The 4th annual Minneapolis Underground Film Festival, which is now open for submissions, is mixing things up a little bit this year. The fest has appointed a new Director, Mark Hanson, to inject some new blood into the proceedings. And if there’s something MUFF usually likes, it’s a little blood with their cinema.

It’s not known yet what new visions Hanson will bring to the table, but MUFF has previously been known to enjoy the exploitation side of underground filmmaking, as one can tell from last year’s lineup, which included gruesome and spooky fare such as Drew Bolduc and Dan Nelson‘s over-the-top offensive The Taint.

The fest also screened the female vampire film Camilla Hyde, directed by Dave de Vries; John Ervin’s Vixen Highway, Carlos Atanes‘ Maximum Shame and Bill Cooper’s Hunting Buddies. But, they also screened lighter documentaries such as Michael Peterson‘s wickedly fun Eddies: The Documentary. So, the best one can say is that MUFF does like to mix it up. Plus, they also do give out cash prizes to certain films.

As of this date, official dates for the fest haven’t been announced yet, but we’re assuming it will run again sometime in December, just like it has for the past three years. There are two deadlines:

Regular Deadline
Oct. 21
$49

Late Deadline
Nov. 4
$69

If you want to submit, please visit the official Minneapolis Underground Film Festival.

Black Thorns in the Black Box

Black Thorns in the Black Box is an upcoming special screening tour devoted to exploring Black Metal art. It’s being organized by Bryan Wendorf of the Chicago Underground Film Festival and curator Amelia Ishmael.

Ishmael is organizing a wider Black Metal art exhibition entitled Black Thorns in the White Cube, of which the Black Box screening will be a part. To understand more about this event, this is from the official press release:

This screening will contribute to an international discourse currently occurring in Black Metal theory that examines the innovations and significance of contemporary Black Metal art, and offers an account of the critical disruptions taking place as this historical Norwegian musical subgenre transforms into a language of contemporary art. Practicing a transmodality between sound and vision, and pushing the limits of contemporary academic genres by definition, “Black Thorns in the Black Box” will feature a mutual blackening of art and metal.

There is one deadline and no submission fee:

Final Deadline
Oct. 1

If you want to submit, please send a DVD screener to this address:

Black Thorns In The Black Box
c/o Amelia Ishmael
PO Box 559
Chicago, IL 60690

If your Black Metal film is online, please email the link to bryan [dot] wendorf [at] gmail.com.