The Brisbane Underground Film Festival

Culture... with extra cult.

The first Brisbane Underground Film Festival (BUFF) will screen the kind of films that usually play at midnight, go straight to DVD or never make it to Brisbane at all.

BUFF aims to release a barrage of genre, arthouse, horror, unusual, controversial, so-bad-it's-good funny and really, really weird films on Brisbane. Because a city like ours needs an underground film festival. It's the most fun you can have in a dark room with strangers!

Warning: These films are recommended 18+. Nudity and offensive language.

Wednesday 29 September, 7pm: Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields
Ten years in the making, Strange Powers is an intimate documentary portrait of songwriter Stephin Merritt and his band the Magnetic Fields. With his unique gift for memorable melodies, lovelorn lyrics and wry musical stylings, Merritt has distinguished himself as one of contemporary pop’s most beloved and influential musicians. A prolific recording artist, he performs most famously as the Magnetic Fields, whose 1999 three-disc opus 69 Love Songs is widely considered a masterpiece of traditional songcraft and irresistible synthpop. Featuring interviews with Sarah Silverman, Neil Gaiman, Peter Gabriel and Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket), Strange Powers explores Merritt’s songwriting and recording process, and focuses on his relationship with longtime manager Claudia Gonson. Screens with short film 'Third and Fourth'.

Thursday 30 September, 7pm: Yodok Stories
Torture. Rape. Cannibalism. Abortion. Starvation. Suicide. A true horror movie, Yodok Stories focuses on the hundreds of thousands of people locked in North Korea's concentration camps, most of whom will never make it out alive. If someone is convicted of a crime (without a trial), the person's parents and children are also locked in the camps - all three generations guilty by association. The film documents a small number of survivors in South Korea, making an extraordinary musical about their experiences in the Yodok concentration camp.Nothing could be shot in North Korea for the film, so horrific stories are told using lush visuals from the performances, inspired by North Korea's lavishly choreographed political celebrations.

Friday 1 October, 7pm: Dogtooth (Kynodontas)
The parents of three young adults keep them completely isolated from the outside world on their rural property in Greece. They bring in a prostitute regularly for their son, and home-school their children a curriculum of misinformation. But boredom, games and sexual experimentation are bubbling just under the surface. Reminiscent of Bad Boy Bubby or Lars Von Trier's work, the film may be read as a dark metaphor for modern society, or a black comedy about families.

Friday 1 October, 9pm: Primal
Australian Premiere. Six friends journey into the wilderness for a camping trip to visit a remote, ancient rock painting. But when one takes a dip in a nearby waterhole, she becomes feverish and agitated, and regresses to a predatory state where her companions become the hunted. When another begins the same beastly transition, terror descends on the remainder as they realise it's kill or be killed. Soon one will have to venture into the creepy mountain caves to confront the cause of all the monstrous mayhem. A frenzied visceral nightmare with a fantastic one-word ending.

Duration (each film) 2hrs, No Interval