w/ George Kuchar in person!
Sunday, April 25, 2004, 8:00 pm, $7
1) I, An Actress
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.
1977, 16mm, b&w/so, 10m
2) House of the White People
Cast: Donna Kerness, artist George Segal and his wife Helen, Walter Gutman. Having nothing to do with racial tensions, HOUSE OF THE WHITE PEOPLE is actually a chunk of film removed from a bigger chunk called UNSTRAP ME. It is a documentation of George Segal creating the basic elements for one of his statues preceded by rare glimpses into his own private museum. Donna Kerness serves as his live model. Walter Gutman sits on a chair and walks around a bit, being that he produced the film. Helen Segal, personifying the ageless saying, “behind every man there stands a woman,” stands behind her man and also stands in front of him occasionally. The film is a unique invitation to view the hidden rituals of a famous artist and his infamous model, half naked, snowbound together on a lonely farm, with a silent wife and a notorious guest.
1968, 16mm, color/so, 16.5m
3) Wild Night in El Reno
This film documents a thunderstorm as it rages in full fury above a motel in May on the southern plains. There’s sun, wind, clouds, rain and electrical pyrotechnics … with perhaps a glimpse of a fleeting human figure. But only a glimpse.
1977, 16mm, color/so, 6m
4) Forever and Always
A marriage on the rocks that hurts the heart almost as much as the colors hurt the eye. “… a full color portrait of a break-up that comes closer than any other to being an operetta.” – B. Ruby Rich
1978, 16mm, color/so, 20m
5) Hold Me While I’m Naked
“A very direct and subtle, very sad and funny look at nothing more or less than sexual frustration and aloneness. In its economy and cogency of imaging, HOLD ME surpasses any of Kuchar’s previous work. The odd blend of Hollywood glamour and drama with all-too-real life creates and inspires counterpoint of unattainable desire against unbearable actuality.” – Ken Kelman
“This film could cheer an arthritic gorilla, and audiences, apparently sensitized by its blithely accurate representation of feelings few among them can have escaped, rise from their general stupor to cheer it back.” – James Stoller, The Village Voice
1966, 16mm, color/so, 15m
Admission for entire program:
Seniors,
$5
General,
$7