Anunderground film is afilm that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre or financing.
Notable examples includeJohn Waters'Pink Flamingos,David Lynch'sEraserhead,Andy Warhol'sBlue Movie,Rosa von Praunheim'sTally Brown, New York,Frank Henenlotter'sBasket Case,Nikos Nikolaidis'Singapore Sling,Rinse Dreams'Café Flesh, andJörg Buttgereit'sNekromantik.
The first printed use of the term "underground film" occurs in a 1957 essay by American film criticManny Farber, "Underground Films."[1] Farber uses it to refer to the work of directors who "played an anti-art role in Hollywood." He contrasts "such soldier-cowboy-gangster directors asRaoul Walsh,Howard Hawks,William Wellman," and others with the "less talentedDe Sicas andZinnemanns [who] continue to fascinate the critics." However, as in "Underground Press", the term developed as a metaphorical reference to a clandestine and subversive culture beneath the legitimate and official media.
In the late 1950s, "underground film" began to be used to describe earlyindependent film makers operating first inSan Francisco,California andNew York City,New York, and soon in other cities around the world as well, including theLondon Film-Makers' Co-op in Britain and Ubu Films in Sydney, Australia. The movement was typified by moreexperimental filmmakers working at the time likeShirley Clarke,[2]Stan Brakhage,Harry Everett Smith,Maya Deren,Andy Warhol,[3]Kenneth Anger,[4]Jonas Mekas,Ken Jacobs,Ron Rice,Jack Smith,George andMike Kuchar, andBruce Conner.
By the late 1960s, the movement represented by these filmmakers had matured, and some began to distance themselves from thecountercultural,psychedelic connotations of the word, preferring terms like "avant-garde" or "experimental" to describe their work.
Having been embraced most emphatically byNick Zedd and the other filmmakers associated with the New York–basedCinema of Transgression andNo Wave Cinema of the late 1970s to early 1990s, the term would still be used to refer to the more countercultural fringe of independent cinema.
In the early 1990s, the legacy of the Cinema of Transgression carried over into a new generation, who would equate "underground cinema" withtransgressive art,ultra-low-budget filmmaking created in defiance of both the commercialized versions ofindependent film offered by newly wealthydistributors likeMiramax andNew Line, as well as the institutionalized experimental film canonized at major museums. This spirit defined the early years of undergroundfilm festivals (like theNew York Underground Film Festival,Chicago Underground Film Festival,Boston Underground Film Festival, Sydney Underground Film Festival,[5]Hamilton Underground Film Festival,Toronto'sImages Festival, and others),zines likeFilm Threat, as well as the works of filmmakers likeCraig Baldwin,Jon Moritsugu,Carlos Atanes,Johnny Terris,Sarah Jacobson, andBruce La Bruce. In London, the Underground resurgence emerged as a movement of Underground cinema clubs which included the radical open access groupthe Exploding Cinema.
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, the term had become blurred again, as the work at underground festivals began to blend with more formal experimentation, and the divisions that had been stark ones less than a decade earlier now seemed much less so. If the term is used at all, it connotes a form of very low-budget independent filmmaking, with perhaps transgressive content, or alo-fi analog to post-punk music and cultures.
A recent development in underground filmmaking can be observed through theLower East Side–based film production companyASS Studios. Founded in 2011 by writerReverend Jen and filmmaker Courtney Fathom Sell, the group avoided most modern methods of production, choosing to shoot all of their work on an outdatedHi8 format and usually with no budget. Utilizing many New York based performers, their work generally containedcamp elements and taboo themes. These films were commonly screened at venues and bars in and around New York City.[6][7]
The term "underground film" is occasionally used as a synonym forcult film (as in the case of films likeEating Raoul).[8] Though there are important distinctions between the two, a significant overlap between these categories is undeniable. The films ofKenneth Anger, for example, could arguably be described as underground[9] while a studio film likeHeathers (New World Pictures) may have acult following but could not be accurately described as an underground film.[10]
Film criticPauline Kael called most underground cinema "a creature of publicity and mutual congratulations on artistry".[11]
List is incomplete.[12]
