Chicago Underground Film Festival 2009

Digitally restored from the original 35mm print! “Full of good intentions and crude as hell, this is an indulgent, energetic, 90-minute burst of hoary symbolism and lovable counterculture craziness.” - Shock Cinema #21, 2002 It’s been 40 years since the Summer of Love, and while some of us byproducts are starting to show it, this little seen gem of counterculture lunacy hasn’t dimmed with age. Half-cocked gold prospectors, evicted citizens, right-wing conspiracy theorists and rigged elections. Suddenly the 60s don’t sound so crazy. Starring Chicago improv legend Del Close as the “Hawk,” a Christ-like voice of reason, who happens to dress like Che Guevara, GOLD is a psychedelic desert romp set in an inexplicable Old West mining town that brings forth the unalienable right that revolution and skinny dipping are the American way. If you remember the 60s --and if you lived this chances are you don’t -- this is a trip down memory lane you don’t want to miss. And if you didn’t – this is what the History channel was talking about. Features original music from MC5 and Ramblin' Jack Elliott. Digibeta. Perhaps it’s a sign of our own crazy times or maybe it’s the recent restoration of the print, but GOLD still bursts with the unbridled energy of a time when revolution and drugs came easy. (Nicole Bernardi-Reis)

The Chicago Underground Film Festival proudly presents the Midwest Premiere of Jennifer Kroot’s It Came From Kuchar, a hilarious and touching story of artistic obsession, compulsion and inspiration. Long before YouTube, there were the outrageous, no-budget movies of underground, filmmaking twins George and Mike Kuchar. George and Mike grew up in the Bronx in the 1950’s. At the age of twelve, they became obsessed with Hollywood melodramas and began making their own homespun melodramas with their aunt’s 8mm camera. They used their friends and family as actors and their Bronx neighborhood as their set. Early Kuchar titles featured in this film include I Was A Teenage Rumpot and Born of the Wind. In the early 1960’s, alongside Andy Warhol, the Kuchar brothers shaped the New York underground film scene. Known as the “8mm Mozarts”, their films were noticeably different than other underground films of the time. They were wildly funny, but also human and vulnerable. Their films have inspired many filmmakers, including John Waters, Buck Henry, Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin and Wayne Wang (all are interviewed in this film). Despite having high profile fans, the Kuchars remain largely unknown because they are only ambitious to make movies, not to be famous. Affectionately directed by one of George’s former students, Jennifer M. Kroot, It Came From Kuchar will introduce you to the amazing Kuchar brothers – two brothers who love to make movies and continue to inspire others. (JK)