Halloween: Go Obscure of Go Home: An Homage to G. Kuchar

This is what I'm going to be for Halloween: Nurse Ginger from George Kuchar's 1975 film, The Devil's Cleavage. I am aware that 99% of the people I encounter with this costume will have no idea what I am specifically (unless people actually read this blog entry). However, Halloween is about enjoying yourself and being someone different for a night. It doesn't really matter if people know what my character is, I just know it will still creep people out. And it's not me, so that's step one of having a great costume. Oh no, I'm not a sexy nurse, not a zombie nurse, just a nurse with severe makeup that carries a bottle of fake vomit with her. You know.

Me on 10/31/11

 

Halloween is also about respecting the dead. Director George Kuchar passed away on September 6th of this year. And it was just this year that my love for the films of him and his brother Mike was ignited. After viewing the documentary, It Came From Kuchar, I realized I had seen one of his movies in a film class: Hold Me While I'm Naked.  The film really touched me in it's pre-Water's campyness, but I never knew about the other films until recently. George was teaching film at San Francisco Art Institute and still making awesomely weird movies until his death. 

So this year, in honor of a great film-maker/makeup artist, and a weird character, I will try to do Ginger justice. Stay tuned to see the finished product.

It Came From Kuchar

If you're a John Waters fan, you will love the films of his major influence, the Kuchar brothers.  2009 documentary by Jennifer M. Kroot, It Came From Kuchar, explores the past and present of underground film makers George and Mike.

Starting in the 1960s with a super 8 camera and an extremely low budget, the Kuchars collaborated on bizarre films that can be described as zany home movies made by some kids who spend most of their time watching b-films. What the Kuchars made was truly unique for the time. Simultaneously, Warhol was making his underground films, but the Kuchars were funnier, and not as suave in their sexuality. Staying close to the genres of fantasy, horror, and exploitation, their work is a pure expression of the ideas and aesthetics gathered from popular movies from post-war America.

I had the privilege of seeing an original print of Hold Me While I'm Naked, a portrait of a down on his luck director who imagines his tardy actors having wild sex.  It Came From Kuchar discusses this film, and lead me to many other gems I would love to get a hold of. Hearing George and Mike speak is extremely entertaining, whether it's recalling childhood memories of their often absent father and immigrant mother, or explaining their thought process behind such films as Sins of the Fleshapoids (a film about an android revolt one million years in the future).
It Came From Kuchar is a documentary that will leave you giddy with the idea that these films exist in the world.