The 17th Chicago Underground Film Festival
June 24 - July 1 2010
The Gene Siskel Film Center

Early Deadline is March 1 2010, Final Deadline March 15.

For entry forms and guidelines please visit http://www.cuff.org

Since 1994, the Chicago Underground Film Festival has presented the finest in new underground, experimental and documentary film and video. In 2008 the festival entered into a partnership with IFP/Chicago and in 2009 the festival moved to the state of the art Gene Siskel Film Center. 2010 will mark another major change for thefestival as we move from our traditional fall dates to the summer.
What kinds of movies are we looking for? Our mission is to promote films and videos that dissent radically in form, technique, or content from the ‘indie’ mainstream and to present adventurous works that challenge and transcend commercial and audience expectations…if you suspect your film is ‘underground,’ it probably is…

The 2009 Chicago Underground Film Festival jury selected the following works as festival winners. Our 2009 jury was comprised of Patrick Friel (White LightCinema/Onion City Film Festival), Adam Hart (University of ChicagoExperimental Film Club) and author and media activist Anne ElizabethMoore. Winning films were given one of a kind hand-made trophiesdesigned by Chicago artist Luke Breckon.

Best Narrative Feature: Blondes In The Jungle (Whitney Horne and Lev Kalman)

Best Narrative Short: All Ghost Women Play The Theremin (Jerzy Rose)

Best Documentary Feature: It Came From Kuchar! (Jennifer Kroot)

Best Documentary Short: Me Broni Ba (Akosua Adoma Owusu)

Best Experimental Film: Jaws (Sabine Gruffat)

Best Animation: Elfmädchen (Mirka Morales)

Made In Chicago Award: Somewhere Only We Know (Jesse Maclean)

Audience Award: American Radical- The Trials of Norman Finkelstein (David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier)

Congrats to all of the Filmmakers who participated in this year’s festival!

16th CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL
September 10 - 17 2009
at the Gene Siskel Film Center
164 North State Street
Chicago, Illinois 60601

The 16th Annual CHICAGO UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL (CUFF), one of Chicago’s leading film events, and a must-attend festival for cutting-edge filmmakers with defiantly independent visions.

CUFF stands out on the festival circuit for having a unique programming niche, and garnering a following among hipsters, media, and industry alike. Each year, CUFF presents an accessible, savvy program of film and video exploring the many definitions and interpretations of the ‘underground’ concept. Selected films often ignore limitations of genre, and are made with passion and drive; alternative music films, political agitprop, formal experimentation, and high camp are not uncommon elements of the Festival program.

Past CUFF films, producers, and filmmakers have received honors and offers as a direct result of exposure gained and connections made at the Festival. Programming highlights from years past include premieres of NICE BOMBS, DANIELSON: A FAMILY MOVIE, Oscar-nominated documentary THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND, MONKS - THE TRANSATLANTIC FEEDBACK, and BLOOD CAR. Additionally, numerous CUFF films have gone on to receive theatrical distribution.

PURCHASE TICKETS IN ADVANCE HERE!

MORE ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

CUFF is a great time for attendees, filmmakers, and industry, where screenings are followed by great nights of parties, events and concerts. In Roger Ebert’s words, ‘What you get for your money is not just admission to the films but admission to a subculture.’

What people are saying about the Chicago Underground Film Festival:

‘The Chicago Underground Film Festival has spent 15 years earning a viable reputation as a mecca for avant-garde and anti-establishment feature filmmaking, as well as a Midwest platform for the year’s festival circuit hits.’ - Matt Dentler (former SXSW Film Fest producer)

‘The Chicago Underground Film Festival is the city’s most eclectic yet best curated fest. Director and co-founder Bryan Wendorf has a knack for uncovering work that startles, upsets and spellbinds.’ - Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times

‘What you get for your money is not just admission to the films but admission to a subculture’ - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

‘I like the word ‘underground’ as in the Chicago Underground Film Festival. The word ‘independent’ carries a stigma of whininess. ‘Underground’ means a good time.’ - John Waters

‘Defiantly independent and deliberately scandalous’ - Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune

‘If you care at all about the state of culture on the margins, this is probably the most important project in the country reflecting its evolution’ - Lumpen Magazine

‘The most refreshingly offbeat film event in Chicago’ - Adam Langer, The Film Festival Guide

‘A cultural mainstay on its home turf’ - Ray Pride, Filmmaker Magazine

‘Without CUFF my movie would not be coming out in America’ - Peter Hall, Director of DELINQUENT

‘I’d like to think the work Chris Gore and I did at Film Threat helped inspire the lunatics behind CUFF but now they’re the ones inspiring me…not just a great ‘underground’ festival but a great film festival PERIOD.’ - Dave Williams, former editor FILM THREAT

‘What can be said about CUFF that hasn’t already been written on every men’s room wall in Chicago? The ultimate late summer party? A film fix for the celluloid junkies? Free food? Take your pick…’ - Producer Jim Dwyer

‘I had the best time of my life at this festival. Your lives are so much better than all those people who think they’re having a good time in Hollywood’ - Penelope Spheeris, Hollywood Filmmaker

‘CUFF gave me hope for the future’ - George Kuchar, Underground Filmmaker

‘There are still a few out there for whom the indie flame burns bright. Right on!’ - Peter Howell, Toronto Star

Friday October 31st - Production and Technology

Registration at 10am: Buy your tickets at www.cuff.org or buy them at the door

Panel 1
11:00 to 12:30 TUG
Anatomy of a Red Camera Project
Moderator: Tom Fletcher (Fletcher Camera)
Hopwood DePree, Christina Varotsis, Adam Stone

Steven Soderbergh calls it the camera he has been waiting for his whole career. Fresh from the recently wrapped production of the low budget feature film Tug, which was filmed in Holland, Michigan using the Red Camera, cinematographer Adam Stone, producers Hopwood Dupree and Christina Varotsis, and Tom Fletcher from Fletcher Camera will examine the practical considerations involved in using the camera touted by Wired Magazine to be the first digital camera that matches the detail and richness of analog film.

Panel 2
12:45 to 2:15
The Digital Intermediate Workflow
Moderator: Ericka Frederick (Kodak)
Carol Schaffner (Astro), Scott Stevens (Kodak), Charlie Langrall (Filmworkers Club) and Mike Matusek (Nolo Digital Film)

Digital intermediate (DI) technology is evolving as an exciting creative tool for filmmakers in both the independent and big-budget arenas. Learn from the front lines of the DI process how to push the envelope and get all the benefits of digital tools for designing the visual palette of your film, while reducing costs and enhancing the quality of the viewing experience. Industry experts show how the digital intermediate process can empower filmmakers at all budget levels, both creatively and financially.

Panel 3
2:30 to 3:45
Music and Sound Design
Moderator: Mark Messing (Maestro-Matic)
Randy Bobo (Spirit Award Winner “Sweetland”), Lou Mallozzi (Experimental Sound Studio), Liz Storm (Movie Trax)

Low budget filmmakers cannot underestimate the importance of music and sound design in enhancing the movie going experience. In this discussion music supervisors, sound designers and composers will treat us to some of their tricks and secrets that can help overcome the limitations of budget and will look at some of the rights and licensing issues involved in the use of music in movies.

Panel 4
4:00 to 5:15
“Night Tide” Case Study
Moderator: Bryan Wendorf (CUFF Festival Director)
Edward Crouse, Mark Toscano

This panel will examine the adventuresome, macabre and quirky filmography of filmmaker Curtis Harrington. It will also look at the process involved in the restoration of “Night Tide,” Harrington’s fiendishly cultish 1961 tale starring Dennis Hopper in his first film role as sailor Johnny Drake about a dark romance between a sailor and a sideshow performer, who just may be a murderous mermaid.

Break-out Session
3:00
Kodak

A mini session with Ericka Frederick and Scott Stevens of Kodak who will discuss the latest developments in Kodak film stock with emphasis on the low budget and experimental filmmaker.

“I like the word ‘underground’ as in the Chicago Underground Film Festival. The word ‘independent’ carries a stigma of whininess. ‘Underground’ means a good time.” - John Waters

For the first time, IFP/Chicago is presenting the “Defiantly independent and deliberately scandalous” (Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune) Chicago Underground Film Festival. The festival’s mission is to support and promote innovative films and videos that dissent in form, technique, or content from the ‘indie’ mainstream and to create a community for makers and audiences of adventurous work that entertains, pushes boundaries, challenges viewers and transcends expectations

“What you get for your money is not just admission to the films but admission to a subculture” –Roger Ebert

For more info: www.cuff.org

Chicago Underground Film Festival and Filmmakers Summit
MEMBER PRICING EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 22!
Presented By IFP/Chicago
October 29th to November 2nd
@ The Viaduct Theater, 3111 N. Western Ave.

Premiering on Wednesday, October 29th IFP/Chicago is presenting the “Defiantly
independent and deliberately scandalous” (Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Underground Film Festival (CUFF).   This exciting development in the
growth of IFP/Chicago combines CUFF with IFP/Chicago’s 17th Annual Filmmaker
Summit for five days of movies, panels, parties, music, and much, much more.

The full schedule and information about the films are available now! You can buy
your passes now, tickets to individual screenings will be available in the next few days.

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Wednesday October 29th

Opening Night Film “Anywhere USA” written and directed by Anthony Haney-Jardine
(Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize Winner)

After party at the Beat Kitchen featuring Alla and Judson Claiborne

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Thursday October 30th

CUFF: Screenings at the Viaduct

Party at the Hungry Brain with Sally Timms, Janet Bean and Jim Elkington

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Friday October 31st

Filmmaker Summit:  Production and Technology Red Camera, Digital Intermediates,
Sound Design and Music, Night Tide Case Study, Adobe, Kodak

CUFF: Screenings at the Viaduct and Special Halloween Night Screening of “Night Tide”
at the Gene Siskel Film Center

Party at the Empty Bottle featuring Detholz, Aleks and the Drummer, and Hood Internet

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Saturday November 1st

Filmmaker Summit:  Getting Your Movie Seen Working the Festival Circuit, Gallery and Art
Film Exhibition, New Media Exploitation, Music Box Films, and a CUFF Directors Panel.

CUFF: Screenings at the Viaduct including the Saturday Night World Premiere of Chicago
Filmmaker Jennifer Reeder’s “Accidents at Home and How They Happen”  written and
directed by Jennifer Reeder

Party at The Viaduct Theatre featuring “I <3 Presets”

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Sunday November 2nd

CUFF:  Screenings at the Viaduct including the Closing Night Film: “Song Sung Blue” directed
by Greg Kohs (Slamdance Film Festival Documentary Audience and Jury Award  Winner), Awards
Party at the Bottom Lounge featuring “Big Buildings”

Visit Brown Paper Tickets to buy your passes!

Member Prices:
Opening Night: $20
Includes admission to opening night film, “Anywhere USA” and the Opening night party at
The Beat Kitchen (2100 W. Belmont), featuring Alla and Judson Claiborne

Chicago Underground Film Festival VIP Pass - $200
-This pass will get you in to all panels, films, and parties.  Our hospitality coordinator will
take care of all your perks, which include drink tickets, a gift bag, and much, much more.
Be sure to RSVP with our hospitality coordinator for after parties or special screenings.

Summit Pass Plus: $150
Includes admission to all Summit panels and five CUFF screenings (Does not include
special screenings.)

Summit Day Pass: $50
A pass to one day of panels; does not include CUFF screenings

Chicago Underground Film Festival Ten Screening Pass: $60
This pass includes admission to ten Chicago Underground Film Festival Screenings.
Does not include special screenings.

Visit www.CUFF.org to view a full festival schedule!

*All programming subject to change.

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SPONSORSHIP CONTACT:
Ryan Jewell
IFP/Chicago
chicago@ifp.org

“I had the best time of my life at this festival. Your lives are so much better than all those people who think they’re having a good time in Hollywood.”
-Penelope Spheeris, Director We Sold Our Souls for Rock & Roll