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Underground Success
In the lead-up to the Sydney Underground Film Festival, we speak to festival director Stefan Popescu about creating an alternative film scene.
Stefan Popescu, Co-Director of the Sydney Underground Film Festival, is feeling good. The festival, which he co-founded with fellow filmmaker Katherine Berger, is now in its fourth year. This is quite an achievement, considering that neither Popescu nor Berger had a cent in their pocket when they started the festival back in 2007.
"It was just from nothing," Popescu tells FILMINK. "It was just absolutely from passion and love of cinema and it was amazing how many people came on board."
He and Berger decided to create the festival after becoming disenchanted with the ‘staleness' of cinema in Australia. Inspired by the work of Sydney's underground filmmakers during the 1960s, the two of them developed the festival to give audiences and filmmakers the chance to experience something different.
"We kind of wanted to do something a little bit more edgy and out there," Popescu explains. "We wanted to create a culture of cinephiles and get them together and have very varied experiences, so that was the initial start."
Getting the festival off the ground was easier said than done. With no money, the pair used every resource, skill and contact they had to make their vision a reality. The hard slog paid off though and the festival's inaugural opening night was sold out. For Popescu, the audience's overwhelmingly positive response was proof that people had been waiting for "an alternative and interesting cinema scene."
Since then, the festival has continued to be a success and the 2010 event will be presented at The Factory Theatre in Marrickville over September, 9-11.
Popescu describes the selection process as a search for films that push the boundaries of social conventions. "It just needs to be doing something different because we're trying to promote diversity in cinema," he comments.
The festival has also helped up-and-coming independent filmmakers make a name for themselves within the Australian film industry. "We are actually trying to get together an alumni thing," reveals Popescu, "because so many filmmakers have gone onto better things."
This year's lineup of feature and short films showcases the work of local and international avant-garde filmmakers including Harmony Korine, Gaspar Noé and Oscar-winning director, Oliver Stone. Stone's controversial political documentary, South of the Border (pictured), will have its Australian premiere on the Festival's opening night.
Popescu became interested in Stone's documentary, which harshly critiques the mainstream media's reporting of South America's political climate, after seeing a news story about it on television. He eventually managed to secure it for screening at the festival and is hoping that Stone's notoriety will attract newcomers to alternate cinema.
"I think it's appropriate even though Oliver Stone is a massive figure and he's the furthest thing from being underground. But the production was independent and the content is really super controversial," says Popescu.
The controversial content of some of the films, which cover everything from politics, bizarre sexual behaviours and crazed killer zombies have drawn some negative responses in the past. In the festival's first year Popescu and Berger received a death threat over the phone from someone angered by their use of anti-war imagery in their advertisements.
However, they have not been deterred by the backlash. Popescu believes the 2010 festival will be just as thought-provoking and challenging as previous years.
"They [the audience] can expect to cry laughing, to be puzzled, to be questioned, to question themselves after watching some of these films. And hopefully just to be taken on wild, crazy rides with each of these films," he smiles.
The Sydney Underground Film Festival runs from September 9-11. For more information, visit the festival website.