George Kuchar's Weather Diaries
Shot in 8mm video and edited entirely in the camera, this picture deals with meteorological and sexual desire on the Plains. It's the only movie in the series where I interact with storm chasers. I'm a storm squatter as I never learned how to drive a car. The young meteorology student who pays me a visit was someone I met in Wisconsin at a screening of my films/videos a few years before. This was his first visit to Oklahoma to chase tornadoes, but the storm season proved to be a dry one. His presence lubricated me on a more personal level, and our friendship helped to sweeten the sourness that happens when nature doesn't "put out." – GK
I had a little more money so I switched motels to one that had a pool. A little wooden friend accompanied me for a while, but when the puppet's strings got tangled-up I ditched him. I sometimes interact with dolls and dummies so that the improvised dialogue can be directed at something other than the camera lens. – GK
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Centennial
Directed by George Kuchar.
US, 2007, digital video, color, 7 min.
There's not much chatter in this video as I munch and chew my way through a series of scenes that eventually culminate in a celebration of the state's existence. I stumbled onto this historical knowledge by accident as it was concentrated on a street corner. – GK
A chance to spend two weeks on a cattle ranch in southern Oklahoma makes this video an ode to the land more than the sky. The woman who invited me to the ranch was nicknamed Chigger and had been a student of mine many years ago. This place was a world very alien to me as instead of having cockroaches in the kitchen there were scorpions. It was like a giant park with no paths, streetlights or benches but it did have rattlesnakes, ticks, armadillos and cantankerous bulls. The ranch was all for the growth and well-being of the cattle and they had the run of the place which took up two counties. I got a chance to aim and shoot a rifle for the first time and (surprisingly) bonded with the firearm very quickly. I hope you will enjoy this vision of man and beast on the southern plains as this property was sold a short time later and I don't know what it is now. – GK
This is my latest weather diary and it follows me to Norman, Oklahoma, as I had a show at the giant university there and made some friends who came to visit me later when I moved on to my usual resting place, El Reno. It proved to be a turbulent stay both inwardly and outwardly as my libido mixed with the clashing seasons to create a vortex of violent forces, one of which threatened to wipe out the town! – GK