Featuring interviews of John Waters, Atom Egoyan, Buck Henry, and even George Kuchar's cat, this is a fun, live, on-the- scene look at the Kuchar brothers, George and Mike and the making of their wild, bizarre, indie films. According to Wikipedia, George was hired to teach film classes at the SF Art Institute in 1971. Making these films, which starred monsters, wacky, offbeat people and gender-bending plots with his twin brother Mike, George was also a part time painter. We hear director Jennifer Kroot (who attended and worked at the SF Art Institute) asking the brothers questions about their tempestuous childhood, with conversations by the actors in their films, co-workers, and friends in the business.
In 1965, Mike made "Sins of the Fleshapoids" probably the best known of their films, which J. Waters has said is one of his favorite films of all time. Mike also directed my favorite "The Secret of Wendel Samson", which was quite ahead of its time. It's quite ironic when early in the film, Mike Kuchar, missing teeth, and sporting a looooong beard, says "Old people.... are weird." Apparently, I'm not the only only amused by the brothers' manner and appearance, since Bill Griffith says he created the cartoon "Zippy the Pinhead" based on Mike Kuchar. We also hear the comments of Christopher Coppola, yet another of the Coppola offspring in the film industry.
It's also interesting to note that "Statue in the Park" 1993, starring Mike Diana, is NOT currently listed in IMDb, and also not found on amazon. "Thundercrack!" 1975, (Marion Eaton) IS in IMDb, and purports to be in DVD format on amazon, but is "not available" for order. "Loads" 1985 (Curt McDowell) IS listed in IMDb, and the VHS tape IS currently available on amazon. Ascension of the Demonoids IS listed in IMDb, but not on amazon. Also not found in either IMDb or amazon are some of their obscure films, which are probably shorts: Cocktail Crooners, Paradise Gone, Garden of Goodies, Midsummer's Nightmare, and Secrets of the Shadow World. Too bad... Glad this documentary is helping us keep an inventory of these now missing films which will probably never make it to DVD. If you have the opportunity, find and watch "It Came from Kuchar". Well worth the 86 minutes spent watching this study of indie, bizarro films. Fun, entertaining, and a little chunk of history of the film industry. Distributed by Indiepix Films, it has 48 minutes of extras.
" I knew we wouldn't make any money because anything I work on is a financial disaster."
-- George Kuchar:
