George Kuchar (American, born 1942)

Timeline

Born with a twin brother, Mike, in 1942 on the Isle of Manhattan, we mainly grew up in the Bronx and were schooled in the world of commercial art. I supported myself, and my hobby of making 8mm movies, with paychecks from that Midtown Manhattan world of angst and ulcers. Earning enough money to switch to 16mm in the 1960s (1965), both of us started splicing together bigger strips of film and lugging around heavier projectors. The burgeoning underground film movement, which at that time was in full swing, gave us an outlet for our work and we continued grinding out our separate visions on celluloid.

In the very early 1970s I was invited to teach filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute and have been there ever since. I came over with my dog but now use my cats as screen stars (sometimes) as he passed away.

I became a traitor to the film department when 8mm video camcorders came on the market and jumped ship to start up in that dinghy medium. I enjoyed it and then sailed on to Hi-8, mini-DV and Digital 8. I don’t regret it one bit.

I’m still in the film department because I still make pictures that move even though there’s a lot of “stills” in this sentence.

I started making moving pictures in the 1950s so there’s a whole pile of them in my closets (over 200). Some of the titles, in film, include:HOLD ME WHILE I’M NAKED, CORRUPTION OF THE DAMNED, COLOR ME SHAMELESS, LUST FOR ECSTASY

The many video titles, which are diaries, dramas done with my film students and portraits of places with living things, include:VILE CARGO,FILL THY CRACK WITH WHITENESS, KISS OF THE VEGGIE VIXON, THE MIGRATION OF THE BLUBBEROIDS, DINGLE BERRY JINGLES, I also occasionally act in films and videos of various formats and wrote the screenplay for the porn-horror flick, THUNDERCRACK, which was directed by Curt McDowell.

I also authored a book of memoirs and filmmaking tips called: REFLECTIONS FROM A CINEMATIC CESSPOOL

My brother, Mike, also rants and gives helpful tips in that publication too.