The eighth annual Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival is now open for submissions. The festival will run next year May 6-10 in Portland, Oregon. Deadlines are:

Deadline:
December 12, 2008

Late Deadline:
January 23, 2009

PDX has become one of the best — if not the best — showcases for challenging, socially relevant and conscious documentaries. Last year they screened what’s probably my favorite documentary of the year, Georg Koszulinski‘s Immokalee, USA, a powerful and moving portrait of an immigrant farming community in Florida.

But PDX also screens tons of great short films from some of the best experimental filmmakers around, including Shana Moulton, Stephanie Barber, James June Schneider and Aaron Valdez, just to name a few from last year. Plus, PDX is really a full film and video event. In addition to traditional film screenings, they also hold their annual Experimental Filmmaker Karaoke Throwdown, the Peripheral Produce Invitational, run continuous video installations and more.

The festival’s mission statement says:

PDX Fest is dedicated to showcasing new and innovative work in film and video from around the world. Focusing on non-narrative work that goes against the grain of mainstream entertainment, the PDX Fest is looking for artistic, underground, quirky and challenging work that reflects contemporary culture, documents historic oddities, and is otherwise unclassifiable.

Experimental, documentary and/or underground work of all lengths will be considered. Exhibition formats include 35mm, 16mm, Beta SP, and DV. Live, multi-media and performance-based works with a film or video emphasis are also encouraged to submit. We are also accepting video installation proposals for the festival’s satellite installation exhibit. Please see submission guidelines for complete details.

If you’re not familiar with PDX and want a better feel for it, check out last year’s lineup on the Underground Film Journal and the festival highlights as reported on the PDX site.

Full submission guidelines, forms and fees can be found on the festival’s official website.

And check out the Underground Film Journal’s list of film festivals for more great underground fests to submit to.