About the Sydney Underground Film Festival

About the festival	The festival team Festival Director Katherine Berger kath@suff.com.au Festival Director Stefan Popescu stefan@suff.com.au Creative Manager Liz Berger liz@suff.com.au Event Manager Michelle Berger events@suff.com.au Communication Reps Alison Fowler Alison@theconcept.com.au Nicole Verges nicole@theconcept.com.au Festival Assistant Pamelah Otto pam@suff.com.au Festival Assistant Anita Huynh anita@suff.com.au Festival Assistant Monique Wong monique@suff.com.au Festival Assistant Jennifer Monk jennifer@suff.com.au Accounts Bill Appel info@suff.com.au Contact us Sydney Underground Film Festival PO Box 202 Summer Hill N.S.W 2130 Australia Ph: 02 9797 9428 Email: info@suff.com.au
The 2009 Sydney Underground Film Festival will take place from Thursday 10 September to Sunday 13 September at Sydney’s popular underground haunt, The Factory Theatre. The Sydney Underground Film Festival provides a platform for exhibition, exposure and critical discussion and is organised by a committed group of filmmakers, who understand the need for a sustainable and thriving alternative film culture. The organisers are devoted to renewing local interest in independent and experimental film as part of an international underground film culture. The festival will only program unique, quality independent films that transgress the status quo and challenge the conservative conventions of filmmaking. The festival aims to change an engrained culture of cinematic complacency and revitalize an enthusiasm for cinema.
Mission statement
The Sydney Underground Film Festival is dedicated to nurturing an alternative film culture through the promotion of independent and experimental films. The festival seeks to support filmmakers who operate outside established film industry infrastructures, by providing a platform for exhibition, exposure and critical discussion.
Director's note
Our philosophy is formed from an understanding that every established film industry thrives against a subversive force. Historically, it has always been the marginal movements in film culture, which eventually influences mainstream film forms. Opposition is a necessary tension that promotes growth and artistic diversity in all film cultures and subcultures. Sadly, the Australian film industry has very little resistance against established commercial and regulated film production. So in stating this, our intention is to promote a culture of resistance, simply by nurturing artistic diversity and experimentation in film, rather than maintaining an adversarial position against established infrastructures (as much as we may disagree with them). We believe that discussion, dialectic and diversity is the means by which the Australian film industry can be strengthened and sustained. Please click here to read our Festival Integrity Statement Stefan Popescu and Katherine Berger, Feb 07
SUFF patrons
• ALBIE THOMS (Ex- UBU / Sydney Filmmakers Co-operative) • PAUL WINKLER (Ex- UBU / Sydney Filmmakers Co-operative) • DAVID PERRY (Ex- UBU / Sydney Filmmakers Co-operative) • JOHN CLARK (Ex- UBU / Sydney Filmmakers Co-operative) • ARTHUR CANTRILL (Veteran experimental filmmaker for over 50 years) • CORINNE CANTRILL (Veteran experimental filmmaker for over 50 years) • SONTAYA SUBYEN (Thailand premier film critic and author) “It became aware to us that the historically and culturally significant efforts of these artists had faded almost to the point of obscurity. In the context of this critically-ill film industry, we looked for inspiration, and the only place we really found it was in Australia’s only avant-garde film movement – and that’s when the festival was born.” Stefan talking about the UBU Filmmakers in 2007 The Sydney Underground Film Festival would like to thank the support of its patrons. Albie Thoms, Paul Winkler, David Perry, and John Clark (all members of the historically and culturally important UBU Films group and also the Sydney Filmmaker’s Co-operative) are all highly deserving patrons. The other very deserving patrons we have invited to be official patrons of the festival are illustrious filmmaking couple, Arthur and Corinne Cantrill. All these filmmakers have contributed greatly over the years to Australia’s avant-garde film movement.
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