IT Came From Kuchar

Documentary Feature, Special Screenings
D: Jennifer M. Kroot

So you’ve never heard of the (semi)legendary fraternal-twin filmmaking team of George and Mike Kuchar, the visionary duo behind such ultralow-budget, 8mm underground classics as the truly amazing Hold Me While I’m Naked and Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof? Not to worry. This wickedly engrossing documentary details the rise of the Bronx brothers and explains why everyone from Jonas Mekas to John Waters thinks the Kuchars are sui generis when it comes to American underground moviemaking. Rightly famed for their nonstop output (more than 200 films and counting) as much for their films’ gleefully lurid, anything-goes aesthetics, the young Kuchars initially gorged themselves on Douglas Sirk’s candy-colored melodramas and looked as though they stepped full-blown from Diane Arbus’ shutter. Guy Maddin, Atom Egoyan, and other film-world notables weigh in on all things Kuchar, but it’s the mad-genius sibs themselves – now scraggly of hair and borderline toothless – that linger in your mind the most, like some weird and wonderful dream.

Friday, March 20, 11:30am, Austin Convention Center

This article appears in March 20 • 2009.

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