>>PREVIEW
CALGARY UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
Wednesday, April 19 — 22
HiFi Club, Broken City, Uptown Screen (check listings)
So, you like the movies do you? What about the countless independent films pushing the envelope everyday around the globe, movies that will never turn up in a theatre or video store near you? Where does a fellow cinephile go to quench his thirst for all things fringe?
Welcome to the Underground.
"We’re trying to distinguish ourselves as a festival that can really show and do anything… we want to keep music and film together and we want it to be in a unique environment," says Brenda Lieberman, co-founder and programmer for the third annual Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF).
We chat over a pint at Broken City, one of the unconventional venues for the festival (other venues this year include The Hifi Club and 35mm screenings at The Uptown). She is quick to defend their decision to hold screenings in bars, claiming the atmosphere and "vibe" created through this amalgamation of music, cinema and liquor is part of the festival’s specific charm and inherent to its growing appeal.
Selecting the right films for this kind of festival involves a lot of legwork. As a result, Lieberman and company have been travelling to festivals across Canada and the United States, personally hand-picking the films they feel fit the criteria.
"We’re looking for (films) that have a stronger voice… what we’ve been doing from the beginning is soliciting films we’ve seen that have been doing well at these (festivals) – that we feel will appeal to Calgary and are films that we liked."
With subject matter ranging from the misplaced youth of Vancouver street kids in Exile in Lotusland to the campy kung fu movie-obsessed, mad cow disease-afflicted Mad Cowgirl, it is clear that the only true correlation between the films is their penchant for innovative storytelling.
Anything goes in the Underground.
Or does it? Considering how quickly CUFF has grown in such a short lifespan (its overall attendance nearly tripled in its second year and this year has seen the festival expand to four days and three venues), it begs the question – at what point does such continued success begin to compromise their underground status?
Lieberman’s response is disarmingly honest.
"We’re probably going to outgrow Broken City at some point and we don’t really know what to do because we want to keep music and film together, we want it to be in a unique environment… (but) if there are 375 people that would fill an Uptown theatre for one of our movies that would be awesome." |
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