Fri. March 23 - Sun. March 25

The bawdy, the boozy, the subversive and the outrageous come together every year in Boston for BUFF, the Boston Underground Film Festival, which begins its ninth year Thursday March. 22 with “American Stag,” Benjamin Meade’s look at stage films from the ‘20s onward. Standards of beauty and cinematic technique were different back then, but you can imagine the novelty: Ohmygod, we’ve got a camera! Let’s do it. Of course, they were more subversive in that they were slightly harder to find than two clicks away. We’ve seen a few of these old flicks and were struck by fleeting eroticism, but, mostly, tedium. Hoping to add zip to it all is the Alloy Orchestra, who’ve written the score to “American Stag,” (in photo) which is at the Brattle Theater at 7:30, opening the festival. (There’s actaully a nine-minute short film and a brief collection of silent stags, featuring the Alloys, too.) It’s a pretty good signal of what’s to come. You may see films that don’t have the professional gloss of a Hollywood product, but you’ll see themes rarely addressed elsewhere and you’ll feel part of the cinematic equivalent of punk rock. The opening part after “Stag” takes place down the road in Harvard Square at the Hong Kong and there will be a performance by Black Cat Burlesque, and a dj turn by Brother Cleve spinning, lounge, exotica and Bollywood faves. Swag bags including chocolate, and sex toys will be handed out. Details: the screening is $5 and the party $15 and runs from 10 p.m. –2 a.m. There are five Friday films at the Brattle Theatre from 3 p.m. til post midnight and at the Harvard Square Cinema at 7 (“End of the Line”) and 9:30 (“Bulldog in the White House.”) There are six Saturday films at the Brattle starting at 12:30 p.m and going past midight and four at the Harvard Square Cinema starting at 3:30. A Friday night party take place at Tommy Doyle’s  and is hosted by Dewars, with experimental films looped at the club all night to the accompaniment of Pete Sutton’s band, Temper. There is a Saturday party too, destination TBA. Sunday afternoon, there are two films at the Harvard Square Cinema starting at 2:30, and four at the Brattle, starting at 1:45 – with a live female wrestling bout somewhere in the middle - and climaxing at 8 with “Roman,” the New England premiere of Angela Bettis’s film, the story of a lonely man and his horrifically unlucky love life. Party follows at Z Square with Brother Cleve. You can buy a screening to any film for $5 or drop $50 and get into most everything (parties and passes – although they don’t hold seats at the screenings for pass holders.) Please check the website because things can and do change in the BUFF world.

Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, AMC Lowes Havard Square Cinema 10 Church St.,, Cambridge, Doyle’s, 96 Winthrop St., Cambrdige, 3rd floor, Hong Kong, 1288 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. Bostonunderground.org