Daring Cinema That Cuts Against the Grain: Boston Underground Film Festival Marks 25th Anniversary
For over two decades, the Boston Underground Film Festival (BUFF) has showcased avant-garde films that bend the boundaries of traditional cinema. BUFF will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year with film screenings from Wednesday, March 19, through Sunday, March 23, at the Brattle Theatre.
This year’s festival lineup will feature 60 titles, including 14 feature films and six short programs. The films have been masterfully curated from more than 1,200 submissions by the festival’s programming director, Nicole McControversy.
The festival kicks off on Wednesday, March 19, with “The Surfer,” starring Nicolas Cage as a banker who confronts territorial surfing gangs in Australia. Following “The Surfer” is a new-age interpretation of the 1991 film “Muerte en La Playa.”
Horror legend Barbara Crampton will appear for the 40th anniversary screening of “Re-Animator” on Saturday, March 22. This screening will be the first time the film will be shown in a new 4K UHD restoration.
BUFF Artistic Director Kevin Monahan describes the “Vulcanizadora” screening on Thursday, March 20, as an “f—ing bleak” exploration of nostalgia when two middle-aged childhood pals hike through the woods and regress into sad versions of their teenage selves.
BUFF will also claim the New England premiere of what’s being labeled as the first-ever Irish-language horror film. Writer-director Aislinn Clarke’s “Fréwaka,” screening on Thursday, March 20, details the tale of an agoraphobe who believes faeries once kidnapped her from a Celtic myth.
The festival concludes on Sunday, March 23, with “Escape from the 21st Century.” The Chinese sci-fi comedy’s storyline centers on three teenagers whose sneezes send them back and forth across time.
As it has for the past 24 years, BUFF will delight its highly curated audience with a distinctive blend of horror, comedy, and unconventional storytelling as it celebrates cinema that challenges mainstream norms.
