Life & Work with Keith Kurlander of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Keith Kurlander.

Keith, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I grew up in Chicago, so I know about weather, specifically cold winters, the Hawk and driving on ice. I was just a normal suburban kid till my mom remarried and I was thrust into the lifestyles of the rich and famous, in Chicago’s Gold Coast when I was 16. It was sex, drugs and rock and roll from then on until 1971. After I graduated high school, I drove Yellow and Checker taxi cabs, Good Humor and Tastee Freeze ice cream trucks, I studied Yoga and Martial Arts. Later on, I taught Yoga for a year at the Center for Creative Consciousness before moving to Kauai on a spiritual quest to crystalize my spirit. At that time, I lived in a tent, did a lot of yoga, did a lot of fasting, swam in the ocean everyday and lived in Kalalau valley for 3 months where everyone ran around naked on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. When I wasn’t fasting, I was living on what I could pick, papayas, coconuts, bananas, mangos, macadamia nuts etc. I was reading spiritual books from the Tao, Sufi, Zen Buddhism, Alan Watts, Trungpa Rinpoche etc. After 10 months of living in a tent I got island fever (needing more cultural stimulation) and moved back to the states.

I made my living painting images on needlepoint canvases, that would then be templates for others to complete. I sold the canvases to various stores, it was quite lucrative at the time and that lasted around 18 months. By chance, the apartment owner where I was living saw some of my needlepoints and asked me to paint graphics on the walls of the complex. He liked them so much that he had me do several of his other apartments. After a year of that, I became a bicycle messenger and went to the Control Data Institute at night to learn how to program computers. After graduating, the programming jobs were in Los Angeles, but I couldn’t breathe the air, so in 1982, I moved to San Diego where I became a pedicab driver in Balboa Park.

One day, I saw this woman setting up a big camera and tripod and I started talking to her and she proceeded to tell me about the Southwestern public access cable station and their training programs. That changed the trajectory of my life. I went through all their bootcamp training, studio production, field production, editing, and started my RAD TV show that featured music videos they wouldn’t or couldn’t play on MTV, experimental film and video art pieces along with one or two of my own music videos per show. After forming the post punk rock jazz band IdioT-SaVant in 1984 which lasted a year, and 3 years of RAD TV, I moved to Los Angeles to get into a bigger pond which by 1986 had much cleaner air. I had a business partner then and we were trying to get RAD TV on broadcast television, however I needed a job right away and I got one, delivering pizzas at Jacopo’s in Beverly Hills, providing sustenance for many Hollywood notables. At this time, I also had a Sony 3/4″ cuts only system with an early Amiga graphic computer and one day I put an ad in the Pennysaver newspaper offering editing services. One of my first clients had a TV show and we ended up editing 5 days a week and that was the start of making a living in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. I eventually started shooting film, got a business partner, expanded Rad Productions into 4 edit bays, with employees and editors. During this time, I directed around 50 music videos, half rap and half alt-rock. I was always trying to come up with special FX and looks that hadn’t been seen before. The post facility came to an end 3 years later and I worked as a freelance editor on everything from Fox Sports promos to Dancing with the Stars to the Howie Mandel Show. I ended up making a bunch of extremely lo-fi films with the “most known unknown actor in the world” Dennis Woodruff, this culminated in 2009 with Cold Creepy Feeling, a movie I wrote, directed, shot, scored and edited. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever created in my life due to mutinies on the set, the ever-shifting weather in Joshua Tree, the constraints of the shooting schedule and the ultra-low budget. It has some original scares to it, was loosely based on things I had seen or experienced and is fun to watch on TUBI. I recently produced two documentaries called “5 Questions”. The reason for this was to get a sampling of how we as Americans think and feel about this country and the world. These are the questions:

1. How do you feel about the current state of your life?
   2. How do you feel about the current state of America?
   3. How do you feel about the current state of the world?
   4. How do you feel about the future of America?
   5. How do you feel about the future of the world?

The documentaries can be seen here: https://youtu.be/G6ueQgQgvWk?si=ZweLiaevqrxYbU0R and here https://youtu.be/viGdaeKHG78?si=SCW1S0C0WbxEwSQE

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Has it been a smooth road? No, there’s absolutely nothing smooth about Hollywood, it’s always reacting to the unexpected, like being raided by a SWAT team during an editing session, having my business partner get arrested, having TV shows cancelled, dealing with shall I say “colorful” personalities, editing on toxic shows, however there were lots of great times too.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have the ability to see things and put disparate elements together in ways that form a new creation in my own unique style. To create, I have to be inspired, whether it’s music, music videos, film or art and I’m never sure what medium or direction that will be in. Since 2025, I have been extremely motivated to create protest art. What started out as a RESIST motif evolved into the DIS★OBAY series as a reaction to the current “regime” in America. The pushback is not only protesting in the streets, it’s also in our collective psyche, the people we know, the discussions we have, in the media we consume, and this is my way of being part of the resistance while also maintaining my mental health at the same time. I describe the DIS★OBAY series as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein on LSD. I’m just starting to have some sales and shows at this moment. They’re all 24″ x 36″ digital prints on canvas and they can be seen and purchased here. https://www.artpal.com/disobay

How do you think about luck?
I have a serendipitous mindset that allows me to be open to new experiences and connections. The woman with the big camera from Southwestern Cable in Balboa Park was pivotal as was the apartment owner giving me the opportunity to paint graphics on walls for his multiple properties. Another time, I ran into a former editing client and he told me a certain post super was looking for an editor, I contacted him, took a walk on the set of Real TV, which I was going to be hired on as an editor, but later that night, I got contacted by the post super saying they needed someone at the Howie Mandel show, next thing I knew I was an I.A.T.S.E. editor. So, in the end, luck and the willingness to be open, can make a huge difference.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.keithkurlander.biz/, https://www.idiot-savant.net/, https://stonermoviechannel.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keith.kurlander
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@keithkurlander1
• Other: https://www.artpal.com/disobay