Although George Kuchar ( along with twin brother Mike) was best known as the” Father of Underground Filmmaking” for his groundbreaking and provocative films—- George Kuchar was also a surrogate father to the legions of former San Francisco Art Institute students who visited him in his San Francisco home over 30 years of teaching.
George Kuchar passed away September 6 2011 from prostate cancer, but as his brother Mike pointed out so lyrically, George is still very much alive in the hearts and minds of his friends and students.
Fortunately in 2009, former student and San Francisco based filmmaker Jennifer Kroot captured the Kuchar brothers on film in her acclaimed documentary ” It Came From Kuchar”
The legacy of George Kuchar lives on in the hundreds of underground films he produced during his lifetime which are carefully preserved at both the Berkeley Art Archive and the New York Film Vault.
His most famous film ” Hold Me While I ‘m Naked” is the story of an actress who walks off the set after being asked too many times to take off her clothes.
George Kuchar often cast himself as an actor and he was quite funny in a Woody Allen sort of way.
Kuchar worked his actors hard — many of them were his friends and family who sometimes walked off the set if the movie went too long, or if a shower scene had cold water But George had a profound respect for people who subjected their personas to his keen perception.
I remember laughing with George about how his foreign students made his dialogue seem more important than it actually was. He really loved that aspect of filmmaking —-the variety of students who passed through his classes made his life richer.
Of course, many important filmmakers have praised the influence of George Kuchar on their lives.
But this is what I will remember about George Kuchar. He cherished the attention of the famous people he knew including John Waters and the late Andy Warhol, but he also relished the company of students— and less famous artists such as myself. George was not a snob.
This is the kind of man George Kuchar was: The kind of man who paused to write me a thank you note for sending him a small package just days before his death. Of course he did not have to do that. He was at the end of his days and George Kuchar knew it. Yet he wrote a thank you note just like he always did —– because he had impeccable manners and a Catholic school background.
But also because George Kuchar loved the people who touched his life.
He called me personally a few months ago to tell me about his illness. He did not have to do it —but George Kuchar met with everyone in his life to say goodbye in his own way . He was a gentleman as well as a legend.
This week the film scene lost not only one of it’s most visionary influences, but also one of it’s greatest souls. George Kuchar made low budget films by choice. He wished to stay close to the people and things which inspired him.
We feel his loss but his vibrant spirit has touched us and George Kuchar will most likely become even more of an icon in the days to come. Yet all George Kuchar ever really wanted was to be loved. And he was. In fact, here are the links to what the major papers have said about his life. It would make him proud (of course) because fame really amused George Kuchar.
George Kuchar felt like just a regular person. I can tell you from first hand experience that he wasn’t. George Kuchar had real class, and he was an extraordinarily perceptive man who never quite believed he deserved the attention he received. But I would disagree. He deserves more.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118042575?refCatId=13
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-george-kuchar-20110910,0,1370618.story