MUFF diving

>> Shaved Barbies, condoms, chickens
and more at the strange and sublime
Montreal Underground Film Festival

by MATTHEW HAYS

When I interviewed John Greyson a couple of years ago, he had some very interesting things to say about the new “clout” of indie cinema. While feature-length documentaries have gained a great deal of ground, he noted that what many people thought of independent cinema had come out of the Sundance meatgrinder, and that meant it conformed to certain standards of its own.

Certain kinds of films, like cute, low-budget romantic comedies, had currency at the Sundance Festival, Greyson argued. But experimental films? Forget it. “They are often cut out of the picture,” he correctly pointed out. “There’s little room for that kind of formal expression.”

Fully aware that experimental cinema often gets pushed to the sidelines, organizers of the Montreal Underground Film Festival (MUFF) are working to create a screen space for such cultural diversions. Now in its second year, the event will unreel this weekend, showcasing a fantastic array of strange and sublime short experimental work. Some of the highlights I caught earlier this week indicate a feisty curatorial spirit on the part of the programmers.

In Alexis Boran’s Doll-like, a rather plastic-looking woman gets intimate with her Barbie dolls, shaving them down in order to get her fix. Boran has a strong aesthetic sensibility, and what starts as a droll short soon becomes consumed with darkness. With L’Education Nautique, Montrealer Christian Laurence has created a visually stunning meditation on the rites of passage of boyhood. Laurence’s use of faded colour effectively creates a sense of nostalgia and melancholia.

Despite its truly grating soundtrack, Félix Dufour-Laperrière and Dominic-Étienne Simard’s Head is a hypnotic piece of animation, a fascinating collision of visual styles and symbols. Their cryptic visual puzzle kept me guessing. Glenn Gear also manages to say a lot with a little; his short Lust—at just under a minute and a half—employs paper cut-outs to illustrate libidinous desire. Isabelle Mcewen’s German entry Condoms is a unique burlesque tribute to the rubber mode of contraception. Mcewen has chosen her cast well, employing every male body type imaginable.

MUFF also includes a screening of a short by the Canadian master of prairie Gothic, Guy Maddin. His Rooster is a typically inspired bit of lunacy. It’s another tribute to the silent movie era, with a young woman experiencing a tortured romance with… a rooster. You’ll laugh when you’re not being totally weirded out by Maddin’s intensely referential cinematic universe.

But from where I sit, the show-stoppers at this year’s fest were two entries by Jesika Joy. In Strip Show, Joy messes with our sense of spectatorship as we watch a striptease performed to Madonna’s “Like a Virgin.” The seamless erotic dance is punctuated by breaks, during which the dancer crams cupcakes up her most private of parts. Joy will definitely not be hired by the people over at Dunkin’ Donuts to make an ad anytime soon.

And then, there’s Joy’s Pig Heart. This is Joy’s exploration of the dual sensations of “desire and disgust.” She dances with an actual pig heart, rubs it all over her body and then rips it apart, penetrating herself with a part of it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Muff screens from today, May 17,
until \May 19, at Friperie Potetr
(6029 Parc), $5 per screening.
Info: www.montrealundergroundfilmfestival.com

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