PRESS RELEASE
A radical new film festival launches in Brunswick West from May 30 to June 1
The inaugural edition of the Brunswick Underground Film Festival (BUFF) launches in Melbourne, Australia this May. From the minds behind cult cinema collective Static Vision,
BUFF seeks to provide a much-needed home for forward-thinking, transgressive and independent cinema. From Friday 30 May – Sunday 1 June, BUFF will screen at the neighbouring venues Estonian House (43-45 Melville Road) and Static Vision HQ (47 Melville Road), taking over the precinct in Brunswick West. Multi-film viewing is encouraged with passes available for double features and weekend-long festival admissions at a discounted rate.
Across three screens and three days, BUFF will showcase 33 feature films, 25 shorts and 17 retros, including World Premiere and Australian Premiere features, anniversary screenings and emerging filmmakers’ newest works.
BUFF opens with a triple feature of Jackass: The Movie (2002), Jackass Number Two (2006) and Jackass 3D (2010) to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the franchise. Frequent collaborators Jeff Tremaine, Spike Jonze, and Johnny Knoxville cemented their status as gonzo stunt performers and wholly original filmmakers with the release of the first Jackass feature film in 2002. With their next two entries, they became beloved counter-cultural icons, topping stunts performed in the first film and escalating stakes to never-before-seen heights.
Acclaimed and fiercely independent Ukrainian-American writer/director/actor Eugene Kotlyarenko’s latest feature, The Code (2024), will have its Victorian Premiere at BUFF Closing Night. Starring Peter Vack, Dasha Nekrasova and Ivy Wolk, this high-concept comedy set in the early pandemic joins a paranoid couple trying to revive their deteriorating relationship by embracing surveillance and spying. Using footage from over 70 cameras, memes and TikTok reels, Kotlyarenko presents a voyeuristic exploration of the attention economy and our vapid relationship with technology in a staggering feat of filmmaking.
Estonian House Headliners
BUFF’s main venue, the 400-seater Estonian House, will be transformed into its former picture house glory with a program of heavy-hitting crowd pleasers from across the globe.
Inspired by a bizarre true story, The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man (2024) is a thrilling gross-out comedy which has its Australian Premiere at the festival. A paranoid young man launches a bizarre crime spree against the citizens of Toronto in this Canadian-made underground feature starring Rishi Rodriguez, Spencer Rice (Kenny vs Spenny), and Paul Bellini (Kids in the Hall).
A favourite from last year’s Sydney Underground Film Festival, RATS! (2024) is a wacky hangout movie set in 2007, with the peak of emo-culture in full swing and a stacked ensemble of compelling weirdoes driven mad by the constant threat of the cops, the FBI and a nuclear disaster!
Another festival darling, The Visitor (2024) is the latest from anarchic provocateur Bruce LaBruce, a champion of punk art porn since the 80’s. His latest vision re-imagines Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1968 Teorema in sensual, charming and vulgar ways, with a throbbing EDM score.
Underground legend Joel Potrykus’s Vulcanizadora (2024) is a queasy, anxious and hilarious story of two friends (Potrykus and Joshua Burge) who trudge through a Michigan forest intending to follow through on a disturbing pact. Once their plan goes shockingly awry, the haunting consequences of their failure can't stay hidden for long.
Widely celebrated for her genre-bending contributions to queer cinema and media art,
Taiwanese-American filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang’s explicit sci-fi IKU (2000) will screen in a special double-feature with the brain-expanding sequel UKI (2023) for the first time ever in Australia.
Anniversary Screenings
Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the twisted mash-up between John Waters’ Serial Mom and Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator, Frank Henenlotter’s Frankenhooker (1990) is a bad taste triumph that revels in sublime camp, gloopy gore, and neon-soaked dreamscapes, plus an iconic performance by Patty Mullen as the eponymous title character.
The landmark documentary Paris is Burning (1990) provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City’s African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene, even 35 years on from its original release.
Underseen triumph of contemporary dance and directed by Stephen Page, former artistic director of Australia’s renowned Bangarra Dance Theatre, Spear (2015) celebrates its 10th anniversary. This coming-of-age tale charts the journey of young Djali (played by Page’s son Hunter Page-Lochard), who struggles to understand his identity as an Indigenous man with ancient traditions living in a modern world.
Innovative Shorts and Groundbreaking Voices
In November 2023, Gaza-born Palestinian director Rashid Masharawi founded the Masharawi Fund for films and filmmakers in Gaza. From Ground Zero (2024), their first project, seeks to provide internally displaced artists with a “canvas for the expression of personal stories.” The resulting collection features 22 three- to six-minute short films which utilise a mix of genres and narrative approaches to present a rich variety of stories that reflect the sorrow, joy and hope inherent in Gazan life.
BUFF has unearthed a program of emerging and exciting voices in local underground filmmaking. Proudly showcasing their work in two short film programs, comprising a triple feature of new work from the Adelaide film collective Moviejuice and an Australian Shorts package.
The latest from Japanese cult writer/director Toshiaki Toyoda (The Day of Destruction, Blue Spring, Pornostar) is both meditation and freak-out — an omnibus of Toyoda’s short films Alive (2022), I'm Here (2023), and I’m Coming (2024), all starring Kiyohiko Shibukawa as a searching spiritualist besieged on all sides, inside and out, until he finds peace.
Friday 30 May – Sunday 1 June
Estonian House, 43-45 Melville Road, Brunswick West
Static Vision HQ, 47 Melville Road, Brunswick West
Single Tickets / Special events
General – $17.50 / Concession – $15
Opening: Jackass Triple Feature, includes drink on arrival – $37.50 / Concession – $35
Passes
Full Festival Pass – $145 / Concession – $135
Saturday Pass – $85 Sunday Pass – $60 Five Film Pass – $75 Double Feature – $25
For more program information and to purchase tickets, please visit the festival website: