Cyclone Alley Ceramics (USA, 2000) George Kuchar 11 min color
This melodramatic send-up, set in an Oklahoma motel room, features the legendary underground filmmaker George Kuchar (funny hearing his Bronx accent in this surrounding) spurning the love of a ceramic doll! Hell hath no fury like, (ahem) a ceramic doll scorned, so out of revenge, it conjures up a tornado! (Shot on video, the mouth of the doll is altered in post-production to seem like it is talking.)
This twisted revision of the Wicked Witch of Oz, is another result of Kuchar taking chance “on the moment” elements and creating a story out of it: impending weather out the window, a radio announcer’s voice on the soundtrack, a Goodwill purchase, and a video camera. In a sense it marries the “video journal” style of his Weather Diaries and the deliberate absurdity of such classics as Hold Me While I’m Naked. This very comical short is also imaginatively shot; once again, Kuchar proves he can make anything into something.