and home movies that professional photographer Abbot Lutz took of his daughter, Marina. The stacks of bins filled with this documentary evidence is astounding. Then, when the film begins to show exactly what that evidence is of, it becomes sickening.
While there are some standard holiday and vacation photographs that any father may take of his daughter, many others are wholly inappropriate, especially those of a young teenage...
- 11/22/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Over the last five years, it’s nice to have watched the Wndx Festival of Film and Video Art in Winnipeg grow into such a terrific powerhouse of showcasing the best Canadian avant-garde and experimental media. It’s fifth killer edition will run on Sept. 30 — Oct. 3.
There’s one great non-Canadian exception this year, though. Wndx honors the life and work of the legendary Brooklyn-bred underground filmmaker George Kuchar. There will be three retrospectives of his films, chronicling his career from his early ’60s Hollywood-inspired pastiches to his more recent autobiographical videos.
Also screening as part of the Kuchar celebration will be Jennifer M. Kroot’s hit documentary It Came From Kuchar about George and his twin filmmaking brother Mike. Of course, George will be there in person attending the festival and on Sunday, Oct. 3, he will join Winnipeg filmmaker Guy Maddin for a panel discussion that’s not to be missed.
There’s one great non-Canadian exception this year, though. Wndx honors the life and work of the legendary Brooklyn-bred underground filmmaker George Kuchar. There will be three retrospectives of his films, chronicling his career from his early ’60s Hollywood-inspired pastiches to his more recent autobiographical videos.
Also screening as part of the Kuchar celebration will be Jennifer M. Kroot’s hit documentary It Came From Kuchar about George and his twin filmmaking brother Mike. Of course, George will be there in person attending the festival and on Sunday, Oct. 3, he will join Winnipeg filmmaker Guy Maddin for a panel discussion that’s not to be missed.
- 9/23/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
I ran across two links the other day that really reminded me of why I feel that writing about and sharing underground film on the Internet is absolutely essential — both within the confines of the limited film blogosphere and outside with real world consequences.
The first link was for a review of Jennifer M. Kroot’s It Came From Kuchar on the mainstream movie review website Bob and Jason. The documentary about underground filmmaking twin brothers George and Mike Kuchar has been reviewed on numerous film websites the past couple months since it’s small theatrical run and current availability on DVD.
Most of those sites are about independent film and are at least underground film friendly, but it’s really insightful to read the reviews on the non-underground-familiar sites. Some of them have been quite hostile, not to the documentary itself — most reviewers seem to dig it — but to...
The first link was for a review of Jennifer M. Kroot’s It Came From Kuchar on the mainstream movie review website Bob and Jason. The documentary about underground filmmaking twin brothers George and Mike Kuchar has been reviewed on numerous film websites the past couple months since it’s small theatrical run and current availability on DVD.
Most of those sites are about independent film and are at least underground film friendly, but it’s really insightful to read the reviews on the non-underground-familiar sites. Some of them have been quite hostile, not to the documentary itself — most reviewers seem to dig it — but to...
- 7/23/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Though the larger social purpose of a counterculture is still a little bit fuzzy (largely, it seems to exist to be plundered by more mainstream media when the larger audience is ready to accept), the more immediate need of providing an environment where people like George and Michael Kuchar have a forum to be heard is very clear. While Stan Brakhage was experimenting with form and light in highly experimental short films, the brothers Kuchar were producing films that seemed to absorb the iconography of the day and regurgitate it back out in a form halfway between parody and melodrama. Their progression from obscurity to underground fame, as well as their extracurricular activities and production methods, are chronicled in the documentary It Came From Kuchar, a film that is always interesting and amusing without being especially penetrating. But then again, that is probably reflective of the Kuchars themselves: their appeal...
- 7/13/2010
- by Anders Nelson
- JustPressPlay.net
As illustrated in Jennifer Kroot’s affectionate documentary It Came From Kuchar, brothers George and Mike Kuchar seem driven by an almost pathological need to create. Today, anyone with a cheap digital-video camera can claim to be a director, but when the twin brothers began making homemade mini-epics in the mid-’50s, the cost of entry for filmmaking was prohibitively high for all but the very wealthy. Yet the brothers soldiered on regardless, making bizarrely personal films across a variety of genres with minimal financial resources, production values, trained actors, or even the faintest semblance of professionalism. It Came From ...
- 7/7/2010
- avclub.com
Rating: 4/5
Director: Jennifer M. Kroot
Featuring: George Kuchar, Mike Kuchar, John Waters
As much as I am a fan and lover of the art form and medium that we call film, I’m (and I am sure all of you are) also a student of it; never quite getting enough of these pieces of art that are put to celluloid. That is why when a film like It Came From Kutchar falls into my lap (or lands in my mailbox to be exact), I have to close my laptop, set what I was doing on the backburner, and get lost in a world that frankly, I’m not at all familiar with.
Read more on DVD Review: It Came From Kuchar…...
Director: Jennifer M. Kroot
Featuring: George Kuchar, Mike Kuchar, John Waters
As much as I am a fan and lover of the art form and medium that we call film, I’m (and I am sure all of you are) also a student of it; never quite getting enough of these pieces of art that are put to celluloid. That is why when a film like It Came From Kutchar falls into my lap (or lands in my mailbox to be exact), I have to close my laptop, set what I was doing on the backburner, and get lost in a world that frankly, I’m not at all familiar with.
Read more on DVD Review: It Came From Kuchar…...
- 7/4/2010
- by Joshua Brunsting
- GordonandtheWhale
Is it a revelation or a revolution? It’s both! The Revelation Perth International Film Festival is tackling the theme of “Revolution” when its 13th annual edition begins violating Australia on July 8-18. Get set for 11 days filled French zombies, Belgian cowboys, outer space outlaws, Beat poets, cat ladies, gospel musicians and other revolutionaries.
Actually, one of the main features of the festival this year is a slew of music documentaries, mostly spotlighting both American and Australian music. On the U.S. side of things there’s Wheedle’s Groove, a look at the history of Seattle funk; Rejoice and Shout, which examines gospel music’s impact on African-American culture — and vice versa; Tom Dicillo’s Doors documentary When You’re Strange; plus The Family Jams and 72 Musicians. And, from Australia, there’s Megan Simpson-Hubberman’s classic concert film The Night of the Triffids.
There’s lots more than music docs,...
Actually, one of the main features of the festival this year is a slew of music documentaries, mostly spotlighting both American and Australian music. On the U.S. side of things there’s Wheedle’s Groove, a look at the history of Seattle funk; Rejoice and Shout, which examines gospel music’s impact on African-American culture — and vice versa; Tom Dicillo’s Doors documentary When You’re Strange; plus The Family Jams and 72 Musicians. And, from Australia, there’s Megan Simpson-Hubberman’s classic concert film The Night of the Triffids.
There’s lots more than music docs,...
- 7/2/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
By Christopher Stipp
The Archives, Right Here
Check out my other column, This Week In Trailers, at SlashFilm.com and follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp
Ice Road Truckers - DVD Review
I once had a job where it was my job to obtain truck freight.
As I made my way all across the Us I realized that everything that we get in this country is obtained by the trucking industry. Bottom line. From the keyboards that you and I write on, the chairs we sit in, the produce and food we eat, the clothes we wear, everything gets here by truck.
That’s why knowing this information makes for a good primer in understanding why Season Three of Ice Road Truckers is such a thrill to watch. While not necessarily family entertainment, some of these road dogs are a bit salty, the program continues to feed my...
The Archives, Right Here
Check out my other column, This Week In Trailers, at SlashFilm.com and follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp
Ice Road Truckers - DVD Review
I once had a job where it was my job to obtain truck freight.
As I made my way all across the Us I realized that everything that we get in this country is obtained by the trucking industry. Bottom line. From the keyboards that you and I write on, the chairs we sit in, the produce and food we eat, the clothes we wear, everything gets here by truck.
That’s why knowing this information makes for a good primer in understanding why Season Three of Ice Road Truckers is such a thrill to watch. While not necessarily family entertainment, some of these road dogs are a bit salty, the program continues to feed my...
- 7/2/2010
- by Christopher Stipp
DVD Playhouse—June 2010
By
Allen Gardner
The White Ribbon (Sony) On the eve of Ww I, a small village in Germany is struck by a series of tragic, seemingly unconnected events until the townspeople, and the audience, start to connect the dots. Shot in stark, beautiful black & white, director Michael Haneke has fashioned a haunting metaphorical drama that is as coldly chilling as anything made by Ingmar Bergman, and darkly unsettling as anything from the canon of David Lynch. A rich, tough, brilliant cinematic experience you’re not likely to forget. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bd bonuses: Interviews with cast and crew; featurettes. Widescreen Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround.
Alice In Wonderland (Disney) Tim Burton’s take on the Lewis Carroll classic finds young Alice (Mia Wasikowska), a 19th century girl who finds herself in an unhappy engagement to a boorish suitor, tumbling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, where she encounters magical cakes,...
By
Allen Gardner
The White Ribbon (Sony) On the eve of Ww I, a small village in Germany is struck by a series of tragic, seemingly unconnected events until the townspeople, and the audience, start to connect the dots. Shot in stark, beautiful black & white, director Michael Haneke has fashioned a haunting metaphorical drama that is as coldly chilling as anything made by Ingmar Bergman, and darkly unsettling as anything from the canon of David Lynch. A rich, tough, brilliant cinematic experience you’re not likely to forget. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bd bonuses: Interviews with cast and crew; featurettes. Widescreen Dolby and DTS 5.1 surround.
Alice In Wonderland (Disney) Tim Burton’s take on the Lewis Carroll classic finds young Alice (Mia Wasikowska), a 19th century girl who finds herself in an unhappy engagement to a boorish suitor, tumbling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, where she encounters magical cakes,...
- 6/23/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
It Came From Kuchar
Directed by Jennifer M. Kroot
Not Rated
The work of twin filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar has never won an Oscar or been a must-see movie on opening weekend. For 50 years, the Kuchars have made underground short films; George, the more prolific of the two, has directed over 200 shorts with titles like Baldies of Burgermeister Bungalow and Passage to Wetness.
Through their strange, unfiltered productions, the brothers have influenced John Waters, which ought to already be obvious, and even Atom Egoyan, who actually has been nominated for a couple Academy Awards.
It Came from Kuchar retraces the brothers' steps from their youth in New York, through the period where they were actually studied and revered by the avant garde film community, and up to the present day, in which George and Mike no longer work together but still seem hopelessly hooked to the same apparatus, even for twins.
Directed by Jennifer M. Kroot
Not Rated
The work of twin filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar has never won an Oscar or been a must-see movie on opening weekend. For 50 years, the Kuchars have made underground short films; George, the more prolific of the two, has directed over 200 shorts with titles like Baldies of Burgermeister Bungalow and Passage to Wetness.
Through their strange, unfiltered productions, the brothers have influenced John Waters, which ought to already be obvious, and even Atom Egoyan, who actually has been nominated for a couple Academy Awards.
It Came from Kuchar retraces the brothers' steps from their youth in New York, through the period where they were actually studied and revered by the avant garde film community, and up to the present day, in which George and Mike no longer work together but still seem hopelessly hooked to the same apparatus, even for twins.
- 6/4/2010
- by Colin Boyd
- GetTheBigPicture.net
It Came From Kuchar
Directed by: Jennifer M. Kroot
Cast: George Kuchar, Mike Kuchar, John Waters
Running Time: 1 hr 25 mins
Rating: Unrated
Release Date: May 21, 2010 (limited)
Plot: The life and work of prolific underground filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar is explored with interviews from the filmmakers as well as the people they influenced.
Who’S It For? Definitely people who love film, but also anyone who likes really quirky docs like Crumb or American Movie.
Expectations: I’d never heard of the Kuchar Brothers, so I didn’t know what to expect.
Scorecard (0-10)
Actors:
George Kuchar as himself: The brother who makes the biggest impression, possibly because he’s the first brother we meet. He teaches at The San Francisco Art Institute where he continues to make the bizarre films he’s known for. Though the film makes the case that he was an experimental filmmaker along the lines of Warhol and Kenneth Anger,...
Directed by: Jennifer M. Kroot
Cast: George Kuchar, Mike Kuchar, John Waters
Running Time: 1 hr 25 mins
Rating: Unrated
Release Date: May 21, 2010 (limited)
Plot: The life and work of prolific underground filmmakers George and Mike Kuchar is explored with interviews from the filmmakers as well as the people they influenced.
Who’S It For? Definitely people who love film, but also anyone who likes really quirky docs like Crumb or American Movie.
Expectations: I’d never heard of the Kuchar Brothers, so I didn’t know what to expect.
Scorecard (0-10)
Actors:
George Kuchar as himself: The brother who makes the biggest impression, possibly because he’s the first brother we meet. He teaches at The San Francisco Art Institute where he continues to make the bizarre films he’s known for. Though the film makes the case that he was an experimental filmmaker along the lines of Warhol and Kenneth Anger,...
- 5/21/2010
- by Megan Lehar
- The Scorecard Review
Movie lovers who are familiar with the ’60s underground film scene are at least aware of and may have seen some work by twin filmmaking brothers George and Mike Kuchar, but general movie audiences are not.
It’s probably a good bet that there are more people who are unfamiliar with the Kuchars than there are people who are committed fans. Happily, Jennifer Kroot’s documentary profile of these unique movie directors, It Came From Kuchar, should appeal to both die-hard and casual fans, as well as to virgin initiates.
Kroot begins with a quick introduction to the ’60s underground film world where the Kuchars occupied a totally unique space. While most other avant-garde and experimental filmmakers were concerned with making art or creating a cinematic revolution, the Kuchars made goofy, impassioned parodies of the Hollywood melodramas that they were obsessed with as kids. However, their attempts at humor were not to ridicule Hollywood conventions,...
It’s probably a good bet that there are more people who are unfamiliar with the Kuchars than there are people who are committed fans. Happily, Jennifer Kroot’s documentary profile of these unique movie directors, It Came From Kuchar, should appeal to both die-hard and casual fans, as well as to virgin initiates.
Kroot begins with a quick introduction to the ’60s underground film world where the Kuchars occupied a totally unique space. While most other avant-garde and experimental filmmakers were concerned with making art or creating a cinematic revolution, the Kuchars made goofy, impassioned parodies of the Hollywood melodramas that they were obsessed with as kids. However, their attempts at humor were not to ridicule Hollywood conventions,...
- 5/21/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Start: 04/16/2010 End: 04/23/2010 Start: 04/16/2010 End: 04/23/2010
Jennifer Kroot's documentary about horror filmmakers The Kuchar Brothers, It Came From Kuchar, is opening for a week in San Francisco and Berkeley starting Friday April 16th, 2010! Director Jennifer Kroot and subject Mike Kuchar will be in attendence at several screenings.
Long before YouTube, there were the brilliantly insane, no-budget movies of underground, filmmaking twins George and Mike Kuchar. It Came From Kuchar is a character driven documentary about the legendary, underground filmmaking twins, the Kuchar brothers. As kids in the 1950s, George and Mike Kuchar borrowed their aunt’s 8mm home movie camera and began making no-budget epics in their Bronx neighborhood starring friends and family. They innocently parodied the popular Hollywood melodramas they saw in the theatres....
In the 1960s the Kuchars became part of Warhol’s New York, underground film scene. Their most popular titles were “Hold Me While I’m Naked...
Jennifer Kroot's documentary about horror filmmakers The Kuchar Brothers, It Came From Kuchar, is opening for a week in San Francisco and Berkeley starting Friday April 16th, 2010! Director Jennifer Kroot and subject Mike Kuchar will be in attendence at several screenings.
Long before YouTube, there were the brilliantly insane, no-budget movies of underground, filmmaking twins George and Mike Kuchar. It Came From Kuchar is a character driven documentary about the legendary, underground filmmaking twins, the Kuchar brothers. As kids in the 1950s, George and Mike Kuchar borrowed their aunt’s 8mm home movie camera and began making no-budget epics in their Bronx neighborhood starring friends and family. They innocently parodied the popular Hollywood melodramas they saw in the theatres....
In the 1960s the Kuchars became part of Warhol’s New York, underground film scene. Their most popular titles were “Hold Me While I’m Naked...
- 4/17/2010
- by Superheidi
- Planet Fury
It’s the new retro-sci-fi hero for the ages: Rocket John! He wears a big, rocket-y lookin’ helmet; straps an actual rocket to his back and rockets — sort of — his way into way crazy adventures. Plus, he has one of the coolest theme songs of all time. This song puts Queen’s Flash Gordon to total, irrevocable shame. Watch Rocket John’s grand adventure embedded above.
There’s much to love about this snappy little film directed by Curtis L. Wiebe, Marlon Wiebe and Rick Unger of Phantom Planet Films. The song is by the Secondhandpants, which I’m pretty sure came first before the film. The first thing I especially love about this film is the balls it takes to put on a weird getup and ride public transportation in the name of art.
Also, whether intentional or not, several parts of this film are reminiscent of some classic underground films.
There’s much to love about this snappy little film directed by Curtis L. Wiebe, Marlon Wiebe and Rick Unger of Phantom Planet Films. The song is by the Secondhandpants, which I’m pretty sure came first before the film. The first thing I especially love about this film is the balls it takes to put on a weird getup and ride public transportation in the name of art.
Also, whether intentional or not, several parts of this film are reminiscent of some classic underground films.
- 4/15/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Bad Lit’s inaugural Underground Film Links post last week proved to be pretty popular, so here’s a second edition with hopes to keep it going:
In case you missed it, Jonas Mekas has a spiffy new website after splitting with the Stedhal Gallery last year. His old website is now completely dead. The new site has an RSS feed and he’s already put up a couple blog posts already with video clips. It’s a really nice site befitting the man and his work. Bookmark or subscribe! Also in case you missed it, I’ve made the Jonas Mekas entry on my own Underground Film Guide much more detailed with tons of links, book and DVD references and a YouTube video player with lots of videos. If I missed something that should be included — and I’m sure I have, feel free to let me know. Not...
In case you missed it, Jonas Mekas has a spiffy new website after splitting with the Stedhal Gallery last year. His old website is now completely dead. The new site has an RSS feed and he’s already put up a couple blog posts already with video clips. It’s a really nice site befitting the man and his work. Bookmark or subscribe! Also in case you missed it, I’ve made the Jonas Mekas entry on my own Underground Film Guide much more detailed with tons of links, book and DVD references and a YouTube video player with lots of videos. If I missed something that should be included — and I’m sure I have, feel free to let me know. Not...
- 4/11/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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