New Orleans Film Festival 2009

Long before YouTube, there were the outrageous, no-budget, underground movies of the legendary filmmaking twins George and Mike Kuchar. George and Mike grew up in the Bronx in the 1950’s making “no-budget” films, compulsively copying Hollywood melodramas with their home-movie camera. But unlike the glamorous Hollywood melodramas they emulated, the campy Kuchar starlets and leading men reflected real life. With crudely applied make-up, they confront everything from their obsessions and insecurities to their sexuality and religion to UFOs and Bigfoot. The Kuchar brother’s films charmed Andy Warhol’s New York underground film scene in the 1960’s. They became known as the “8mm Mozarts” and their films were notably funnier than those of their peers. Five decades and hundreds of films later, the Kuchar brothers are still making low-budget movies. And although their crazy, homespun films have screened around the world and inspired prominent filmmakers like John Waters, Buck Henry, Atom Egoyan, Wayne Wang, and Guy Maddin, George and Mike remain largely unknown. It Came From Kuchar is a hilarious, compelling and inspirational documentary about the passion of filmmaking and artistic compulsion. From the Bronx of the 1950’s to Andy Warhol to George’s wild film production class at the San Francisco Art Institute, It Came From Kuchar interweaves the brothers’ lives, their admirers, a history of underground film and a “greatest hits” of Kuchar clips into a mesmerizing stream of consciousness.