Happy Kuchar Brothers Day!

Filmmaking twins George and Mike Kuchar were born on this day in 1942. George died in 2011 but Mike is happily still with us. The Kuchar Brothers made a 15 movies together, of variable lengths and the two each made solo films, with George producing an enormous number of them.

The Kuchars’ main body of films celebrated a hectic trash/camp aesthetic. They can be terrifically funny and they can also induce a state of temporary insanity in the viewer. The Kuchars have an odd sense of humor and a fully-formed painterly aesthetic. These films are not for everyone, but, chances are, if you like them – you’ll really like them. One of their main adherents, John Waters, said that the Kuchar’s films “gave me the self confidence to believe in my own tawdry vision.”

The best place for the uninitiated to start with the Kuchars is the 2009 doc IT CAME FROM KUCHAR but if you prefer to be thrown into the deep end, here’s George Kuchar’s overheated HOLD ME WHILE I’M NAKED (1966). It’s not for everyone, but what is, really?