Sydney Underground Film Festival
SUFF is about so much more than just the mainstream.
The Sydney Underground Film Festival has always been dedicated to nurturing an alternative film culture through the promotion of independent and experimental films, and based on Festival Director Katherine Berger’s personal synopsis of the latest edition, it will be doing its job better than ever.
When asked about what would set SUFF 2014 apart from its incarnations in the past, her answer is simple: “[We have] the greatest possibility of having something banned this year.” In many ways this quote captures the essence of alternative film culture, and the “gore”, “confronting portrayals” and “strange fetishes” that this year’s festival-goers can expect.
“In terms of film content, we don’t have to consider anyone except our audience. We try to bring together a community around adventurous and risky cinema so we usually screen stuff audiences will never see again,” she says. “When we are 80 we can tell our grandchildren that we are badass – ‘Back in my day, we screened everything from left-wing anti-war films, cannibalism, contextualised pornography, seditious films, pro-drug films, people making love to donkeys, people eating tampons to people making cocktails in their vagina’. [We want to see] people discussing, getting riled up, hanging out and generally having a good time.”However, in targeting and satisfying such a niche market, a few drawbacks are inevitable. Like many creative projects these days, SUFF 2014 suffered from a lack of funding and had to be backed through the kindness of likeminded others on crowdfunding platform Pozible.
Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter
“Sadly, we are a blossoming festival yet still suffer the ‘un-funded’ curse. Dealing with ever-shifting technology – and not having the money, and therefore resources, to always deal with this. The [Pozible] experience was a positive one, although it really was a lot of pressure and work. We ran a 50-day campaign and it was mostly promoted through social media and we tried to keep in everyone’s psyche for the 50 days! I think it’s a brilliant platform for organisations like ours to raise some extra dough to be able to run, survive and in our case have more guests, pay for marketing and increasing screening costs and a have a little more freedom than we are used to.”
Evan Young
In a fantasy world who would you be the love-child of? “Hunter S Thompson, the Joker and Amelie.”
Sydney Underground Film Festival runs from 4 – 7 Sep at Factory Theatre.
More From Our Network
