Boston Underground Film Festival

Movies, Videos and SoundUnited States2-10 Employees

The Boston Underground Film Festival was birthed from the filthy brain of founder David Kleiler way back in 1998. All wet and slippery straight from the mind-womb, the festival began life as an all-night film marathon run by Kleiler and longtime festival pal Dima Ballin. This informal event quickly grew into the first annual Boston Underground Film Festival held at the Revolving Museum in South Boston. Programmer Bernard Broginart described this first annual gathering as “a wonderful hoax of a film festival.” We’d like to think that things have come a long way since then.

BUFF had a rocky adolescence. Though bolstered by a wonderful staff and enthusiastic supporters, the festival had a tough time putting down roots. But BUFF soldiered on through all the icky and strange stages of development with a strong lineup of bizarre and insane little films, eager to spring them on an unwitting public.

Scampering mischievously from venue to venue — screening films in places as diverse as the Milky Way Lounge and Lanes in Jamaica Plain to the now-defunct Allston Cinema Underground — the festival picked up momentum. After years of being buried under the toxic waste of popular culture, BUFF had mutated into a twisted underground force to be reckoned with.

Under the direction of the current staff, BUFF camped out at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square in 2005 before making our way downstream to Harvard Square and Kendall Square, where we now make our home at the lovely and historic Brattle Theatre and the less historic but equally lovely Kendall Square Cinema. We still have a lot of growing to do, but we’d like to think that we’ve left those awkward teenage years behind. Bacchus is a big bunny now and he’s ready to fuck you up.

Viva la révolution underground!

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