#25 - Cy Kuckenbaker

Cy Kuckenbaker is an award-winning American filmmaker, video artist, and arts professor. He is also something of an expert on Lithuania and its tortured past. First as a Peace Corps volunteer, then as a Fulbright scholar, his immersion in the small Baltic country was profound. The lessons he learned about Lithuania's dark past eerily echo in the present.

Cy was born in Arizona, grew up in a California farm town, and finished high school on a remote Aleutian Island in Alaska. He served in Peace Corps Lithuania after college and did his graduate studies at CalArts, where he received a Fulbright fellowship. His video work has appeared in Atlantic magazine, on the NBC Today show, and on the Yahoo News homepage. His film screenings include SXSW, MoMA NY, and the Los Angeles Film Festival.

For more information, check out his website HERE.

Cy Kuckenbaker

Cy as a Peace Corps volunteer with the push-start-only $50 Lada

Cy with students

Playing songs in a neighboring town near Latvia

SHOW CREDITS

SP/FS Producer & Host: Christopher Wurst

Opening Voices: Dmitri Wurst, Elena Wurst, Kjara Wurst, Christopher Wurst

Voice of Dubious Aunt Deb: Cathy Zielske

Cold Open Music: BWM – The Brina Band

Dubious Ant Deb Music: Cass County Beauty Queen – Alan Singley

Episode Music:

She Dreams in Blue (Instrumental) – Josh Woodward

time’s flying - Dlay

Piené – Stasys Povilaitis

Life in a Dollhouse – Alan Singley

Las Chicas de los grandes ojos negros – Adrián Berenguer

Plate Synthesis – Blue Dot Sessions

Interview date: April 18, 2025