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2024 BUFF - Dispatch #5

Green’s Party is proud to be covering the 2024 Boston Underground Film Festival, which kicked off Wed. at the Brattle Theatre (Cambridge, MA). I’ve been lucky enough to cover the festival since 2016. Here is my 2024 coverage so far.

This year has been a very different BUFF for me in that I didn't attend in-person as often as have in the past. I attended on Wed., but since Thursday I've been under the weather. Fortunately I've been able to continue my coverage via screeners, but in many cases what you want with films at BUFF is seeing it with an audience and hearing that reaction in a packed cinema. So I missed closing night film Boy Kills World and the closing night awards party :(

movie poster

I did catch Canada's With Love and a Major Organ, which is set in an alternate world where hearts are made of objects and suppressing emotions, a woman literally gives a suitor her heart and it sets this drama in motion. I thought it was interesting and a good premise, but I kind of wanted it to get even weirder and more bizarre. Like what if Terry Gilliam or Michel Gondry had been directing this screenplay? It had some good acting but within the curation of BUFF I was hoping it would get even stranger than the initial concept.

Sadly this is my last BUFF dispatch of 2024. While I wish I had been able to attend more films than I did, it's great to see the festival bringing their brand of bizarre underground cinema to Boston each year! I want to thank the entire BUFF team especially Kevin Monahan, Nicole McControversy, and Kaila Sarah Hier!

For info on 2024 BUFF

#boston underground film festival #buff24 #with love and a major organ #film festival #film geek

2024 BUFF - Dispatch #4

Green’s Party is proud to be covering the 2024 Boston Underground Film Festival, which kicked off last night at the Brattle Theatre (Cambridge, MA). I’ve been lucky enough to cover the festival since 2016. Here is my 2024 coverage so far.

Sat. kicked off early afternoon with one of my favorite programs of the festival Sound + Vision, a collection of music videos. The same way a festival does a program of short films, BUFF always puts together a collection of cool music videos. This year's program included a good one from The Chemical Brothers and Beck's "Skipping like a Stone" as well as a very gory one from The Hives for "Bogus Operondi"!

movie poster for The Becomers

I didn't get to attend BUFF in-person on Saturday, but I did get to watch the screener for The Becomers. Director Zach Clark is a veteran of BUFF and his film Little Sister was one of the highlights of 2016, where I got to interview him. His new one is a wild road movie about aliens inhabiting humans and swapping bodies periodically as they discover American life. I wished I had seen this with an audience as it would've gotten quite a response. It even has Russell Mael of Sparks narrating.

Today: last day of the festival includes With Love and a Major Organ and Boy Kills World.

For tickets and info on 2024 BUFF

Stay tuned to Green’s Party for my coverage of this year’s fest!

#boston underground film festival #buff24 #the hives #beck #the chemical brothers #the becomers #zach clark #sparks #film geek #film festival

2024 BUFF - Dispatch #3

Friday kicked off with The Dunwhich Horrors, a program of short films all taking place in New England. Some really strong shorts in this program, notably Who's There? about a step-father waiting for his teenage daughter to come home and he begins hearing things and wonders if it's really her and Within the Walls about a family worried they are not alone in their house. The later was directed by BUFF alum Benjamin Swicker, who previously did 2017's The Dissolving Man and 2018's A/S/L.

a scene from Sleep

I did not get to attend the festival in-person today, but I did get to watch the Korean film Sleep about a young expectant couple who are trying to figure out the husband's sleepwalking patterns before it gets dangerous. Can't say much more than that. The idea of horror being a metaphor for a young couple's fear and anxieties about parenthood is nothing new, but this had some very effective moments of the audience wondering if it's insanity or a curse.

Today: films include Tiger Stripes, The Becomers and Infested

For tickets and info on 2024 BUFF

Stay tuned to Green’s Party for my coverage of this year’s fest!

#boston underground film festival #buff24 #short films #within the walls #who's there?#sleep #film geek #film festival

2024 BUFF - Dispatch #1

me on the red carpet outside The Brattle

The festival kicked off with Opening Night film Immaculate. I did not get to see it, but my friends the Rasmussen Brothers (who had last year's Opening Night Film Unheard) tweeted that Immaculate star and current It Girl Sydney Sweeney got her start in John Carpenter's The Ward, which the Rasmussens wrote. Who knew?

Sweeney with John Carpenter circa 2010

Neon is opening Immaculate nationwide this Friday.

I did make it to the later night (not going to say late night, but 9:45 on a weeknight is later) of the 1990 Hong Kong action film Fatal Termination. This was the North American premiere of a new 4K restoration. I love 80s and 90s Hong Kong action movies, especially John Woo, so this festival selection got my attention immediately. The plot is a little hard to describe, but in a nutshell, there's gangsters, police and a married couple all at odds with each other. This pretty much defines what I love about BUFF, which is the communal experience that some films provide. If I had watched this on a screener in my house, I'd be disappointed and let down, but seeing it with an audience that's also laughing at the completely bonkers WTFery of it all made it a fun screening. Director Andrew Kam actually went to school with John Woo, though he is much lesser known. The gunplay and the action scenes (especially those with vehicles) were among the highlights.

Afterwards I hit the Opening Night Party at The Painted Burro (the former location of Border Cafe) and caught up with some friends.

Tonight: Films include Stange Kindness, Humanist Vampire Seeks Consenting Suicidal Person, and Femme.

For tickets and info on 2024 BUFF

Stay tuned to Green’s Party for my coverage of this year’s fest!