Film Screenings / Programs / Retrospectives
GEORGE KUCHAR 1942-2011
February 10 – February 12
Although he passed away last September at the age of 69, George Kuchar will forever remain an immortal of cinema. Whether shooting 8mm films with his twin brother Mike in the 1950s and early 60s, crafting his own precociously irreverent 16mm productions, staging over-the-top productions with students at the San Francisco Art Institute, or churning out poignant video diaries, George was forever busy making yet another movie. He lived to film, loved to laugh, and looms large over generations of artists, filmmakers, and admirers, all of whom have been delivered by his works to great heights of delightful delirium. Beyond prolific, George made literally hundreds of hysterically heartfelt, outrageously ingenious, incredibly inventive, and impossible-to-pigeonhole works that continue to astound new audiences and create instant fans.
Anthology had a lengthy relationship with George, and in the last decade we preserved much of his earliest work, including films made while still a teenager. These works screen regularly in our Essential Cinema series, so for our special memorial screenings we thought to ask George’s longtime distributors to share some of their favorite pieces. To round out the series we’re also spotlighting works from the collections of Harvard Film Archive and Pacific Film Archive. If you’ve never seen a Kuchar film, now is your opportunity to dive in with some of his very best.
Unless otherwise noted, all film/video descriptions are written by George Kuchar. Special thanks to Abina Manning (VDB), MM Serra (Film-Makers’ Coop), Rebecca Cleman & Lori Zippay (EAI), Dominic Angerame (Canyon Cinema), Liz Coffey (Harvard Film Archive), and Kathy Geritz (Pacific Film Archive).
