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Story by Sushil Cheema and Heamakarn Sricharatchanya
Although they are allegedly not part of the mainstream, well-known film festivals like Sundance or Tribeca usually screen films that are picked up by major distribution companies and later seen by mainstream audiences. The New York Underground Film Festival is not like those festivals. Instead, it features thought provoking unusual films that most people outside the filmmaking community will probably not even hear about, let alone see. Despite a tiny budget and almost only word-of-mouth advertising, the New York Underground Film Festival manages to grow strong by offering up non-traditional films for a fan-base hungry for an alternative to Hollywood.
"There is a slickness at Sundance and Tribeca that we don't have," said Mo Johnston, this year's executive director, referring to those more popular, high-budget festivals. "We try to give a home for voices that won't get recognition" at |
such larger, mainstream festivals and from larger audiences.
Of the films that will be seen this year at the New York Underground Film Festival, Johnston said, they are “thought-provoking” and “represent other voices” besides those of Hollywood producers. “These are not really straight-narrative films with a beginning, a middle, and an end.” She continued, “If it is a narrative, it has to have a unique point of view, a unique voice.”
Though Johnston had a difficult time defining what exactly what made a film underground the Web site of the third festival explained the festival's approach to underground films explicitly. “The New York Underground Film Festival seeks to go beyond the mainstream of film and video and present works of a countercultural, provocative and at times controversial nature."
“If it’s underground it must be interesting and innovative,” said Samuel Pollard, associate professor of film and television at New York University, who is not related to the festival. He said underground films tend to be "different, challenging, and interesting.”
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Jim Finn, whose feature film Interkosmos will open The New York Underground Film Festival this year described underground films as “things that are kind of out of the mainstream in a political sense but also have humor and experimental art.”
Finn also distinguished between independent and underground films using stereotypes about the two genres. He described independent films as “two Irish guys in a bar” and underground as “sex-whore” films. Independent films, he said, are character dramas, but underground films are not necessarily like that. David Kleiler, founder and artistic director of the Boston Underground Film Festival, said, “All underground films are independent, but not all independent films (indie films) are underground. |
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A scene from the film Interkosmos, in which Jim Finn envisions guinea pigs as a symbol for communism. |
At Anthology Film Archives where the film festival will take place for the ninth year, there are just two theaters to show 130 films. “We have no aspirations to become a Tribeca or Sundance,” Johnston said. “We don’t show movies just because people spend a lot of time or money making them.”
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The festival relies on its ticket sales, the submission fee for entries and its sponsors for its budget, said Kevin McGarry, the festival's only other full-time employee who serves as its director of programming. Last year, McGarry said, the festival attracted an audience of over 4,000 people, a crowd consisting primarily of students, artists, filmmakers and young people in the non-traditional arts community.
They attract this audience through the distribution of 15,000 pocket-sized catalogues throughout the cities five boroughs. In addition, they place ads in publications read by their target audience, including The Village Voice and The Onion. Other than that, McGarry and Johnston said, they rely on word-of-mouth from loyal fans. |
| Over a thousand of entries were submitted this year. |
“It’s a small crew of people in the U.S.,” said Finn. “It starts out as other artists with an absurd sensibility. And then it can expand in different directions.”
Johnston and McGarry both became involved with the festival while undergraduate students at New York University’s film department. Johnston said she thought highly of the festival from the beginning because of its reputation among her friends. “It’s a big community effort” with a “friends and family presence,” she said.
The New York Underground Film Festival opens on Wednesday, March 8 and runs through Tuesday, March 14. |
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NOW SHOWING |
UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVALS
Story about festivals across the United States |
AUDIO SLIDE SHOW
Lynne Sachs's experience making the underground film States of Unbelonging
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SLIDE SHOW
Stills from the upcoming New York Underground Film Festival
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