For over a year now I’ve been waiting for the second Criterion set of By Brakhage, a collection of films by Stan Brakhage. 
The day it was released I gathered up a bunch of CDs, walked over to Amoeba and made more than enough in credit to cover the cost of the set. It was well worth the wait. The transfers all look great, and it is an invaluable study tool to be able to have 30 of his works available in digital reproductions at home. I also think the way of organizing the set into programs curated by Marilyn Brakhage that gives some sense of context, or at least shape to the viewing experience, is an improvement to the previous set.
Of course, the publication of this edition is also a wonderful occasion to exhibit the actual works: the films in a theater. It was a real treat to see a program of some of the films presented by Mark Toscano at the Los Angeles Filmforum. Mark Toscano has been restoring and preserving Brakhage’s films at the Academy Film Archives, where all of Stan’s original elements are held, and also worked on preparing and transferring the films in this set. I’m including a link to a crappy quality video of one of my favorite films included on the set, The Dead, which I was able to see projected last year at the Filmforum.
It Came from Kuchar by Jennifer M. Kroot was recently given several screenings at the Egyptian, along with a program of recent shorts by George & Mike Kuchar. I had been hearing great things about the documentary and was very much looking forward to seeing it. While I won’t say I disliked the documentary, I did feel it was a bit flat. It didn’t go into any great depth or cover anything particularly interesting; it was a lot of talking heads of various people of greater and less renown in the film world talking about how great the Kuchars are, without offering any real insight into their work or even anything compelling about them as personalities. It was… a bit of a fluff piece. I think it would be great to show people who don’t know anything about them or their work, as it is an easily digestible introduction to them that is certainly fun, but it feels to me like a bit of a missed opportunity.