The Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival: Focused on the fringe

Despite its well-documented problems creating the infrastructure necessary to lure TV and moviemaking industry elements here on a consistent basis, the Bay area is unarguably blessed with a wealth of worthwhile film festivals. From the Tampa Bay International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival to Gasparilla, Sunscreen, Blue Ocean and beyond (RIP, Saints and Sinners), we’ve got multiple options for celebrating multiple films of almost any budget, buzz or genre.

And the folks at the Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival believe there’s plenty of room for one more.

“I really think we’re providing, I don’t want to say something the other festivals aren’t,” says R. Presley Stephens, TBUFF’s programming director and one of its founding board members. “We’re definitely dedicated to the underground filmmakers — not necessarily struggling filmmakers, but maybe those who don’t want to deal with too many corporate infuences, or don’t want to spend all their time raising huge budgets. And there are a lot of filmmakers like that, not just here but all over the world.”

Stephens seems uncomfortable discussing what TBUFF has that others don’t, preferring to praise fellow fests over engaging in any one-upmanship. In fact, that love for film events in general is as responsible for this four-day cavalcade of cinema as a desire to expose obscure or overlooked stuff to a wider audience. A veteran of the DIY scene, Stephens and virtually everyone else who founded TBUFF or sits on its board — including Jason Beck, Jay Frank, Chris Cook, Jaden Mikes, Lisa Shorts and a host of others — was involved in the making of indie 2013 horror-thriller The Poltergeist of Borley Forest. The festival circuit jaunt for that film made them want to put on one of their own.

“We’d all worked on films before, and gone on festival tours,” Stephens says. “But this time around it inspired us to create that experience for other filmmakers.”

Last year saw the Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival’s maiden voyage, at the now-demolished Seminole 8 theater in Pinellas County (where many of TBUFF’s principals worked over the years). The fest’s debut boasted 99 features and shorts. This year, excepting a few after-parties at spots like Mad Dogs and Englishmen, the whole thing goes down at South Tampa’s venerable Britton 8. The schedule includes 125 films, spanning all genres and split fairly evenly between full-lengths and shorts, and docs and narrative features. Filmmakers will be coming in from as far away as Poland and the UK, and Thursday’s free opening-night showings and festivities will play to a packed house based on advance RSVPs alone.

Stephens is thankful for the festival’s significant growth from its first to second year, but allows that it does create new issues.

“We have the same amount of screening time but 50 percent more films. There were more arguments among the selection committee,” he says with a laugh.

So it would seem there definitely is room for at least one more ambitious and edgy film festival on the Bay area docket — especially if its creators show the good sense to schedule it for the end of the year.

“There aren’t many festivals this time of year, so we decided to do it in December,” says Stephens. “The local filmmakers like it, but I think the northern filmmakers like it even more, because they get to come down here in the winter.” 

REEL HIGHLIGHTS

Here’s just a glimpse at some of what’s on this year’s TBUFF schedule.

Coastal Dune Lakes: Jewels of Florida’s Emerald Coast A doc by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Elam Stoltfus celebrates the uniqueness of a northwest Florida environmental treasure. (Fri., 5:10 p.m.)

Reset A buzzy speculative short about bullying from director Dominic Smith, whose Another Day won a Buffy Award (TBUFF’s prize) for Best Short Film last year. (Fri., 8:25 p.m.)

Inside Scarlett USF alum Carter Mays wrote and directed this provocative feature about a woman who wakes up pregnant without any recollection of how she could be. (Sat., 1:40 p.m.)

Code 9: Officer Needs Assistance This full-length doc looks at the negative effects of careers in law enforcement on officers and their families. Its TBUFF showing is nearly sold out on the strength of its timeliness and viral buzz. (Sat., 6 p.m.)

A Wise Fool An hour-plus documentary (photo above) on the subject of a heinous Cape Coral crime in which four teens kidnapped two victims and buried them alive. (Sun., noon)

The Art of Villainy One of the only TBUFF films to feature a celebrity (cult figure Bill Moseley), this short supernatural cat-and-mouse thriller about a paranormal baddie and the detective obsessed with catching him was directed by Tampa native James Noir. (Sun., 2:50 p.m.)

This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 2, 2015.