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Whether you know some folks on your shopping list who like contemplative dramas or violent revenge stories, there’s something for them below in this edition of the Underground Holiday Shopping Guide.

DramasMad World

Actor Cory Cataldo stepped behind the camera to direct his first feature film, a drama / black comedy hybrid that tackled the issue of bullying before the issue hit the mainstream. Now that Mad World is on DVD, the story of four high school outcasts on the shit end of the social climbing ladder seems even more relevant. Horrifying parental abuse, racism, drug use and other issues swirl together in this potent dramatic concoction.

Buy on Amazon!

Beneath Contempt

In a year stuffed with moody, emotional indie dramas, Benjamin Brewer‘s affecting Beneath Contempt has been, for the most part, unfairly overlooked. A young man is released from prison years after he killed his friends in a...

Fans of old-school grind-house films may find interest in this short. The film is directed by Greg Hanson, an underground/genre filmmaker based in New York who produced Beneath Contempt, which was a hit at this past year’s Slamdance. There is a lot to like in this short, so I do recommend checking it out.

Thy Kill Be Done has screened in more than 20 festivals worldwide, including the 2011 Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival and recently took home “Best Exploitation Short” at the 2011 Pollygrind Film Festival in Las Vegas.

Synopsis: When the Monsignor priest of an inner city church is killed by a gang of hoodlums and their drug lord leader, the nuns in the church’s clergy vow bloody revenge. But these are no ordinary nuns…

Thy Kill Be Done (2010) from Greth Productions on Vimeo.

Starring:

Jessica Webb – Sister Yvonne

Chaseedaw Giles – Sister Morgan

Rachel Cervarich – Sister St. Claire...

A trio of distinctly different films have been released on DVD:

Maximum Shame, dir. Carlos Atanes

Spain’s underground king of surrealism, Carlos Atanes, presents his densest, loopiest nightmare yet, Maximum Shame, a confounding puzzle of an enigma wrapped in video.

Atanes whisks viewers through a black hole that is swallowing the universe to a fetid cesspool ruled by a deranged, black leather clad queen who torments anyone unlucky enough to fall into her realm.

Maximum Shane is a cross between Alice in Wonderland and an S&M video, featuring a tour de force performance by Marina Gatell as the black queen.

Read the full review of Maximum Shame on Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film.

Buy Maximum Shame at Amazon!

Watch the trailer:

Bad Habits, dir. Dominic Deacon

A heroin-addicted nun finds a dead man in her bathtub in Dominic Deacon’s heady mix of high sleaze and high art.

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? Prick Trailer This sort of subverts your expectations a bit. Colin Berry's short film looks like it's going to dwell on the gentle moments...

Beneath Contempt, written and directed by Benjamin Brewer, opens with a tragic car crash, then chronicles a slow, but engrossing, moral collision.

After staying out all night drinking and partying, Sean Beckett (Colin Janson) lights up his pipe for one last toke on the way home and ends up crashing his car, killing his three passengers, but leaving him alive. Flash forward four years later and Sean is released from prison with time off for good behavior.

Before the accident, we don’t know much about Sean. The film’s early scenes focus more on Mason Barnes (Mark Nimar), one of Sean’s victims. Mason is a nice, good kid who is comfortable having long talks with his mother. His last moments on Earth are spent happily in the backseat of Sean’s car, joking around with a girl.

Have You Seen This Movie?(Leave Your Own Review)

Post-prison, the film tracks two parallel storylines.

The Independent Film Festival of Boston (IFFBoston) kicks off this Wednesday, and has a number of impressive films in its line-up. The festival will take place at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square, the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square, the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, and the Stuart Street Playhouse in downtown Boston. The festival, complete with over 110 film screenings, filmmaker Q&A sessions, panel discussions, visiting filmmakers, parties and events will showcase the best in current American and International cinema.

The opening night film of the festival is Being Elmo directed by Constance Marks will open the 9th annual festival on April 27th at the Somerville Theatre. This marks the first time the festival will open with a documentary. The film follows Kevin Clash, from humble upbringings as he follows his dream to become a puppeteer and one day work with his idol, Jim Henson, to the present day...

The Independent Film Festival of Boston [1] recently released their full line-up and it's a doozy. Sundance favorites such as The Future [2] and Submarine [3] will be there, along with awesome documentaries like Being Elmo [4] (With Elmo In Attendance!!!) and Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times [5]. I'm looking forward to films I wasn't able to catch at Sundance and SXSW, such as the legal documentary Hot Coffee, the heartbreaking How to Die in Oregon, and the new fascinating Conan O'Brien film. Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins [6] also looks like it will rock the house. The full line-up is below. The festival is April 27th through May 4th, and it's one of my favorite movie events of the year. If you live anywhere in New England, I invite you to come and check it out. You can follow IFFBoston on Facebook for updates [7] or buy your passes now [8]! Narrative Features 13 Assassins...

As a final tribute to the 2011 Slamdance Film Festival and its nurturing of first-time, independent filmmakers, here’s one last interview. We’ve gone back and talked with the filmmakers of Beneath Contempt, whose initial January 21st interview with Sound on Sight can be found here.

In this unique interview, Director Ben Brewer and Executive Producer Anna Rau, reflect on their time at Slamdance, which was, for both of them, the first festival they’ve attended as filmmakers. Both Brewer and Rau are recent graduates from Emerson College and the excitement, inspiration and confidence gleaned from their experience at Slamdance is palpable. Read on to find out what these young filmmakers learned and who Brewer emailed to express that he would “be willing to hold his coffee on whatever movie he makes next.”

Ben Brewer, Director of Beneath Contempt

What other film festivals have you been to and how does Slamdance compare?...

Slamdance opens tonight and will show 95 films from now through January 27th in Park City, Utah. Sound on Sight will continue to post interviews with Slamdance filmmakers throughout the festival’s duration (click here to read yesterday’s interview with the director of Pleasant People).

Today’s interview, with Director Ben Brewer and Executive Producer Anna Rau, reveals the inspiration and thinking behind their film, Beneath Contempt. Read about why it was important to them to steer clear of clichés and over-done movie devices as they told the murky story of a tragic accident and how this mishap weighs on various lives. You’ll also get to read about how they tricked a convenience store clerk into acting at the last minute, and why a band of police, detectives and firemen showed up to one of their shooting locations. Beneath Contempt was a project begun at Emerson College, and is their first feature film.

Both the Sundance and the Slamdance Film Festivals begin in Park City, Utah this week. While I previously posted up the full Slamdance lineup and some underground highlights at Sundance, I thought I’d round them up again for those attending the festivals who might be reading this and looking for the quirkier, out-of-the-hype screenings.

Sundance:

The first movie you don’t want to miss at is After You Left, directed by Jef Taylor, which was recently reviewed on Bad Lit. This easygoing, but emotionally complicated tale about a semi-immature dude in his mid-thirties dealing with a serious broken heart has a minimalist charm to it that makes it instantly likable. It’s the kind of film that at first it may not seem like much is going on, but actually has a lot to say. Lead actor Michael Tisdale is really good in it, too. Exact screening info is on this page.

The 17th annual Slamdance Film Festival is all set to run for eight days and nights Jan. 21-27. The festival is featuring a bold theme this year of “All Is Not Lost” where — due to the current devastating economic climate — Slamdance will donate 10% of ticket proceeds back to the filmmakers.

The fest is screening 14 feature films — 10 of which are in competition — and 8 feature documentaries, all of which are in competition. In addition, there will be 56 short films screening.

Plus, there are a couple of special screenings, including the Straight 8 event where anybody can register to receive a single roll of Super-8 film that they can use to direct their own in-camera edited mini-masterpiece. Also, on the 26th, there will be a special retrospective of the works of renegade ’60s filmmaker J.X. Williams.

The full film lineup is below, but for more information on the site please visit the official Slamdance website.

[1] Slamdance has officially announced the 2011 Feature Competition slate for the 17th Annual Slamdance Film Festival taking place January 21-27, 2011 in Park City, Utah. For those of you who don't know, the festival was founded in 1995 by filmmakers whose movies didn't get into Sundance, and has since become a yearly film festival spotlighting "emerging filmmaking talent and their new work." Slamdance touts that their festival is "programmed by filmmakers for filmmakers." While Sundance is still the big show in Park City, big filmmakers like Christopher Nolan (Memento), Marc Forster (Monster's Ball) and Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) are often mentioned as Slamdance discoveries. Hit the jump to read the full press release which includes the full line-up for the 2011 Festival. For Immediate Release Slamdance Film Festival Announces 2011 Feature Film Competition “All Is Not Lost” for Filmmakers in Park City and Commercially Year-Round Los Angeles - December 7, 2010 – Slamdance today announced the 2011 Feature Competition...

The Slamdance Film Festival wasn't that far behind The Sundance Film Festival in releasing their film line-up, and it's a compelling mix of titles. For those of you who don't know, Slamdance is another film festival that is going on at the exact same time, and in the exact same place as Sundance, and that's in Park City Ut, from January 21-28th. Slamdance focuses more on genre type indie films.

Check out the list below and tell us what you think! Do any of you plan on attending? I always try to catch a few of these films while up up in Park City.

Slamdance Film Festival Announces 2011 Feature Film Competition

"All Is Not Lost" for Filmmakers in Park City and Commercially Year-Round

Los Angeles - December 7, 2010 - Slamdance today announced the 2011 Feature Competition slate for the 17th Annual Slamdance Film Festival taking place January 21-27, 2011 in Park City,...

With the complete Sundance lineup now out in public you had to know that Slamdance couldn't be far behind. And it wasn't. The complete list of competition selections for Slamdance 2011 was announced today and it's a compelling mix of titles.

On the genre front Fernando Barreda Luna's found footage shocker Atrocious is the festival's one true horror entry while Simon Arthur's Silver Tongues also sounds like it could delve into dark thriller territory. Experimental effort The Beast Pageant is probably worth a look as well and I've been hearing growing buzz about inner city crime moc doc Snow On The Bluff as well.

On the real documentary side of things there are a couple music themed pieces - Road Dogs and Last Fast Ride - cranked up to 11. Stephan Wassman's Scrapper - the story of a group of men who collect scrap from a Us military bombing...

The Slamdance Film Festival which takes place each year in Utah at the same time as the Sundance Film Festival has just announced its program for the 2011 edition. The festival was founded in 1995 by Dan Mirvish, Jon Fitzgerald, Shane Kuhn and Peter Baxter and has since become a year-round organization championing emerging filmmaking talent and their new work. The aim is to provide what its supporters consider a truer representation of independent filmmaking).

The fest has earned a solid reputation for premiering films by first-time writers and directors working within the creative confines of limited budgets. Festival discoveries have included directors such as Christopher Nolan (Memento), Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball) and Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite).

The 17th annual fest will screen 10 narrative films and eight documentary features in competition from Jan. 21-27. Fourteen of the movies are world premieres. As part of this year’s festival theme — “All Is...