In the mood for a movie? KC Underground Film Festival hosting two weeks of free screenings

Joseph Hernandez
Shelly Yang/syang@kcstar.com

The Kansas City Underground Film Festival is bringing free entertainment to the city until Sept. 24. Low-budget but high quality independent films take center stage at Charlotte Street Foundation on 3333 Wyoming St..

This marks the third year of the festival that started because Willy Evans, Kari Bingham-Gutierrez and Courtney Bierman wanted to fill the void left by The Tivoli Theater’s closing in 2019.

“I’m a bundle of nerves around the festival,” Evans said. “It’s a lot of work, and we all desperately want it to go well. Our team spends hundreds of hours reviewing submissions and planning all of the details.”

Independent filmmakers submitted shorts and feature films to the festival, and organizers also invited some filmmakers to submit throughout the year. Evans said he reached out to the director of the Argentine documentary “The Delights” after he saw the film at True/False Film Festival in Columbia.

Since the film festival focuses on low-budget and independent works, Evans said the filmmakers are ecstatic to work with them. Many of the films they have for the festival are being screened for the first time, and in many cases, the only time.

“It’s a special feeling to find the perfect diamond in the rough,” Evans said. “We get really passionate about finding an audience for it.”

The films are free, but you’ll have to reserve tickets ahead of time. To reserve a ticket for one of the movies, you’ll visit the festival’s online schedule, select the movie you want to see and enter your email address to confirm your spot.

WHAT MOVIES ARE SHOWING?

Over 20 films are showing at the Kansas City Underground Film Festival. These are a few Evans is most excited about.

  • “Yuzo the Biggest Battle in Tokyo.” Evans said it’s a hilarious and bizarre workplace comedy/kaiju movie from director Yoshikazu Ishii. He said it’s extra special because Ishii will fly to Kansas City from Japan for the screening.

  • “Singing in the Wilderness,” is “an incredible documentary about an extraordinary and obscure group of people,” according to Evans. He said his team sought this one out after hearing about its screenings at the Rotterdam and Thessaloniki international film festivals, and that it lived up to the hype.

  • “Love at War” is a French-Canadian movie by director Maxime Desruisseaux about two lovers who, with no context, are told by “intraterrestrials” that their reconciliation could save the world. Evans described it as “if Guy Ritchie and Wes Anderson co-directed an episode of ‘The Good Place’ but everyone was trapped in the ‘Brady Bunch intro.’”

Each day shows a mix of feature-length and short films, all at Charlotte Street Foundation. Check out the full schedule below:

Sept. 15

To kick off the festival, a block of short films under the theme “Americans CAN make good movies,” starts at 7 p.m. with:

  • “Good Luck with Everything”

  • “Soft Launch”

  • “Candyland”

  • “Good Years Gone”

  • “Memoir of a Lonely Cloud”

Sept. 16

  • “Ultimate World” and “Is There A Pine On The Mountain” at 7 p.m.

  • “ULTIMATUM - Rise of a Hero” at 9:30 p.m.

Sept. 17

  • An animation block starting at 12:30 p.m. featuring “Beacon,” “Blast Off,” “Brain On Fire,” “Dog Husband,” “The Dream Doctor,” “Helpful Monsters,” “Hero Complex,” “InterGeneration,” “Level One,” “The Messenger,” “Poolside,” “Rocks: An Observational Study” and “Voice on”

  • “Singing in the Wilderness,” “My Childhood” and “Asian Cinema Club” at 3 p.m., all highlighting art and Asian identity .

  • A block of short films starting at 5:30 p.m., featuring “The 3rd Side,” “Te’aa’s Guest,” “Seeing You,” “Memoria(l),” and “Dajla: cinema and oblivion”

  • The film festival’s 2022 horror showcase starts at 8 p.m. with “Wild Bones,” “Oblivion,” “Sanctus,” “DRIFT,” and “Mangia!”

Sept. 21

At 7 p.m., road trips and family bonds are this day’s theme with films like:

  • “Pessoas”

  • “Courage & Grace”

  • “Idiot Fish”

  • “SHUSTER”

  • “Reservoir (Seven Fragments)”

Sept. 22:

The theme for these films are “Gentle Stories That Won’t Upset You - Except For The Ones That Will Upset You,” and it features:

  • “The Whole Lot”

  • “SAME NIGHT DIFFERENT BLUE”

  • “Retribution”

  • “LUV YA”

  • “Colonie”

The first film starts at 7 p.m.

Sept. 23:

A block of short films under the theme “Good Movies for Cool People,” starts the 7 p.m. show:

  • “Love is a map”

  • “By Way of Water”

  • “Labor of Love”

  • “In the Garden Of”

At 9:30 p.m., the festival presents “a collection of cool movies,” with the likes of:

  • “Yuzo the Biggest Battle in Tokyo”

  • “SQUISH”

  • “Work it Class!”

  • “Hubbards”

Sept. 24:

The last day of the festival features four different blocks:

  • “Melancholy & Creativity in Modern America,” starts at 12:30 p.m., with films like “Greyland,” “Such a Nerd,” “Aresco’s,”Death, by Koji,” and “The Sticklet Weaver.”

  • At 3:30 p.m., watch “The Long Weekend,” “Zordovia, My Love,” ”Windows,” “A Slice of Paradise,” “Old Met,” and “Aqueducts.”

  • Starting at 5:30 p.m., the “Isolation Does Funny Things to Your Brain” block begins with “Love at War,” “Talk To Me and I’ll Talk Back,” “PAROLES, PAROLES,” “I AM GOD,” “Water Lilies,” and “winner winner.”

  • The last block of the festival is a 2022 local filmmaker showcase. The films include “Kibbutz,” “A Dialogue Between Two Ex-Lovers,” ”WISH YOU WERE HERE,” “Body Paragraphs,” “DARK MODE,” “Chicken,” “First Kiss,” “IN RETROSPECT,” “No. 2,” “Relapse,” “The Starlight Hotel,” “TAPED,” and ends with a Q&A session.

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