Brunswick Underground Film Festival

BUFF is right around the corner!! 💑🎬💪 We can't wait to rock with everyone this weekend; scroll thru for some info on free events, general housekeeping etc. The festival is easiest to access via public transport (free right now!!) - the 19 tram will drop you around the corner from Balam Balam Place and right out front of Brunswick Picture House. The 410 bus will take you around the corner from Balam Balam Place, while the 408 bus will take you around the corner from Brunswick Picture House. Finally, the Upfield line will get you a short stroll from Balam Balam Place or Brunswick Picture House, just get off at Brunswick Station and walk South or East respectively. Hit our DMs with any questions you may have, and see you at the movies!!

FREE OUTDOOR FILMS + INDUSTRY SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCED 🤩🎤🌕 On Friday and Saturday evening (May 15/16) at the festival, BUFF and Umbrella Entertainment are proud to co-present a selection of cult, underground favourites from around the globe, screening free in @brunswickunderground 's undercover outdoor theatre at Balam Balam Place. Titles include RAD, a BMX-laden blast-from-the-past; DEAD END DRIVE-IN, an ozploitation classic from the King of ozploitation, Brian Trenchard-Smith and SHAOLIN SOCCER, an infamously hilarious kung-fu soccer comedy + more! These screenings are open to all, and generally friendly for adventurous families. THAT’S NOT ALL On Saturday May 16th, BUFF presents a free, day-long industry symposium. Secrets will be spilled, careers will be developed, forbidden knowledge will be un-vaulted! Our panels focus on alternative film distribution, contemporary film criticism, getting started in the industry, film programming, submitting to film festivals and more—hosted by and featuring many talented and insightful industry figures! More info will be up on the BUFF website, Wednesday, May 6th. Our full schedules are below: OUTDOOR SCREENING SCHEDULE: FRIDAY, MAY 15 - BALAM BALAM PLACE 15:30: Report to Mother 17:30: Three Stooges session 1 18:00: Microcosmos 19:30: Three Stooges session 2 20:00: Shaolin Soccer SATURDAY, MAY 16 - BALAM BALAM PLACE 17:00: Three Stooges session 3 17:20: Rad 19:10: Three Stooges session 4 19:30: Dead End Drive-In INDUSTRY SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE: SATURDAY, MAY 16 - BALAM BALAM PLACE 11:00: How Did You Get Started? 12:00: Film Clubs and Exhibition in Australia 13:00: Transgressive Cinema 14:00: BUFF Critics’ Roundtable 15:00: How to Release Your Independent Film 16:00: Festival Programming Roundtable @armanihollindale @bach.dang.tung @tansymeg @sleenawilson @everythinggrowsmovie @billmousoulis @jacksargeant23 @juicemoviejuice @hitlisttttt @asiancinemacollective @pinkflamingocinema @jordanbastian_ @cerise.howard @meanwhile_im_dying @official_pure_rage @jp.meldrum

"FILM ANNOUNCEMENT: WE HAVE MANY NAMES (1976) 🐴🤦‍♀️⛓️ Acclaimed feminist Swedish actor/director Mai Zetterling's rarely shown heartbreak ballad exploring despair and hope in the wake of divorce—co-presented by @melbcinematheque Swedish multi-hyphenate Mai Zetterling directs and stars in this deeply personal study of a self-sacrificing woman reeling from her husband’s abandonment, told through flashbacks and fantasies.Zetterling blends the theatrical and cinematic to express a woman’s mind and body on the verge. Intense monologues whisper over Zetterling’s cropped hair and grieving eyes as she tries to rebuild and reconceive her life, and the movie howls for her all the while. Screens with Lotte Reiniger's THE STOLEN HEART (10 mins), a 1934 German stop motion shadow puppet also about the ways men can take all that's meaningful to someone. See them Saturday May 16, 11:00am, at BUFF 2026!

FILM ANNOUNCEMENT: NOT A PRETTY PICTURE 📸😵‍💫🧠 Co-presented by @asphaltbooks !! In this infamously provocative meditation on sexual violence and the culture that births it, director Martha Coolidge (Valley Girl) reenacts her own rape by a high-school classmate in the early 60s with recursive docudrama style. The actors—some of whom have similar experiences of sexual assault—break the fourth wall, discussing the difficult parts they play and the real events being staged as they stage them. The effect is destablising, with Coolidge’s storytelling style broadening events from her own life into a mosaic of adolescence—its discoveries, joys and dangers, all at once. “I have felt something missing for me as a woman from the male-made films on the subject,” she has said: “Missing are the experiences unique to girls. I wanted to put some of these on the screen, funny and sad.” Screening on Saturday 16 May, 9:10pm, only at BUFF 2026! Asphalt Books followers can get $2 off each of our screenings with the code BUFFXASPHALT!

SCREENING ANNOUNCEMENTS: LOCAL SHORTS I THOUGHT I WASN’T + WE AIM TO PLEASE 💀🏃‍♂️🚬 BUFF 2026 is beyond proud to present two sessions of bleeding-edge Australian shorts that push the movies forward with inventive style and hard questions! We adore these sessions and know they’ll inspire provocative conversations all around the fest. On Saturday 16 May at 12:45pm, the I THOUGHT IT WASN’T program explores the daily dealings with doom on this wretched Earth. From eerie, spiralling horror to tactile celluloid documentary, living, working and creating in Australia while dealing with mundane evil is explored through spellbinding images and unique, personal stories. Featuring films by Kim Miles, Noah Jordan, Camille Perry, John Hewison, Owen Lawie, and Hector Hennessey + Bianca Pritchard. On Sunday 17 May at 2:00pm, the WE AIM TO PLEASE program explodes filmmaking conventions with a boundary-pushing survey of sex, gender, violence and liberation in contemporary Australia. A ghost haunts a gay sauna, a goddess goes to a strip club, and a jaded trans girl hooks up with a cop in shorts that range provocatively across intimate drama, expressionist doomscape and DV collage. Featuring films by Margot Nash and Robin Laurie, Xoori K. Sarhadi, Angus McGrath, Benjamin Woodard, Hamish Bruce, and Sophie Bagster. Watch these spicy shorts, only at BUFF 2026! @djschneed @twomillionfreckles @local_man_milks_god @sarhadifilms @free_wificore @camille.perry.photo @owenlawie @benjaminwoodardfilms @hamish.hodges @kimmiles_film_art

FILM ANNOUNCEMENT: REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE ('25) 📖🙏❤️ A WOMAN WRITES A TOME OF HER FANTASTICAL VISIONS—co-presented by @t.s.bookshop ! True story: In the 14th century, a woman named Julian experiences extraordinary visions—of a crucifix weeping blood, of herself strangled by the devil, of all God’s love held in a hazelnut. In response, she decides to live in ascetic seclusion and utmost passion as a nun, determined to record these visions on paper. Her writings, now known as Revelations of Divine Love, are the earliest surviving texts in the English language to have been written by a woman. Julian of Norwich chronicled her manifestations in the midst of a global pandemic, a national uprising, and a societal shift in gender roles and norms. This film borrows its title from her book and expands on her account with ecstatic speculation. With its handmade production design, sincere spiritual inquiry, and DIY ambition, this movie projects the medieval past onto the present dark ages and finds much in common. Only at BUFF 2026 ⛪

FILM ANNOUNCEMENT: HARD TIME LOVER (2026) 🗺️🎷🔔 A darkly funny and supremely creepy conspiracy takes a slacker through the nocturnal Rio streets—co-presented by @yosoycollective ! Rio de Janeiro, the night time: Miguel runs into his ex-girlfriend outside his apartment, and she speaks to him in riddles. Then Miguel meets a masked enigma in the hallway, who may put something inside his head. Driven by forces beyond his understanding, Miguel follows an occult pattern through the city streets that will take him to a dark underworld haunted by past and future violence, as well as harsh noise music. HARD TIME LOVER (AMANTE DIFÍCIL) is movie that will put a bad spell on you, like a country puts a curse on its citizens. From strange angles, the architecture grows menacing and the mountains enormous, so it’s only terrifying inevitability when hooded figures appear from the shadows, some with knives and one with a saxophone. A darkly funny and spooky time! Screens with FEUERWERK (2026, dir. Timothy George Kelly) A dizzying, explosive tradition unfolds across decades of New Year’s in Berlin. From booze-soaked streets to the outer reaches of cosmos, this short documentary ricochets through time with the unpredictability of a misfiring firework. A spectacle like no other! See them both on Saturday May 16, 7:10pm, only at BUFF 2026! @timothygeorgekelly @mbvideo.com.br

George Schwarz' sole feature, ABOUT LOVE (1973) makes its Melbourne premiere this Saturday, May 16 at The Brunswick Underground Film Festival. Following on from last year's sold-out sessions of The Lost Sex Films of Kings Cross, ABOUT LOVE has been restored by Ex Film from its original camera negatives locked away for over half a century. Produced concurrent to the movement that became known as the Australian New Wave, ABOUT LOVE was pushing for a different mood and atmosphere than its goofy exploitation counterparts (STORK, ALVIN PURPLE, THE CLINIC et al) and poked around themes that were never going to compete for the ocker box office dollar but instead aimed to leave a mark on the mind - experimental in its approach to the 'taboo and risque' rather than comedic. Schwarz' stark black and white imagery (with cinematography by Grant Mudford) and street-level storytelling combine with an evocative score from John Sangster to create a unique and largely unseen entry into the canon of Australian cinema. Slides 2-8 are handmade lobby cards which appeared at the Sydney premiere in 1973, posted to me last week by the coolest person in Australia, Charis Schwarz. #buff2026 #exfilm #georgeschwarz #charisschwarz #australiancinema

FILM ANNOUNCEMENT: ANYTHING THAT MOVES (2025) 🚴‍♂️🚐🍆 TAKE A BIKE RIDE THROUGH MIDNIGHT CHICAGO WITH A MIRACULOUS SEX WORKER, HIS MANY SATISFIED CLIENTS, AND A KILLER CLOSE BEHIND ... co-presented by @hightideau ! Divine sex worker Liam bikes through Chicago delivering snacks and pure satisfaction to his love-hungry clients, while a serial killer begins targeting his clients that leaves a trail of blood to his innocent lover's own bed in Alex Phillips' underground odyssey through the gutters of sex, commerce, love, hate and all that's inbetween. Shot in woozy 16mm by Hunter Zimmy (FUNNY PAGES), ANYTHING THAT MOVES is part gory giallo, part swooning romantic fantasy, all ode to sex workers and sex films—including cameos by Golden Age porn legends Ginger Lynn and Nina Hartley. Cinemas are rarely blessed with a worthy heir to Jess Franco, so take a taste while the going's good on Saturday 16 May, 10:50pm … only at BUFF 2026!!

MAY 16TH - SATURDAY - 7:30PM - Special One Time Screening with Q&A @brunswickunderground - Available soon, exclusively on @grousehousetv

RETRO ANNOUNCEMENT: THE FILMS OF SARAH JACOBSON: MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE (1996) + I WAS A TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER (1993) 🍿🔪 TRAIL-BLAZING UNDERGROUND WOMAN-LED CINEMA – co-presented by @mwff_au ! Sarah Jacobson's punk-spirited DIY films from the 1990s combine B-movie aesthetics and riot grrrl feminism, standing as a testament to the vision, determination, and raw talent of the Queen of Underground Cinema. In MARY JANE'S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE, Jacobson's only feature film, a suburban high schooler gets in touch with her sexuality while working at a dingy movie theater in the city. A realistically messy portrait of finding yourself between shifts. In Jacobson’s 27-minute short I WAS A TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER, a 19-year-old good girl decides to fight back against an endless parade of sexist pigs through the power of punk rock murder. A rough and ready cathartic scream from the cinematic rooftops! See both of these coming-of-age classics on Sunday May 17, 1:45pm, @brunswick_picturehouse at BUFF 2026!

FILM ANNOUNCEMENT: EVERYTHING GROWS IN EDEN ('26) 🖕🚙🥽 In this micro-budget road movie about dreaming, dying, and living with other people, a young woman promises to take her suicidal best friend to an alternative retreat but when their volatile mutual friend joins the trip, an unexpected detour to a local commune forces all three to confront some painful truths. Emerging auteur Jack Johnston grew up in a place like the fictional Eden, where a communal style of living can be nurturing but also oppressive. He brings a nuanced approach to this engrossing, funny and ultimately very moving story of three young people struggling to find their place in the world. A true Australian banger, only at BUFF 2026 on Friday 15 May, 5:30pm! Screens with a live Q&A! @everythinggrowsmovie