Mike Kuchar (born August 31, 1942 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

) is an American

underground film An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre or financing. Notable examples include: John Waters' ''Pink Flamingos'', David Lynch's ''Eraserhead'', Andy Warhol's '' Blue Movie'', Rosa von Praunheim's '' ...

maker, actor, and artist. Kuchar is notable for his low-budget and

camp Camp may refer to: Outdoor accommodation and recreation * Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site * a temporary settlement for nomads * Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...

films such as '' Sins of the Fleshapoids'' and ''The Craven Sluck''.

Biography

Raised in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, he made his first films as a teenager in the 1950s with his twin brother

George Kuchar George Kuchar (August 31, 1942 – September 6, 2011) was an American underground film director and video artist, known for his "low-fi" aesthetic. Early life and career Kuchar trained as a commercial artist at the School of Industrial Art, now k ...

and participated in New York’s

scene in the 1960s and 1970s. He divided his time between New York City and his brother's

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

apartment until 2007, when he moved to San Francisco permanently; George died in 2011. During the 1980s and 1990s, Mike Kuchar created comics and illustrations for homoerotic publications including '' Meatmen'', ''

Gay Heart Throbs ''Gay Heart Throbs'' was an underground comic featuring gay erotica. Only three issues were published, in 1976, 1979, and 1981. It has been described as the first gay comic. It was edited by Larry Fuller (cartoonist), Larry Fuller. The short-liv ...

'', ''First Hand'', and ''Manscape,'' and continued to draw commissions afterward. '' It Came From Kuchar'', a documentary film about George and Mike Kuchar by Jennifer Kroot, premiered at the South by Southwest film festival on 14 March 2009. Mike Kuchar 201811

In more recent years, Kuchar has focused on more intimate one person expressionistic films. At the

Vienna International Film Festival The Vienna International Film Festival, or Viennale, is a film festival taking place every October since 1960 in Vienna, Austria. The average number of visitors is about 75,000. Traditional cinema venues are ''Gartenbaukino'', ''Urania'', ''Metro ...

in 2009, he unveiled two

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s, ''Swan Song'' and ''Dumped''. ''Swan Song'' features the pain of a young man tormented by his sensuality who is painted as an animal writhing in pain, and ''Dumped'' stars veteran stage actress Deirdre McGill in a portrait of a woman engaged in a deadly love triangle. Kuchar teaches in the film program at the San Francisco Art Institute. Kuchar also worked as a cameraman for

Rosa von Praunheim Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky (born Holger Radtke; 25 November 1942), known professionally as Rosa von Praunheim, is a German film director, author, painter and one of the most famous gay rights activists in the German-speaking world. In ov ...

. The Kuchar brothers collaborated on a book, ''Reflections from a Cinematic Cesspool'' (1997), a humorous memoir discussing four decades of filmmaking, with an introduction by director

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), '' Pink Flamingos'' (1972) and '' Fe ...

Partial filmography

* ''The Pervert'' (1963) * ''Born of the Wind'' (1964) * '' Sins of the Fleshapoids'' (1965) * ''Green Desire'' (1966) * ''The Secret of Wendel Samson'' (1966) * ''Fragments'' (1967) * ''The Craven Sluck'' (formerly titled ''Madonna'' ) (1967) * ''Variations'' (1968) * ''Cycles'' (1968) * ''Tales of the Bronx'' (1969) * ''Chronicles'' (1969) * ''Abode of the Snow'' (1970) * ''Aqua Circus'' (1971) * ''Didgeridoo'' (1972) * ''Faraway Places'' (1972) * ''Death Quest of the Ju-Ju Cults'' (1976) * ''Dwarf Star'' (1977) * ''Fable for a New Age'' (1984) * ''Tone Poem'' (1984) * ''Seascape'' (1984) * ''Dumped'' ( 2009) * ''Swan Song'' (2009) * '' Midnight Suite'' (2011) * ''Litany of the Seven Kisses'' (2011) * ''Tickled Pink'' (2012) * ''Fallen Angels'' (2013) Produced at the San Francisco Art Institute: * ''The Masque of Valhalla'' (1972) * ''The Wings of Muru'' (1973) * ''Blood Sucker'' (1975) * ''The Passions: A Psycho-Drama'' (1977) * ''Isle of the Sleeping Souls'' (1979) * ''Circe'' (1984) * ''Midnight Carnival'' (2011) Produced at the Collective For Living Cinema's Dramatic Narrative Class: * ''Scream of the Damned'' (1987)

Films featuring Mike Kuchar

* ''Portrait George and Mike Kuchar'' (1977) by

. * ''Bird, Bath and Beyond'' (2003) by

Marie Losier Marie Losier (born 1972 in France) is a filmmaker and curator who's worked in New York City for 25 years and has shown her films and videos at museums, galleries, biennials and festivals. Losier studied literature at the University of Nanterre (F ...

Bibliography

* Jack Stevenson, ''Desperate Visions 1: The Films of John Waters and George & Mike Kuchar'' (UK: Creation Books, 1996) * George and Mike Kuchar, ''Reflections from a Cinematic Cesspool'' (Berkeley CA: Zanja Pr Dangerous Concepts, 1997)

Biography

Partial filmography

Films featuring Mike Kuchar

Bibliography

References

External links