It's a film festival as you've never seen it before, May 30-June 1, at the inaugural Brunswick Underground Film Festival (or BUFF, for short). Three days of high-quality, forward-thinking, underground, cult, schlock and trash cinema in the heart of Brunswick West, spanning the main hall in Estonian House, next door's Static Vision HQ, and Pink Flamingo Cinema's pop-up space down under (43-47 Melville Road, Brunswick West).
The festival kicks off in style with a prankster's delight triple-feature: Jackass: The Movie, Jackass Number Two and Jackass 3D, in honour of the trail-blazing collective's 25th anniversary. Tickets for our opening night soiree are just $37.50 ($35 for concessions) and include a drink on arrival from our friends at Rocky Ridge Brewing.
Other highlights include a slew of retrospective screenings including Frank Henenlotter's gloopy Substance-influencing classic Frankenhooker, Jennie Livingston's iconic Ballroom-scene time capsule Paris is Burning, and the newly unearthed Director's Cut of Shu Lea Cheang's erotic cyberpunk show-stopper IKU (screening alongside its new sequel UKI). New highlights include Bruce La Bruce's hardcore sci-fi Berlinale-r The Visitor, Michigan underground King Joel Potrykus' death-pacter Vulcanizadora, cinema from the frontlines in Palestinian anthology piece From Ground Zero, and Braden Sitter Sr.'s aptly named The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man.
The festival closes out with the (official) Victorian premiere of cult indie director Eugene Kotlyarenko's latest feature, The Code, which sees a couple attempt to re-ignite their relationship through self-surveillance, in the early days of the pandemic period. Starring Dasha Nekrasova, Peter Vack, Ivy Wolk, Vishwam Velandy, and Casey Frey, its a phantasmogoric techno-love letter, told through the perspective of over 70 different cameras (with help from a healthy variety of TikTok reels and memes).
We've endeavoured to keep the cost of tickets down, and have introduced 5-film passes ($75) to make it easier to traverse the program. The best move, however, is as always, to pick up a full festival pass - a bargain at $135/$125, or around $8 per film!
Films will screen simultaneously across our three venues, in discrete blocks, so you can pack the most into your movie-going day. Huge thanks to our major sponsor Rocky Ridge Brewing, and the homies at Heaps Normal, Crumpler, MemoryLab, Blow Up Cinema, and Thornbury Picture House. You can explore the full program here, with tickets to all sessions on sale now!