500 Millibars to Ecstasy (U.S., 1989)
D: George Kuchar
It Came from Kuchar (U.S., 2009)
D: Jennifer M. Kroot

I’d first heard the name Kuchar I don’t know where, probably the Psychotronic Encyclopedia, the connossieur’s film guide to exploitation pictures; all I know is that at some point, somewhere, my eyes scanned the words Sins of the Fleshapoids whereupon I immediately added it to my must-see-before-I-die list.  Friday night’s screening of the new documentary It Came from Kuchar, about the singular underground career of the brothers George and Mike Kuchar, paired with George’s “500 Millibars of Ecstasy,” documenting a 1988 trip to Madison for a Kuchar retrospective, offered an indispensable survey of the Kuchar aesthetic.  Jennifer M. Kroot’s documentary is thorough, and, frankly, hysterical.  Beginning in the early 1960’s, the Kuchar brothers made films in 8mm and 16mm, and eventually by camcorder, in a most prolific manner (one interview subject speculates that a complete filmography of their works has never been compiled).  Inspired by Hollywood melodramas, their films compensated for their low budget with a visual ingenuity, heartfelt themes, and a great deal of camp.  Their characters were buried under thick makeup, with absurd costumes and increasingly baroque eyebrows.  Sex was in abundance, though often slathered with heaps of angst and guilt, and the most common motifs were UFOs, monsters, robots, and tornados.  Imagine something lying between Kenneth Anger and John Waters; indeed, Waters was heavily influenced by the Kuchars, and, always delightful, he’s one of the less surprising interview subjects to be found here – more surprising is Buck Henry, clearly one of George Kuchar’s best friends, and Atom Egoyan, who wonders over a striking letter George once sent him which ends with the words, “I suntan in isolation.”  I suppose we should have expected Guy Maddin to show up (Maddin’s films also balance campy humor with eye-popping and frequently homoerotic visuals), and here he explains why he may never make a film as good as The Devil’s Cleavage.  For me one of the most interesting aspects of Kroot’s film was connecting the Kuchar style to the underground comix movement which was flourishing in the same climes (San Francisco) when the Kuchars were at their height – we learn George Kuchar was part of the taboo-busting scene, broke up Art Spiegelman’s relationship with his girlfriend by hijacking her to become one of his cinematic divas, and even drew his own comix as oversexed and psychotronic as his films.  Today George is a film professor who enlists his eager students in making new underground masterpieces – in this case, something called “The Fury of Frau Frankenstein.”  In doing so, he’s keeping the Kuchar cult growing, but he’s also inspiring the students to set out and make their own idiosyncratic low-budget films.  After watching It Came from Kuchar, my chief inspiration was to finally seek out the Kuchar ouvre – but I think I’ll steer clear of Thundercrack!, on Buck Henry’s advice.