The 23nd annual Boston Underground Film Festival returns to Harvard Square’s arthouse hub The Brattle Theatre from March 22nd through the 26th, featuring a lineup stacked with “fearsome folk horror, mendacious miscreants, harrowing horrors and hero/es/ines, godless god-complexes, eco-thrillers and chillers, sensational sci-fi, and all manner of midnight madness.”
BUFF opens with the World Premiere of Jeffrey A. Brown’s Massachusetts-based horror thriller The Unheard, starring Lachlan Watson (Chucky, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina). The Unheard follows a deaf young woman ensconced in a signal-to-noise mystery of dueling senses, realities, truths, identities, and possibly worlds.
To close out the festival, BUFF will screen the New England Premiere of Belgian directing duo Adil & Bilall’s unforgettable, genre-smashing Rebel. Known for Bad Boys for Life and the recently shelved Batgirl, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah’s deeply personal, poignant, and bold melange of action, drama, and musical centers around a Muslim family caught in the crosshairs of jihadist radicalism.
BOSTON UNDERGROUND 2023 FEATURES LINEUP
THE UNHEARD – World Premiere / Opening Night Film
Jeffrey A. Brown | USA | 2023
In this haunting Massachusetts-set thriller, 20-year-old Chloe Grayden (Lachlan Watson – Chucky, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) begins to suffer from auditory hallucinations following an experimental procedure to restore her damaged hearing. Seemingly related to the mysterious disappearance of her mother, Chloe’s grasp on reality will rely on discerning between signal and noise. Director Jeffrey A. Brown and writers Shawn and Michael Rassmussen will be in attendance for a post-screening Q&A!
NIGHTSIREN – East Coast Premiere
Tereza Nvotová | Slovakia, Czech Republic | 2022
A young woman returns to her native mountain village searching for answers about her troubled childhood, but as she tries to uncover the truth, ancient superstitions lead the villagers to accuse her of witchcraft and murder.
SPAGHETTI JUNCTION – East Coast Premiere
Kirby McClure | USA | 2022
August, a recently disabled Southern teen, sees a flash in the sky and begins having strange dreams that beckon her to a cave in the woods. There she encounters a mysterious injured young man called “The Traveler” who needs her help.
ENYS MEN – New England Premiere
Mark Jenkin | UK | 2022
Set in 1973 on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast, a wildlife volunteer’s daily observations of a rare flower turn into a metaphysical journey that forces her as well as the viewer to question what is real and what is nightmare.
DIVINITY – East Coast Premiere
Eddie Alcazar | USA | 2023
In another time, in another place, scientist Sterling Pierce (Scott Bakula) dedicated his career to searching for the answer to eternal life, over time creating a substance known as “Divinity.” Now Jaxxon Pierce (Stephen Dorff) controls and manufactures his father’s once-benevolent serum… Society on this barren planet has been entirely perverted by the supremacy of the drug, whose true origins are shrouded in mystery. When two mysterious brothers arrive with a plan to abduct the mogul, and with the help of a seductress named Nikita, they will be set on a path hurtling toward true immortality. Featuring Bella Thorne and executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, Divinity defies description and demands your attention.
HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE – New England Premiere
Daniel Goldhaber | USA | 2022
A crew of environmental activists plot a daring plan to disrupt an oil pipeline.
MISTER ORGAN – New England Premiere
David Farrier | New Zealand | 2022
Journalist David Farrier is drawn into a game of cat and mouse with a mysterious individual. Delving deeper he unearths a trail of court cases, royal bloodlines and ruined lives, in this true story of psychological warfare.
MOON GARDEN – Massachusetts Premiere
Ryan Stevens Harris | USA | 2022
A comatose five-year-old girl journeys through an industrial wonderland to find her way back to consciousness.
PIAFFE – New England Premiere
Ann Oren | Germany | 2022
When her sibling Zara suffers a nervous breakdown, introverted Eva is forced to take on Zara’s job as a foley artist. Suddenly, a horsetail starts growing out of her body.
SICK OF MYSELF – New England Premiere
Kristoffer Borgli | Norway, Sweden | 2022
Increasingly overshadowed by her boyfriend’s recent rise to fame as a contemporary artist creating sculptures from stolen furniture, Signe hatches a vicious plan to reclaim her rightfully deserved attention within the milieu of Oslo’s cultural elite.
SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING – Massachusetts Premiere
Quentin Dupieux | France | 2022
A group of vigilantes called the “tobacco-forces” is falling apart. To rebuild team spirit, their leader suggests that they meet for a week-long retreat, before returning to save the world.
THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER – East Coast Premiere
Bomani J. Story | USA | 2023
Brilliant teen scientist Vicaria (The Equalizer’s Laya DeLeon Hayes) theorizes that death is a curable disease and embarks on a dangerous journey to bring back her recently murdered brother.
STAND BY FOR FAILURE: A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT NEGATIVLAND – New England Premiere
Ryan Worsley | USA | 2022
Documentarian RyanWorsley explores cut-and-paste sonic social critics / sound collagists / pranksters Negativland, who have held a mirror up to media and culture and defied copyright laws from the fringes for the last 40+ years.
REBEL – New England Premiere / Closing Night Film
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah | Belgium, Luxembourg, France | 2022
When Kamal resolves to change his life for the better, he leaves Belgium to help war victims in Syria. But, having arrived, he is forced to join a militia and is left stranded in Raqqa. Back home, his younger brother Nassim quickly becomes easy prey for radical recruiters, who promise to reunite him with Kamal. Their mother, Leila, fights to protect the only thing she has left: her youngest son. Filmmakers Adil & Bilall (Bad Boys For Life, and the recent, infamously shelved Batgirl) deliver an immensely powerful and nuanced portrayal of a family torn apart over a little Muslim boy’s future that epitomizes a transformative cinematic experience.
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