Underground Film Journal

Underground Film Archive: Magazines

Most of the magazines and self-published zines listed below deal with underground film, but there are some genre magazines also listed and appropriately noted.

American Film, 1 issue , 1978

  • Vol. 3, No. 10. Contains “Aspects of the Avant-Garde: A Special Section” with articles by Jonathan Rosenbaum, Jonas Mekas, and Robert Sklar.

BadAzz MoFo, 3 issues , 2001-06

  • No. 6. 2001. Self-published zine that covers the world of blaxploitation cinema and other topics. No underground film content.
  • No. 7. 2002. Self-published zine that covers the world of blaxploitation cinema and other topics, plus two comic stories. No underground film content.
  • Super Digest No. 3. 2006. Contains content that would have gone into issue No. 8. (2 copies)

Boy From War, 1 issue , 2019

  • Issue 1. Reprints of the art journals from 1988-89 kept by filmmaker Usama Alshaibi.

Canyon Cinemanews, 1 issue , 1972

  • Issue 72-3. Cover calls issue The Illustrated Canyon Cinemanews. Edited by Ben VanMeter. Opening section of the zine covers the controversy over how to pay the new catalogue publishing costs of over $4,000. List of 10th Ann Arbor Film Festival awards. Other film festival news, listing of new films in the Canyon Cinema collection. Minutes of the March 15, 1972 Board of Directors meeting.

Canyon Cinemazine, 3 issues , possibly 2019 to 2022

  • No. 6. No date, but possibly 2019. Contains letters from filmmakers written to Canyon Cinema, including ones written by Chick Strand, Peter Hutton, Zachary Epcar, and many more.
  • No. 7. 2020/21. “Dear Folks: Notes And Letters From Bruce Baillie“. Contains writings and ephemera from Canyon Cinema founder Bruce Baillie.
  • No. 9. 2022. “Canyon Cinema Discovered”. Publication as part of a fellowship program that invited four fellows to create special curated screenings of films in the Canyon Cinema collection.

Cashiers Du Cinemart, 3 issues, unknown to 2012

  • Issue 1. Original printing. No publication date listed. Includes extremely negative review of Richard Kern’s Hardcore Vol 1 VHS compilation.
  • Issue 16. 2011. Articles and reviews of cult movies. No underground film content.
  • Issue 17. 2012. Articles and reviews of cult movies. No underground film content, but filmmaker Bob Moricz writes about the films of Mike and Roberta Findlay.

Castle of Frankenstein, 1 issue, 1975

Chicago, 1 issue, 1967

  • Vol. 4, No. 4. Winter 1967. Article by Morry Roth on Chicago’s underground film scene, interviewing theater owners and filmmakers.

Cinematograph, 1 issue, 1988

C-U Confidential, 10 issues, 2007-2016

  • Nos 1-10. Covers the independent film scene of Illinois. (The C-U of the zine’s name stands for Champaign-Urbana.) Technically there isn’t any underground film content, but the zine covers creative, local independent productions.

Experimental Cinema, 1 issue, 1934

  • No. 5. 1934. Primarily articles on Soviet cinema. (Archive has 2 copies.)

Fanfare, 1 issue

  • Issue 2. Winter 1978. Bill Spicer, publisher and editor. Mark Evanier, editor. General pop culture articles. No underground film content.

Film Culture, 21 issues (counting double and triple issues as one)

Film Panic, 2 issues, 2016-2017

  • No. 3. Interviews with filmmakers Rouzbeh Rashidi, David Finkelstein, Toby Tatum, Hooroo Jackson, and Gurcius Gewdner.
  • No. 4. Interviews with filmmakers Sarahjane Swan & Roger Simian, Marnie Weber, Scott Barley, Atoosa Pour Hosseini, Janj Rakus, and Susu Laroche.

Film Quarterly, 3 issues, 1961-1962, 1979

  • Vol. 14, No. 4. “The Cinema Delimina: Films from the Underground” article by Stan Vanderbeek. Considered the first time the word “underground” was used to describe avant-garde and experimental films. Read about this article here.
  • Vol. 15, No. 4. Advertisement for Contemporary Films distributor includes listing for Dan Drasin’s Sunday. A defense of Amos Vogel’s Cinema 16 screening series. Brief article by Jonas Mekas on his favorite films of the quarter, and also mentions the State Dept. destroying Film Loops by Shirley Clarke and others made for the Brussels World Fair. Reviews of Shirley Clarke’s The Connection, Jonas Mekas’s Guns of the Trees, and Drasin’s Sunday.
  • Vol. 33, No. 2. “Chris Maclaine: The Man Who Invented Gold” review by J. J. Murphy. Ad for Stan Brakhage’s Film Biographies book

Film Society Review, 1 issue, 1968

  • No issue or volume number. Brief news item on the American winners of the International Experimental Film Competition at Knokke-Le-Zoute, Belgium in December 1967.

Filmmakers Newsletter, 1 issue, 1971

  • Vol. 4, No. 8. June 1971. Published and edited by Suni Mallow and H. Whitney Bailey. Includes article “Beware of Underground Film Festivals” by Bob Pike.

Films In Review, 1 issue, 1964

  • Vol. XV, No. 2. Reviews of films at the 3rd International Film Competition at Knokke-Le-Zoute, Belgium in December 1963. Read about the competition here. (The Archive’s copy of this issue is missing the first page of the article.)

Friends, 1 issue, 1970

  • No. 16. October 16, 1970. Includes a review by Jerome Burne of the International Underground Film Festival, held in London, England on September 14-20.

Future Fantasy, 1 issue. 1978.

  • Vol. 1, No. 1. No underground film content. Sci-fi movie articles. Archive copy has several missing pages.

Hollywood Quarterly, 4 issues. 1945-1946. (Bound edition)

  • Vol. 1, No. 1. October 1945. Articles on contemporary Hollywood and global cinema. No underground film content.
  • Vol. 1, No. 2. January 1946. Articles on contemporary Hollywood and global cinema. No underground film content.
  • Vol. 1, No. 3. April 1946. Articles on contemporary Hollywood and global cinema. No underground film content.
  • Vol. 1, No. 4. July 1946. Article on documentary film written by filmmaker and curator Willard Van Dyke. Brief article on short films produced by Hollywood studios gives a shout out to Jammin’ the Blues, directed by Gjon Mili.

Idiolects, 3 issues. 1976, 1984.

Incite: Journal of Experimental Media, 6 issues. 2008-2017

Lumpen, 1 issue. 1997.

  • Vol. 6, No. 4. Political magazine that includes the program calendar of the 4th annual Chicago Underground Film Festival, along with reviews of several of the films that screened. View the festival lineup here.

The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction, 1 issue. 1963.

  • Vol. 24, No. 4. Cover painted by filmmaker Ed Emshwiller that includes likenesses of fellow filmmakers Jonas Mekas and Adolfas Mekas. (Interior credit reads as: Cover by Ed Emsh (illustrating “Fast Trip”).

Micro-Film, 2 issues + 1 announcement + 7 addendums. 1999-2005.

Millennium Film Journal, 12 issues. 1978-87, 2017-20.

  • Various, between Nos. 2-18 and Nos. 66-72. Long-running journal published by the Millennium Film Workshop in New York City that is focused on independent and experimental media. Detailed index of issues to come.

Modern Monsters, 1 issue. 1966.

  • No. 4. No underground film content. Genre/cult filmmaker Don Glut is Assistant Editor. Articles on classic and modern horror movies.

Mon Cine, 1 issue. 1924.

  • No. 120. June 5, 1924. French film magazine. Includes a posthumous appreciation of filmmaker Louis Delluc, but focuses on his novel writing efforts.

Motion Picture, 1 issue. 1986.

  • No. 1. Edited by Marjorie Keller and Susan Greene. Published by the Collective for Living Cinema. Includes biography of Stan Brakhage by his wife Jane; profile and filmography of Joe Gibbons; and more.

New Cinema Review, 3 issues. 1969.

  • Vol. 1, No. 1. Editor/Publisher: Suni Mallow. Articles by Jonas Mekas, Bob Cowan, P. Adams Sitney, and others. Articles on filmmakers George Kuchar, Stan Brakhage, Gerald Herman, Michael Stewart, David Weiss, Joyce Wieland, and Michael Snow. (Many articles are reprints from elsewhere.)
  • Vol. 1, No. 2. Editor/Publisher: Suni Mallow. Articles by Bob Cowan, Jonas Mekas, Ken Kelman. Articles on filmmakers Robert Nelson, John Schofill, George Landow, Vernon Zimmerman. (Many articles are reprints from elsewhere.)
  • Vol. 1, No. 3. Editor/Publisher: Suni Mallow. Articles by Bob Cowan, Lenny Lipton, and Roger Ebert. Articles on filmmakers Mark Adler, Terry Riley, Philip Gries, Michael Siporin, Charles Levine, and Richard Myers. (Many articles are reprints from elsewhere.)

The New Yorker, 1 issue. 1963.

  • July 13, 1963. In the “Talk of the Town” section, article called “Cinema Underground” that profiles the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, including an interview with Jonas Mekas. The Cooperative at this time was located at 414 Park Avenue South. Impetus of the piece is the Bleecker Street Cinema no longer showing Cooperative films on Mondays at midnight. Also, the movie calendar indicates that Bleecker St. was showing a revival of John Cassavetes’s Shadows.

No Rose, 1 issue. 1976.

  • Vol 1, No. 2. Fall 1976. Zine published by the Collective for Living Cinema. Edited by Renee Shafransky and Richard Levine. Article on Oscar Micheaux by J. Hoberman.

Nostalgia News, 2 issues. 1972.

  • No. 14. No underground film content, but one article on amateur genre filmmaking by Steve Polwort.
  • No. 16. No underground film content.

NY Film Bulletin, 3 issues. 1963(?) – 1964

  • Vol. 3, No. 3, Issue 44. No underground film content, except for an ad for Film Culture magazine.
  • No. 45. No underground film content, except for an ad for Film Culture magazine.
  • No. 46. No underground film content, but underground filmmaker Warren Sonbert is credited as Editor-in-Chief

October, 1 issue. 1980

  • No. 14. Arts journal that includes several essays by and about Maya Deren.

One+One Filmmakers Journal, 1 issue. 2012

  • No. 9. Interview with filmmakers Daniel Fawcett and Clara Pais (also editors of the zine). Review of independent film We Need To Talk About Kevin. Other general film and political articles.

The Penguin Film Review, 1 issue. 1948

  • No. 5. January 1948. Article by Jacques B. Brunius, “Rise and Decline of an ‘Avant-Garde'” looks at the avant-garde film scene of France in the 1930s.

Send, 1 issue. 1984

  • No. 9. No underground film content. Gene Youngblood listed as a Contributing Editor. A video arts and technology magazine.

Short Order Comix, 1 issue. 1974

  • No. 2. Anthology of underground comix edited by Bill Griffith and Art Spiegelman. Includes two comix stories by George Kuchar.

Show, 1 issue. 1964

  • Vol. IV, No. 4. November 1964. “Underground Movies” article by Andrew Sarris.

Star Warp, 2 issues. 1978

  • Vol. 1, No. 2. No underground film content. General articles on sci-fi movies & TV shows.
  • Vol. 1, No. 3. No underground film content. General articles on sci-fi movies & TV shows.

Time, 1 issue. 1967

  • Vol. 89, No. 7, February 17, 1967. Article: “Art of Light & Lunacy: The New Underground Films”. Includes quotes from Jonas Mekas and descriptions of several popular underground films of the time. Article is generally positive in tone. No author given.

The Underground Film Bulletin, 1 issue.