Sydney Underground Film Festival 2015

Audience members fainting is par for the course with Sydney’s annual festival of extreme, marginal and adventurous filmmaking, say partners and co-directors Katherine Berger and Stefan Popescu. By Nick Dent

Sydney Underground Film Festival is a place for ultra-violence, taboo sex, paranoia and extreme behaviour, but its creators, Katherine Berger and Stefan Popescu, are about as lovely and normal a couple as you could meet. “It’s true the festival attracts colourful people,” Popescu tells Time Out, “but they’re all quite sane and friendly.”

Says Berger: “We get people who say, ‘I still can’t stop thinking about that film that you showed a couple of years ago,’ and that makes us feel good.” Guys, it’s your ninth year. What are some of those memorable moments from the past eight festivals? Katherine Berger Definitely the donkey movie. [ laughs] The year before last we showed Donkey Love [about the Colombian practice of sex with donkeys]. People were gobsmacked that this actually is a thing, going on in another part of the world. Stefan Popescu At Wetlands last year, we had three people pass out. It was closing night, the party was meant to be happening, and we had the ambulance there.

Gaspar Noé’s new film, Love, is your opening night film this year. I believe it’s, um, a 3D porno? SP It’s autobiographical – the lead character is modelled on Noé. He really contextualises the sex. He says: “Life’s about blood, semen and poo, so every film should have those in it.” At that moment, you get why he’s doing it. Any schlock highlights this year? SP Bunny the Killer Thing from Finland. A guy is kidnapped and injected with this green stuff. KB It’s always green stuff. SP He gets super-human strength and escapes. He ends up in a bunny suit wanting to rape people with a really giant penis. KB It’s a crowd pleaser.

You’re having a 50th anniversary screening of Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Is it a personal favourite? KB Russ Meyer films are about everything I’m not. It’s that feminist thing where you want to be this super-ultrasexy, strong woman. SP I like the idea of Russ Meyer, because he wasn’t at all a feminist, but in being so misogynistic, he kind of became like a feminist. What’s new in the program structure this year? KB We have two days of Masterclasses happening in conjunction with Sydney College of the Arts.

Any favourite short films this year? SP Oh yeah. [ laughs nervously] A short doco, ‘Dolphin Lover’. It’s about a guy who thinks a dolphin seduced him and it’s his soulmate. They actually explain the anatomy of it too. It answers all your questions. KB All in 15 minutes.

SUFF 2015 The Factory Theatre, 105 Victoria Rd, Marrickville 2204. www.suff. com.au. $14-$50. Sep 17-20.

“People say, ‘I still can’t stop thinking about that film from a couple of years ago’”