GEORGE KUCHAR - Experimental Filmmaker

Experimental film director George Kuchar, who teamed with is twin brother, Mike, to create numerous 8mm movies from the 1950s through the 1980s and inspired such filmmakers as John Waters and David Lynch, died of prostate cancer in San Francisco, California, on September 6, 2011.  He was 69.  The brothers were born in Manhattan on August 31, 1942, and were raised in the Bronx.  Their mother purchased them an 8mm camera for their 12th birthday, and they immediately began making films.  Their low-budget/no-budget shorts became popular exhibits in the underground cinema of the early 1960s, with such titles as "The Naked And The Nude" (1957), "The Thief And The Stripper" (1959), "A Tub Named Desire" (1960), "I Was A Teenage Rumpot" (1960), "Pussy On A Hot Tin Roof" (1961), "Born Of The Wind" (1961), and "A Woman Distressed" (1962).  The brothers also directed individual works, with George creating the 1966 short "Hold Me While I'm Naked", and the "Weather Diaries" series, made on his annual visits to an Oklahoma trailer park during tornado season.  He joined the San Francisco Art Institute in 1971, where he taught filmmaking and added hundreds of films to his own filmography, often casting his students in such titles as "Destination Damnation" (1972), “Carnal Bipeds” (1973), “I Married a Heathen” (1974),  "Remember Tomorrow" (1979), "Ochokpug" (1980), "The Oneers" (1982), "Ms. Hyde (1983), "Club Vatican" (1984), "The Legend Of Thelma White" (1985), "Insanitorium" (1987), "Summer Of No Return" (1988), "Migration Of The Blubberoids" (1989), "Hefner's Heifers" (1989), "500 Millibars To Ecstasy" (1989), "Fill Thy Crack With Whiteness" (1989), "Munchkins Of Melody Manor" (1990), "Kiss Of The Veggie Vixen" (1990), "Edible Atrocities" (1990), "Curse Of The Kurva" (1990), "The Fall Of The House Of Yasmin" (1991), "Gastronomic Getaway" (1991), "Impaction of the Igneous" (1992), "Demonatrix Of Kebrina Castle" (1992), "Chat 'n' Chew" (1992), "ID Came From Inner Space" (1993), "Bayou Of The Blue Behemoth" 1993), "The Cage Of Nicholas" (1994), "Route 666" (1994), "Jungle Jezebel" (1994), "Dingleberry Jingles" (1994), "Felines Of Castle Frauline" (1994),  "Baldies Of Burgermeister Bungalow" (1994), "Grotto Of The Gorgons" (1995), "Paganville Flats" (1996), "The Crimes Of Armand Tessler" (1996), "Curmudgeon Of The Campus" (1997), "Avengelust" (1998), "Domain Of The Pixel Pixies" (1998), "Demon Of The Tropics" (1998), "Cretins Of The Crate" (1998), "Attack Of The Giant Garuda" (1998), "Hush, Hush, Sweet Harlot" (1998), "Culinary Linkage" (1999), "Chigger Country" (1999), "Planet Of The Vamps" (2000), "Cyclone Alley Ceramics" (2000), "Aquatica" (2000), "Nectar Of The Neophytes" (2001), "Honey Bunnies On Ice" (2001), "Chariots Of Fear" (2001), "The Guzzler Of Grizzly Manor" (2002), "The Gates Of Gomorrha" (2002), "The Celtic Crevasse" (2002), "The Passion Pot" (2003), "Kiss Of Frankenstein" (2003), "Isle Of Heavenly Fury" (2003), "Butter Balls" (2003), "Lumps Of Joy" (2004), "Kaponga Island" (2004), "A Fatal Desire" (2004), "The Fury Of Frau Frankenstein" (2005), and "Beastial Comforts" (2005). 

 He remained on the faculty at the San Francisco Art Institute until failing health forced his retirement earlier in 2011. The Kuchar brothers collaborated on the 1997 book, "Reflections from a Cinematic Cesspool", and a documentary film on their work, "It Came from Kuchar", was produced in 2009.