The 22nd Annual Boston Underground Film Festival is set to kick off its five-day event at Brattle Theater at Harvard Square from March 25. The official line-up is out now touting what they’re describing as “two world premieres, a whole lot of unholy obsession, objectophilia, WTF thrillers, genre-spinning slashers, familial dysfunction, queer clairvoyance, and more!”
We have a gallery which you can check out below that includes most of the titles listed; The only one without an image we can share is for David Kleiler Jr.’s forthcoming documentary, Films In The Living Room, which is set to have a Work-In-Progress screening for the festival.
Limited BUFF passes are avaialble through the festival’s Kickstarter until Friday, March 13. Tickets go on sale Monday, March 9, and you can snag them here and here. Check out the gallery or feel free to read on just beneath!
BUFF is proud to host the East Coast Premiere of Adam Rehmeier’s Sundance-smash must-see punk-rock rom-com, Dinner in America, which sets the raucous tone for the festival’s 22nd year with its salty sweet, darkly hilarious tear through the suburban hellscape as two seemingly mismatched misfits find each other and themselves through music and a shared appetite for anarchy.
UK writer-director Rose Glass crafts a chilling and boldly original vision of faith, madness, and salvation in a fallen world with her gut-punch feature debut, Saint Maud. BUFF is beyond honored to host the Boston Premiere of A24’s highly anticipated upcoming release, with director Glass in attendance for a post-screening Q&A! Our thematic strand of unholy obsession continues with the World Premiere of the 2K Restoration of Philip Ridley’s 1995 awe-inspiring The Passion of Darkly Noon, courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive and Arrow Films. With Cage-Rage all the rage, don’t miss the chance to indulge in a little big-screen Fras-Rage as Brendan Fraser tackles the titular role of an ex-cultist burning with desire for the sultry, maybe-a-witch/maybe-not-a-witch Callie (Ashley Judd).
Keeping the faith (of sorts) is Miguel Llansó’s afrofuturist, “WTF thriller” Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway, which follows a pair of undercover agents who must utilize VR to destroy a computer virus that threatens the megalopolis they’re charged with protecting. When one of the agents accidentally inhales a mystery gas, he finds himself trapped in a parallel reality and must put his faith in a Christ-like figure to find his way toward the ultimate truth. Speaking of strange gases, writer/director/star Molly Hewitt’s candy-colored dynamo debut Holy Trinity follows an aerosol-huffing, sex-positive, queer dominatrix who develops an ability to commune with the dead and must contend with the spiritual and existential consequences that result.
Obsession transmogrifies into objectophilia in Quentin Dupieux’s darkly funny Deerskin, which finds Georges (played by Academy Award winner Jean Dujardin) in a bizarre midlife morass of masculinity-gone-real-wrong as his vintage deerskin jacket compels him to take up a life of crime and artifice. Co-star Adèle Haenel (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) becomes an unlikely collaborator and documentarian of Georges’ unhinged, leather-driven pursuits. Objectophilia expresses its softer side in Zoé Wittock’s stunning debut, Jumbo, which follows Jeanne (played by Noémie Merlant, also of Portrait of a Lady on Fire fame), a shy young woman who finds true love on the job in the form of a 25-foot amusement ride. Enjoying its East Coast Premiere and closing out BUFF’s 22nd year, Jumbo perfectly complements Dinner in America’s opening salvo of misfits finding love in all the weird (and lovely) places.
In line with our commitment to giving first-time feature filmmakers a broader presence at the festival, BUFF is thrilled to present a pair of powerful debuts that demand your attention. Bri Proke’s Shark Week follows a lonely burnout named Bill who skateboards the streets of Toronto in search of his lost dog, also named Bill. Along his journey, he’s confronted by his past at every turn and opportunities to change course. This gem is a film by the weirdos, for the weirdos and BUFF is honored to host the International Premiere with director Proke in attendance! BUFF is also exceedingly proud to host the World Premiere of BUFF alum Nicholas Payne Santos’ New England-set It Cuts Deep, a whipsmart horror-comedy about a man’s fear of marriage & kids, also with director and talent in attendance!
Fans of horror, have no fear: There’s plenty more for you in this year’s lineup including Tetsuya Nakashima’s (The World of Kanako) head-spinning supernatural bogeyman banger, It Comes; the East Coast Premiere of Natasha Kermani’s bloody and biting feminist frightfest, Lucky (with director Kermani in attendance!); The Deeper You Dig, an unsettling supernatural tale where a mother, her daughter and a stranger’s lives collide in the aftermath of a roadside accident; and this year’s midnight Secret Screening is guaranteed to be one of the year’s best films ever.
Our annual kid-friendly Saturday Morning All-You-Can-Eat Cereal Cartoon Party tunes back in to a cherished bygone pastime with three hours of ‘toons and cereal smorgasbord, hosted and programmed by renowned curator, author, publisher, and founder of the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, Kier-La Janisse. For the first time, BUFF is expanding its kid-friendly fare with a 35mm screening of Nicholas Roeg’s The Witches, in honor of this formative children’s masterwork on the occasion of its 30th anniversary.
In honor of BUFF’s dearly departed founder, David Kleiler, we’ll be hosting a very special Work-in-Progress screening of Films in the Living Room, a documentary about the beloved elder statesman of New England film by David Kleiler Jr. (who will be in attendance). We’ll also have our usual veritable bounty of shorts programming, celebrating the finest animation, transgressive horror, comedy, homegrown talent, and genre-inspired music videos!
And if all of that wasn’t enough, be sure to check out A Little Faith is a Dangerous Thing: Inspired by Saint Maud, a special repertory series that explores the dangers of faith – either too much or not enough. Psycho killers, Satanic possessions, biblical disasters, cult freakouts, witchcraft, even the Antichrist himself – this series has it all and is presented in association with A24 and the Brattle Theatre during the week before BUFF22 (March 18–24).