Purgatory Junction is about a vain aging pornstar mother who competes with her daughter for the attentions of various men in a world of sleazy porn populated by colourful but unsavoury fringe characters. Directed by experimental filmmaker Mike Kuchar and starring the New York performance artist Kembra Pfahler as a teen! delinquent daughter on a path to self destruction and bad fashion. There’s something darkly compelling about watching Pfahler emote and one believes that although she’s hardly the age where she should be cast as a teenager Kuchar obviously felt she could bring an air of authenticity to the stilted proceedings. —rue-morgue.com
Mike Kuchar (born August 31, 1942, New York City) defined the low-budget, high-camp/pop aesthetic for subsequent auteurs such as Andy Warhol, John Waters, and David Lynch. Raised in the Bronx, he made his first films as a teenager in the 1950s with his twin brother George Kuchar and participated in New York’s underground film scene in the 1960s. In addition to making his own films, Mike has collaborated with a number of important artists including Rosa von Praunheim, Marc Arthur and Kembra Pfahler. Mike divided his time between New York City and his brother’s San Francisco apartment until 2007 when he moved to San Francisco permanently.
His most famous film is the campy 1965 sci-fi classic Sins of the Fleshapoids, available on DVD from Other Cinema.
It Came From Kuchar, a documentary film of the life of George and Mike Kuchar by Jennifer Kroot, premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival on 14 March 2009.
The Kuchar brothers collaborated… read more