This may be the fifth year for Connecticut’s New Haven Underground Film Festival, but it’s the first year under the stewardship of new festival director Phil Hall. The logistics of the fest haven’t changed, so it’s still going to be a one day affair: Sept. 27. But, Hall has of course put his own unique stamp on the film selection, etc.

Hall is a longtime contributor to the legendary Film Threat, as well as having written for other publications; plus he’s the author of the Underground Film Journal recommended Encyclopedia of Underground Movies as well as the more recent Independent Film Distribution, which I haven’t had a chance to read yet. So, this is a guy who knows a thing or two — ok, a lot more than that! — about underground films. Originally founded and co-run by Michael Mongillo and Todd Dzicek, NHUFF was handed off to Hall last year so they could pursue other projects.

Personally, I’m not familiar with any of the films screening at this year’s NHUFF, but it sounds like a terrific lineup with lots of stuff I really want to check out sometime, especially the Larry Fessenden-starring The Pod by Jeremiah Kipp, which is also screening on the same exact day over at the Coney Island Film Festival.

And before we get to the lineup, one last reminded: Before you head out to New Haven to check out the fest, it’s actually being held at the University of Hartford in West Hartford. Nice to see Hall continuing the tradition of not holding the fest in New Haven, which started under Mongillo and Dzicek.

Sept. 27
12:00 p.m.
The Pod, dir. Jeremiah Kipp
Icons, dir. Neal Thomassen
Dark Room, dir. Ryan Davis
The Dungeon of Dr. Dreck, dir. Michael Legge
Gloria Mundi, dir. Sarah Lasley
Greetings from Havre de Grace, dir. Mark Scalese
Exposed, dir. Noah Cooper
Plan 9 from Syracuse, dir. Ryan Dacko
Harsh Light, dir. E.B. Hughes
London Betty, dir. Thomas Edward Seymour

For more info, please visit the NHUFF site.