Underground Film Journal

Flashback: 4th Annual Chicago Underground Film Festival: Full Lineup

In 1997, the Chicago Underground Film Festival held its fourth annual edition on August 13-17 at the Theatre Building at 1225 W. Belmont Avenue. One way the festival promoted itself that year was it published a four-page pull-out section in the Chicago-based political magazine Lumpen, vol. 6 no. 4.

These pages included the entire festival schedule, which the Underground Film Journal has re-created in the full article. In addition, scans of the original Lumpen pages appear below that schedule. This program schedule did not include director names for the most part, but the Journal has included names that we could find through research.

In the Theatre Building, CUFF screened on two screens simultaneously. One theater screened films shot exclusively on film; while the other theater screened films shot exclusively on video. In addition, a Closing Night event of director John Waters' live performance piece "Shock Value" took place in the film theater and was simulcast into the video theater.

Read Full Article…

Divinations — Storm De Hirsch

Divinations by Storm De Hirsch (1964).

Divinations was completed in 1964 at the same time Storm De Hirsch was finishing her only feature film, Goodbye in the Mirror. According to the Film-makers' Cooperative Catalogue No. 4, published in 1967, the music making up the film's soundtrack is a ritual chant of a Maori medicine man and a Sicilian tarantella performed on a jew's harp.

Read Full Article…

Endings

A young girl who knows she is dying from leukemia spends her last day on Earth with a woman living with breast cancer and a junkie who is considering committing suicide.

Where To Watch »

1985: The Cinema Of Transgression Manifesto Is Published

In September 1985, Nick Zedd published the fourth issue of his zine The Underground Film Bulletin, which featured a drawing of punk musician Richard Hell on the cover. Zedd published the zine primarily as a promotional tool to promote the work of his fellow punk Lower East Side filmmakers. The fourth issue included articles on Cassandra Stark, Manuel Delanda and Jim Jarmusch.

However, the most important article in this issue of the Underground Film Bulletin was Zedd's "The Cinema of Transgression Manifesto," which reads like a proclamation of war against avant-garde filmmaking and "academic snobbery."

Read Full Article…