Originally published in This Land: Spring 2016.
A colorful sign reads, “MOTEL Reno.” The sky is dark with clouds in an array of white and black. Rain patters the awning and roof of the motel and sounds like sizzling bacon through digital video. The camera shifts, and as the sound of rain continues the scene changes. Now, a hand-drawn sign appears over an abstract sky done in prismatic swirls: Weather Diary 1. A meteorologist’s voice joins the rain; he’s reading a weather broadcast. Cut back to the motel sign and the distant fields of El Reno, and the rain and robotic voice persist.
You’ve now begun a bizarre study of Oklahoma weather.
On May 8, 1986, a tornado passed through Edmond, Oklahoma, causing $15 million in damage and injuring 15 residents—no one was killed. The same week, 30 miles east of Edmond, American underground filmmaker George Kuchar checked in at the Motel Reno.
What seems innocent at first (how threatening can footage of idyllic wheat fields and distant storms on the plains be?) slowly reveals the fear and awe with which we regard nature. During the three weeks Kuchar spends in El Reno, personality is born, matures, and dies before the audience.
After checking into the motel with a single bag and digital video camera, Kuchar films himself watching Oklahomans talk about losing their homes on TV, washing his underwear in the sink, eating fast food, and experiencing several storms firsthand. Viewers feel as though they’re sharing the motel room with Kuchar.