INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Embracing the underground

With two evenings of evocative, provocative and sometimes silly shorts and features, The Film Commune’s Third Annual Indianapolis Underground Film Festival drew an impressive mix. Erudite festivals run the risk of becoming overwhelmed by their own cool, excluding diverse audiences and filling seats with clichés. Not the IUFF. From movie mavens to cinematic neophytes, the IUFF crowd was anything but insular. Navigating Key Cinemas’ lobby between screenings meant dodging the elbows of “handi-cammed” aspiring directors. It meant loud laughter over crowd-favorite The Boy Scout (Ward Roberts). It meant mixing-and-mingling amidst an air of being in on a cherished joke, but feeling sad that more Indy-ites aren’t. IUFF’s Friday night audiences favored A Ninja Pays Half My Rent. And rumor has it the opening night party at the Circle Bar Saloon was near-perfect. Saturday boasted the wild whimsy of Dino Ignacio’s Bad Thoughts, an animated video for The Skyflakes, most easily summed up as “Bad News for Hello Kitty.” Personally, I was enraptured by Tom Putnam’s Tom Hits His Head, which asks: Would you prefer living with chronic panic attacks or knowing you’re the Antichrist? The festival found an effective finale in Joseph Biancaniello’s Mary/Mary. I’d guess that most IUFF-goers left Mary/Mary wishing that their ex had been there to see it, too; that Biancaniello’s tale of erotically paranoid, sexual hypochondriac Manny would get its due with hefty distribution and monster buzz; and that they’d thought of telling the familiar story first: Why do women still face all this virgin-whore nonsense? Although some stilted writing for the supporting cast marred some scenes, Mary/Mary’s leading roles were performed deftly and subtly. Highlights? Manny’s inner tormentors’ Damon Runyan fedoras and razor-tongues; painfully awkward foiled pickups; and Manny’s frigid mother tormenting him for failing to visit his father, graveside: “How would you feel if you were dead and no one came to visit you?” Finally, the crowd migrated to Radio Radio for the closing night party. One can’t go wrong celebrating at Indy’s best rock club with the heirs-apparent to the title “Indy’s Best Rock Band” (Loretta). And IUFF can’t go wrong as long as it keeps reaching out for the sake of up-and-coming filmmakers … and for the sake of fun (and art) in Indianapolis.