Sydney Underground Film Festival 2012

Sydney Underground Film Festival 2012

When every mainstream movie is about either a rogue CIA agent or a clumsy girl looking for love, events like the Sydney Underground Film Festival are as essential as they`ve ever been.

This year, 19 features will screen at the Factory Theatre over the weekend of September 6 to 9. Time Out`s had a look at the line-up and offers the top ten screenings we`re most looking forward to being freaked out by...

1 Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie

The stars of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Good Job!, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, shows the boys being given a billion dollars to make a movie and squandering every cent.

2 Francophrenia (or Don’t Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is)

James Franco’s bizarre appearances on General Hospital have been edited into this pseudo thriller that’s an avant-garde exploration into the nature of identity. Franco and co-director Ian Olds want to screw with your brain, big time.

3 Mr Doodleburger Presents New Summer Bay Slaughter

You Tube sensation Mr Doodleburger will present his no-holds-barred piss-take of Summer Bay’s Alf Stewart. The film is guaranteed to ruffle more than a few feathers and will be accompanied by an exclusive live Q&A session with Mr Doodleburger himself.

4 The Fourth Dimension

This three-part film explores higher planes of existence. Harmony Korine’s chapter stars Vil Kilmer as a motivational speaker who speaks the truth. Alexsei Fedorchenko gives us a time machine tale set in Russia. And Jan Kwiecinksi depicts a village threatened by flood in Poland.

5 Keyhole

Canada’s oddball auteur Guy Maddin returns with the fantasia of a gangster (Jason Patric) who travels through his own house, haunted by memories, with a corpse and a captive in tow. Isabella Rossellini co-stars.

6 Donkey Love

Taboos? Meet Daryl Stoneage, he’ll be breaking you today. His funny, shocking documentary about a tradition in Colombia of men having sex with donkeys is the subject of what’s bound to be a controversial SUFF screening.

7 Zero Killed

On the subject of taboos, here’s an exploration of everyday homicidal fantasies. Filmmaker Michal Kosakowski asks a range of people about their murder fantasies and gives them the chance to act them out in short films.

8 President Wolfman

The President of the United States has been bitten by a werewolf and is terrorising the streets of Washington DC. The satirical comedy-horror piece has been made entirely from recycled stock and public domain footage.

9 God Bless America

Bobcat Goldthwait’s pitch-black high school comedy World’s Greatest Dad is one of Robin Williams’s best ever movies. His new film has a terminally ill man (Joel Murray) on a killing spree of America’s dumbest celebrities.

10 Wikileaks: Secrets and Lies

Patrick Forbes’ documentary covers the Wikileaks affair as told by the people involved. Julian Assange is interviewed in a film that portrays history in the making. It’s essential viewing for anyone with an opinion about Assange.