Your local microcinema should be bringing you some less than typical Halloween fare, and that's exactly what we are gonna do!

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From George Kuchar's 00s tenure at the San Francisco Art Institute come three short shot-on-video high camp horror films made with his graduate students: KISS OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE FURY OF FRAU FRANKENSTEIN, and THE CRYPT OF FRANKENSTEIN.

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KISS OF FRANKENSTEIN:
"Performed by my graduate students at the San Francisco Art Institute, this one act play that I had written gets the best production values that $500 can afford. Shot in a large can company, we actually pre-recorded the dialogue in the "can" as the only quiet room in the facility was the toilet. The actors then went onstage to mouth the dialogue, which was piped into the P.A. system. Nobody could really memorize all that verbiage for the three hour shooting schedule we were assigned every Thursday afternoon so it worked out pretty well and the thing should be viewed as a sort of puppet show as their jaws do drop now and then to the words. This was also planned as a major, star vehicle for Linda Martinez, an Iowa pie-maker with aspirations toward more dubious delights." (GK)

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THE FURY OF FRAU FRANKENSTEIN:
"This horror picture is a sequel to THE KISS OF FRANKENSTEIN (a one act play I wrote a few years ago which was performed by my graduate students at the San Francisco Art Institute). This one was made on the main campus and features Linda Martinez reprising the role of Sherri Frankenstein who is MAD AS HELL AND NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE! The budget given us was $400 but the picture looks big and robust, thanks to the attractive and healthy looking cast of students and guest performers who bring this tale of family vengeance to a rousing and tuneful finale." (GK)

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THE CRYPT OF FRANKENSTEIN:
"This is the final part of a trilogy about the tribulations of Sherri Frankenstein (at least I think it's the last of these atrocities). Made with my class at the San Francisco Art Institute, this fast paced cheapy looks like a million bucks worth of eye candy as it relentlessly snowballs to a chilling climax. The thrills are cheap too as the plot details the heroine's joy ride through Hollywood and her detour into a cathedral of corruption. Fun for the whole, dysfunctional family!" (GK)

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KISS OF FRANKENSTEIN
dir. George Kuchar, 2003,
United States, digital projection
38 mins

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THE FURY OF FRAU FRANKENSTEIN
dir. George Kuchar, 2005,
United States, digital projection
38 mins

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THE CRYPT OF FRANKENSTEIN:
dir. George Kuchar, 2008,
United States, digital projection
39 mins

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7:30 DOORS

8:00 SCREENING

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Courtesy of VIDEO DATA BANK.

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From VIDEO DATA BANK: "George Kuchar ranks as one of the most exciting and prolific American independent film and videomakers. With his homemade Super 8 and 16mm potboilers and melodramas of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, he became legendary as a distinctive and outrageous underground filmmaker whose work influenced many other artists, including Andy Warhol, John Waters, and David Lynch. After his 1980s transition to video, he remained a master of genre manipulation and subversion, creating hundreds of brilliantly edited, hilarious, observant, often diaristic videos with an 8mm camcorder, dime-store props, not-so-special effects, using friends as actors, and the “pageant that is life” as his studio.

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In 1984 Kuchar received the Los Angeles Film Critics Award in the Experimental/Independent category. In 1992, he received the prestigious Maya Deren Award for Independent Film and Video Artists from the American Film Institute. In 1996 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Chicago Underground Film Festival. He taught at the San Francisco Art Institute for forty years, where he made many videos in collaboration with his students."
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