Director: Mike Kuchar

Starring: Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, Bob Cowan, George Kuchar, Floraine Connors, Maren Thomas, Albert Salzano

Year: 1966

Runtime: 33 mins.

Synopsis: Shy Pop artist Wendel Samson (played by real Pop artist Red Grooms) can’t work up the nerve to break up with his boyfriend, so he has anonymous trysts with other men. Meanwhile, when his female friend Margaret pressures him into an intimate relationship, it sends Wendel spiraling into a nightmare world where he’s violently punished for his sexuality.

DVD: Other Cinema (compilation)

Official Website: None

Underground Film Timeline: 1960 — 1969

Reviews: Bad Lit (Mike Everleth)
DVD Talk (Bill Gibron)

Video: None

Director: Peter Kubelka

Starring: Not Applicable

Year: 1966

Runtime: 13 mins.

Synopsis: “Unsere Afrikareise is about the richest, most articulate, and most compressed film I have ever seen. I have seen it four times and I am going to see it many, many times more, and the more I see it, the more I see in it. Kubelka’s film is one of cinema’s few masterpieces and a work of such great perfection that it forces one to re-evaluate everything that one knew about cinema. The incredible artistry of this man, his incredible patience. (He worked on Unsere Afrikareise for five years; the film is 12 and a half minutes long.) His methods of working (he learned by heart 14 hours of tapes and three hours of film, frame by frame), and the beauty of his accomplishment makes the rest of us look like amateurs.” – Jonas Mekas (courtesy of Canyon Cinema)

DVD: None

Official Website: None

Reviews: Film Reference (Fred Camper)

Video: None

Director: George Kuchar

Starring: Donna Kerness, George Kuchar, Stella Kuchar, Andrea Lunin, Hope Morris, Steve Packard, Gina Zuckerman

Year: 1966

Runtime: 17 mins.

Synopsis: “A very direct and subtle, very sad and funny look at nothing more or less than sexual frustration and aloneness. In its economy and cogency of imaging, Hold Me surpasses any of Kuchar’s previous work. The odd blend of Hollywood glamour and drama with all-too-real life creates and inspires counterpoint of unattainable desire against unbearable actuality.” – Ken Kelman (courtesy of Canyon Cinema)

DVD: None

Official Website: None

Underground Film Timeline: 1960 — 1969

Reviews: Senses of Cinema (Deborah Allison )

Video: None

Director: Andy Warhol

Starring: Brigid Berlin, Gerard Malanga, Marie Menken, Mario Montez, Nico, Ondine, Edie Sedgwick, Mary Woronov

Year: 1966

Runtime: 210 mins.

Synopsis: The Chelsea Girls, made up of 12 half-hour episodes, is the first of Warhol’s experimental movies to become a critical and commercial success and to have broken through the confines of New York’s underground world.

It was made from June to September 1966 and shot live with meager resources. The scenes, as in all of Warhol’s previous movies, were filmed in one take following the conviction that, if the camera was left pointed at interesting people something interesting would surely take place. There is no editing, a choice also determined by the kind of camera that was used by Warhol where the reel lasted 30 minutes and the sound is taped directly onto the film. (from RaroVideo)

DVD: RaroVideo

Official Website: None

Underground Film Timeline: 1960 — 1969

Reviews: Roger Ebert
San Francisco Chronicle (Kenneth Baker)
TV Guide (unknown)

Video: None