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George Kuchar Shorts

Director in Person
Screening on Film
$12 Special Event Tickets
  • Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof

    Directed by George Kuchar and Mike Kuchar.
    With Donna Kerness, Bob Cowan, Terry Brunetti.
    US, 1961, 16mm, color, 4 min.
    Print source: Anthology Film Archives

It glows with the embers of desire! It smokes with the revelation of men and women longing for robust temptations that will make them sizzle into maturity with a furnace-blast of unrestrained animalism. A film for young and old to enjoy. – GK


Preservation by Anthology Film Archives via a National Film Preservation Fund grant.

  • The Naked and the Nude

    Directed by George Kuchar and Mike Kuchar.
    With Bob Bailin, James Brawly, Carl Buna.
    US, 1957, 16mm, color, 36 min.
    Print source: Anthology Film Archives

Big…Rousing…Memorable! The incredible war saga of our own boys in a Jap-infested jungle in the Botanical Gardens. Hear Lloyd Thorner sing the title song. You’ll come out whistling from both ends. – GK


Preservation by Anthology Film Archives via a National Film Preservation Fund grant.

  • Hold Me While I’m Naked

    Directed by George Kuchar.
    With George Kuchar, Donna Kerness, Stella Kuchar.
    US, 1966, 16mm, color, 15 min.

One of Kuchar’s best-known works is his sweet and sad short that casts a sympathetic eye at a hopeless director’s heroic attempts to finish an epic melodrama ripe with pulchritude. Kuchar’s cockeyed camp hilarity counterbalances his sympathetic portrait of the filmmaker-as-misfit.

  • I, An Actress

    Directed by George Kuchar and class.
    With Barbara Lapsley, George Kuchar.
    US, 1977, 16mm, black & white, 9 min.
    Print source: HFA

This film was shot in ten minutes with four or five students of mine at the San Francisco Art Institute. It was to be a screen test for a girl in the class. She wanted something to show producers of theatrical productions, as the girl was interested in an acting career. By the time all the heavy equipment was set up the class was just about over; all we had was ten minutes. Since 400 feet of film takes ten minutes to run through the camera ... that was the answer: Just start it and don't stop till it runs out. I had to get into the act to speed things up so, in a way, this film gives an insight into my directing techniques while under pressure. – GK


Preservation by the Pacific Film Archive in conjunction with the HFA.

  • Motel Capri

    Directed by George Kuchar and class.
    With Joyce Wieland.
    US, 1986, 16mm, color and b&w, 18 min.
    Print source: HFA

Mother Superior commits murder to save a soul from eternal damnation. Motel Capri was original material improvised as we went along. Scenes were concocted to suit the individual members of the class and my Catholic upbringing plus immersion in horror movies helped mold the plot. The class also was populated by students interested in splatter and macho cycle gear. Joyce Wieland, the Canadian artist and filmmaker is featured here as the mother superior. She was reading her lines in the Marlon Brando technique (they were pasted onto the face of her student co-star). – GK


Preservation by the HFA via a National Film Preservation Fund grant.

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A George Kuchar Celebration

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The Yugoslav Junction: Film and Internationalism in the SFRY, 1957 – 1988

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From the Jenni Olson Queer Film Collection

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The Night Watchman by Natalia Almada

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a double-exposed image that includes a 16th century Russian man being fed grapes by another amid decadent decor

Wings of a Serf

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