Wild Night In El Reno
(1977, 16mm, Color, Sound, 6min.)
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.
"I go to Oklahoma once a year—I can recommend it. There's a lot of weather research there; they have thunderstorms, hailstorms and other sorts of severe weather than anywhere else in the country. When I was younger I read a lot about the weather as a hobby. So I decided to go see the place. I made two videos more recently—each seventy minutes long (Weather Diary 1 and 2). I also made a five-minute film there on one of my first trips: Wild Night in El Reno. I was in an Oklahoma motel for about a month; I finished a painting, then made the movie. It was originally going to be longer, and what you see would only have been inserts, but I said no, I don't want to continue this any more." – George Kuchar