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Plaza Theatre

In 2003, Brenda Lieberman, Kari McQueen, Andy Eyck, Julia Burns, Brian Batista and Andra Louie founded the Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) — not entirely out of dissatisfaction with the Calgary International Film Festival's (CIFF) programming, but not without provocation in this regard, either. Running in April rather than September, CUFF has become, as Lieberman puts it: “The Slamdance to [CIFF’s] Sundance.”

“There was a film [I saw in Toronto] called The Other Side of the Bed,” she says. “It was a Spanish musical — a thirty-something musical. It was totally awesome. I came back here to the CIFF and said you should program it. And they were listening, but they weren't really doing anything. So I just went and programmed my own festival.”

Working as a programmer for both festivals, Lieberman sees the relationship between the two as complementary, though at one time it was arguably contrasting. In previous years, CUFF screened primarily in bars and other ad-hoc venues where the film equipment had to be assembled and disassembled each evening. While the process was exhausting for the organizers of CUFF, it also lent the festival a quaint, amiable do-it-yourself atmosphere. With every screening occurring at the Plaza this year, CUFF — superficially, at least — resembles more and more the slick, professional CIFF.

“We kind of outgrew holding screenings in bars,” says Lieberman. “Part of what we wanted to showcase to Calgary was not just North American independent gems but also international films, and it's really hard to show a film with subtitles at the bar. It's painful having to watch people head-bob the whole time. So we had to end up reducing the amount of foreign movies we could program just because of sight lines.”

Also new to this year's festival is increased capacity, slightly more than doubling last year's. While an increased capacity also means potentially increased revenue, it also ups the potential loss. Lieberman doesn't deny that the more immediate emphasis on filling seats has affected the programming.

“We have to decide how many of these really obscure, hard-to-watch, edgy films we can program and still be able to afford to do [the festival]. Right now, everything is going on my credit card,” she says. “With a movie like Frownland, for example, I really hope we get a good audience. The story, in synopsis, you might wonder why you're going to it, but it's a very good film for a festival. It's exactly the kind of show that festivals should do, so we programmed it, even if it isn't everyone's favourite. It's hard to watch, and the filmmaker knows that it is. He said that every theatre has a love/hate relationship with his movie. It's been winning awards and doing really well, but it's going to put some pressure on some people as they watch it.”

More than the concern over audience comfort during specific films, Lieberman was finding it increasingly awkward to explain to artists and distributors that they wouldn't be showing their films in a theatre. Though certain directors — like Tommy Chong, who was in attendance at the screening of his film last year — found the bar atmosphere amicable to their intended tone, it can't be denied that viewing a film in a theatre carries a certain cultural cachet.

“I think it's really important [to watch movies with other people],” says Lieberman. “Being with an audience and watching it on a big screen makes all the difference. Horror and comedy are both good examples. You feed off each other's laughter or fright. If you were to go and ask some of [the artists] if you could get a DVD of their film, they won't want that.”

Though CUFF may be taking on a CIFF-like atmosphere, Lieberman is emphatic that it will stay true to its independent spirit. CUFF's organizers are reluctant to impose strict programming criteria to ensure a distinction between the two festivals, as the circumstances of securing films year-to-year often make these impossible to stick to. Still, all of the programmers are very conscious of the need for such a distinction, and consider it when selecting films each year.

“I think when something's independent, people sometimes feel like they can have a closer connection to it,” says Lieberman. “I would feel comfortable saying that we're always going to show stuff that is independent. We're actively seeking and looking to program and specialize in cool, independent cinema.”