ogoing - Thurs. April 1

We've been embarrassed; we've been grossed out; we've been titillated and, yes, on occasion bored. (The latter is the real failure in this world.) But this year, theorganizer of Boston Underground Film Festival (BUFF) Anna Feder promises, "This event is going to be mind-blowingly good." She does warn the semi-quesy out there that the most outre films, like "Life and Death of a Porno Gang" show at midnight. Remember, we're not talking "Sundance" here. Characters tend to be sex-crazed, violent, drug-addled or all of the above. Good behavior is rare.
  The 12th annual Boston Underground Film Festival - started by old JSInk pal David Kleiler Sr. - runs through Thursday April 1, at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge. They include some of what are considered festival highlights, including several genre sections (grindhouse cinema and queer cinema), as well as special guests, including actress Mink Stole and fabled underground filmmaker George Kuchar. 

Feder's choices: "Perhaps the most notable grindhouse film is the East Coast premiere "Stuck," (in photo), writer and director Steve Balderson’s homage to grindhouse era women-in-prison films, featuring an appearance by Mink Stole, who performs in the film with Karen Black, ex- Go Go guitarist Jane Wiedlin, and belly dance goddess Pleasant Gehman (aka Princess Farhana)." JSink note: Yowee. The voluptuous horror of Karen Black indeed! Note 2: Mink Stole will also receive the fesitval's first "Underground Lifetime Achievement Award."  "The film faithfully reproduces the genre with a modern, tongue-in-cheek twist that features all the hallmarks of a classic prison movie, complete with a wrongly accused heroine, hard boiled dames, diabolical alliances, forbidden love, cat-fighting cuties, a sadistic warden, and corrupt prison guards. Both Balderson and Mink Stole will attend the screening.

   "Two decisive films bookend the festival’s grindhouse segment: Elijah Drenner’s "American Grindhouse" and "Someone's Knocking at the Door" - JSInk: note likely inspired by the gooey Wings song "Let 'Em In. It's directed "by Chad Ferrin, in which a group of sex-crazed, drug-addled medical students are terrorized by a husband-and-wife team of serial killers. The former is perhaps the most in-depth look at the grand tradition and history of exploitation cinema ever—from its origins in carnie tents at the turn of the century through 40s hard-boiled film noir, '50s teen flicks, '60s biker films, and 70s “blaxploitation” films—featuring interviews with master filmmakers such as Joe Dante, Larry Cohen, John Landis, Herschell Gordon Lewis, William Lustig, Ted V. Mikels, Fred Olen Ray, Lewis Teague and the many others in the business who helped craft the genre." JSink note: We are saddened by the fact that the biggest gorehound we know, our late bud the Cramps' Lux Interior is no longer with us. We would have enjoyed watching these with him by our side. Maybe we'll have to do in it our dreams. "The film also features an interview with local film historian Eric Schaefer, author of "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!," who will lead a Q&A with director Elijah Drenner.

The’80s horror film "Pieces" (Mil gritos tiene la noche) directed by prolific Spanish exploitation director Juan Piquer Simon—whose work has been compared to that of Ed Wood—rounds out the grindhouse segment.

The festival's queer cinema section boasts Jennifer Kroot’s "It Came From Kuchar," a definitive summation of the work of legendary, underground filmmaking twins, George and Mike Kuchar, who inspired two generations of filmmakers, actors, musicians, and artists with their zany, "no budget" films and with their uniquely enchanting spirits (Both Kroot and George Kuchar will attend the Q&A). Their early films inspired many filmmakers, including John Waters, Buck Henry, Atom Egoyan, Todd Haynes, Cory McAbee , Wayne Wang, and Guy Maddin. For close to 40 years George has also taught film production in a circus-like, Fellini-esque style at the San Francisco Art Institute, and the film also follows George’s latest class production, an over-the-top "monster picture." As John Waters puts it in the film, “I think some of his students are probably horrified and leave…but for me, as a very, very serious studier of cinema who took my own attempts at filmmaking very, very seriously, George gave me a much-needed license to have fun with film, to play and pursue the weird."
 
Additional queer films include the Serbian absurdist film "Life and Death of a Porno Gang" an S&M sex comedy "My Normal," and the shorts program “Cinemantal” curated by Aliza Shapiro of Truth Serum.

Other top narrative features include opening night’s New England premiere of "Love Exposure" (Ai No Mukadashi), Japanese director Sion Sono's four-hour whirlwind about a good Christian schoolboy who’s obsessed with taking pictures of girls’ panties — while they’re wearing them—and "Friends (With Benefits) by director Gorman Bechard, (also in attendance) which asks whether true friendship can really exist after sex.

Among the documentary highlights is Emerson alum Danny Ledonne's "Playing Columbine." JSInk: Yes, there's a video game called "Super Columbine Massacure RPG!" If only videogames had been around when Charles Manson and his Creepy-Crawlies did their business ... ) It examines the controversy over the videograme from its inception through the 2006 shooting at Dawson College, in which the game was singled out by the media as a "murder simulator" that "trained" the shooter, up until the game's removal from the list of finalists at the 2007 Slamdance Guerrilla Gamemaker Competition. The film ponders whether it was a work of art that provided a relevant cultural commentary or an exercise in poor taste. Ledonne will be on hand with interviewee Professor David Kociemba.

As the opening night party, it's at T.T. the Bear's (10 Brookine St., Cambridge, 617-492-0082 www.ttthebears.com) Thursday March 25, featuring various steampunk bands, and called “Tokyo Steampunk." We still can't exactly define this movement but maybe Wiki can. On taop, HUMANWINE, best described as “a musicians’ collective with eclectic musical influences resulting in a completely new sound,” headlines, with OwlWatcher, Jaggery, and Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys also on the bill.  The show costs $10 in advance and $12 at the door; tickets are available through T.T. the Bear’s Place’s website.

Individual films are $10; festival passes are $75, which includes admission to all films and parties. Purchase tickets and passes online at www.bostonunderground.org or at the Kendall Square Cinema box office on day of show. For a complete schedule, directions, parking information, and film descriptions visit www.bostonunderground.org or www.facebook.com/BostonUnderground,. For trailers visit www.youtube.com/bostonunderground or www.vimeo.com/bostonunderground.

One Kendall Square, 617-903-3707 www.bostonundergground.org