By Adam Brody
Editor

Local director Jennifer M. Kroot delves into the bizarre minds and movies of underground filmmakers (and twin brothers) George and Mike Kuchar, in her new film It Came From Kuchar, which plays at the Red Vic Movie House June 14 and 15.

The Kuchar brothers’ films are wacky and wild, never attempting to be commercially successful, but rather exploring the under side of filmmaking with campy romps starring large-eyebrowed protagonists, lit by rainbow colored lighting.

“It Came From Kuchar is about the legendary underground filmmaking twins, George and Mike Kuchar,” Kroot said during a recent interview at Reverie coffeeshop on Cole Street. “They grew up in the Bronx in the ‘50s, and became obsessed with the 1950s melodramas that were playing in the theaters at the time.”

The brothers borrowed their aunt’s 8mm camera and started making their own homemade movies, which were eerie and strange, and yet somehow still reflected the mainstream movies of the time.

Actor Bob Cowan starred in a lot of their early films, and he introduced them to some of the underground movie scene. The Kuchar brothers eventually found their way into the New York City underground film scene, along with people like Andy Warhol, who had a much more serious, yet just as bizarre, take on movie making.

“People didn’t know how to handle them at first, but they became accepted in the scene. And I think their films were also funny,” author and film curator Jack Stevenson says in Kroot’s documentary. “Many of the other films weren’t funny. Filmmakers were making more formalist films and structural films where very little happened. Warhol was making films where nothing happened. George and Mike were making films that reflected Hollywood where everthing happened.”

They became beloved by underground filmmakers like John Waters, and many of their films are still shown in film schools today.

George Kuchar moved to San Francisco in the ‘70s, and began to teach at the San Francisco Art Institute. He has now taught film at the Art Institute for almost 40 years. Both brothers now live in the same apartment in the Mission.

“They continue to make movies. They work on video now, but they only work with consumer grade products. It’s kind off punk rock,” Kroot said. “George was a pioneer of video diaries, which you now see all over You Tube.”

The Kuchar brothers are also self-taught artists, and Mike had a successful stint as the artist of a comic series called Gay Heart Throbs.
Kroot’s film is a touching and funny look at two eccentric San Francisco filmmakers, who are genuine iconic characters themselves.

It Came From Kuchar will be playing at the Red Vic Movie House on June 14 and 15.

Artists Television Access will also be presenting a show of recent work by Mike Kuchar on Saturday, June 5 at 8 p.m. at 992 Valencia Street.

For more information on the work of filmmaker Jennifer M. Kroot visit www.kucharfilm.com.