Friday, October 17 & Saturday, October 18, 2016
UP TO DATE & OUT OF THIS WORLD WITH MIKE KUCHAR! He’s back! Yes, one-time NYC denizen Mike Kuchar makes an all-too-rare hometown appearance and return visit to Anthology. Beloved for the films he made in tandem with twin brother, George, as well as for his own over-the-top underground masterpieces, Mike is a prolific creator of moving images the likes of which you cannot imagine or even dream of. Kuchar’s work demonstrates a campy romantic eye and rapturous ear that is as indebted to lyrical poetry as it is to ecstatic imagery. Rather than rest on his voluminous back catalog, the videos that Mike has been making the last few years are undoubtedly amongst the strongest works in a career that began nearly 60 years ago.
Our series feature two programs chock-full of recent videos made both on his own and with his lucky students at the San Francisco Art Institute. Prepare yourself for a tangled web of angels, devils, beefcake, cheesecake, intrigue, reality, mythology, and so much more. As a special bonus, we are including a program of wonderfully warped and incredibly rare films that Mike made with his Art Institute class back in his 16mm production days in the 1970s. Anthology recently scanned these films from the only existing prints, and you will be glad that we did. Ingenious, outrageous, and impossible to see until now, they are proof positive of Mike’s distinct genius.
Co-presented by MIX NYC, producer of the NY Queer Experimental Film Festival (www.mixnyc.org).
Chromatic Effusion, 2014
Friday, October 17
PROGRAM 1:
SOUL SEARCHERS (2014, 9 min, digital)
GENERATION Z (2014, 8 min, digital)
NONSENSICAL (2014, 10 min, digital)
NIGHTFALL (2013, 12 min, digital)
THE SPIDER’S PARLOR (2014, 42 min, digital)
Total running time: ca. 85 min.
PROGRAM 2:
ADAM’S APPLE (2014, 10 min, digital)
LOST BLUES (2014, 8 min, digital)
SUMMER SINS (2014, 11 min, digital)
CHROMATIC EFFUSION (2014, 10 min, digital)
DEVIL’S DEN (2013, 27 min, digital)
CHASING SHADOWS (2013, 10 min, digital)
Total running time: ca. 80 min.
Saturday, October 18
PROGRAM 3:
This eye-opening program features new film-to-digital scans by Anthology of the inventive and outlandish short films that Kuchar made in the 1970s as an occasional teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute. Seldom screened and never discussed, these no-budget wonders are the missing link between Mike’s early work and the videos featured in our first two programs. Also included in the program is one of Mike’s personal favorites, ABODE OF THE SNOW, an evocative short shot during a visit to Nepal.
ABODE OF THE SNOW (1970, 10 min, 16mm-to-digital)
BLOODSUCKER (1975, 21 min, 16mm-to-digital)
ISLE OF THE SLEEPING SOULS (1979, 21 min, 16mm-to-digital)
THE PASSIONS (1977, 29 min, 16mm-to-digital)
Total running time: ca. 85 min.