The Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival (LUFF) is once again gearing up to provoke and redefine what a film festival can be.
For over two decades, LUFF has committed itself to pushing the boundaries of cinema and music, showcasing avant-garde and subversive works that challenge traditional norms. The upcoming 23rd edition, from October 16th to the 20th, invites festival-goers to dive into a program that fuses experimental film and sonic innovation.
Celebrating Cinema’s Fringe
The heart of LUFF’s programming has always been its film selection, and this year’s lineup is no exception. The Scala Cinema, an iconic bastion of underground film culture in London, is honored through a selection of films that once graced its screen.
Jane Giles, Scala’s legendary programmer, and Ali Catterall, co-director of a documentary on the Scala, will be present to guide audiences through this tribute, including the Swiss premiere of Caligula: The Ultimate Cut. LUFF will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of Flesh Gordon, the groundbreaking erotic sci-fi parody, paying homage to its recently departed co-creator Howard Ziehm.
In keeping with its tradition of offering radical and challenging cinema, LUFF’s international competition includes Asche by Elena Wolff, an existential critique of human hypocrisy, and Jour de chasse, a thriller that dives into the dark recesses of human nature. Khavn de la Cruz’s Makamisa: Phantasm of Revenge takes viewers on a hallucinatory, anticolonial journey through Filipino history, while Beezel, a horror film that shuns the cynicism and meta-commentary of modern horror, returns to the genre’s raw, terrifying roots.
The festival also includes a retrospective on queer-punk icon Sean DeLear in The Life of Sean DeLear, a documentary on the eccentric Los Angeles performer, and the feminist exploration Cinégraphies, which shines a spotlight on New York’s avant-garde female filmmakers, continuing LUFF’s tradition of promoting marginalized voices in cinema.
Music as a Sonic Assault
LUFF’s music program has been a defining element of its identity, and this year’s lineup continues the tradition of pushing auditory boundaries. The Argentine noise artist Andrea Pensado will open the festival with a sonic explosion of ventriloquy, shrieks, and cut-up noise, setting the stage for a week of sonic subversion.
Kenya’s Lord Spikeheart, a pivotal figure in the African metal scene, will bring his guttural growls and extreme sound to Salle des Fêtes, while Mali’s DJ Diaki, with his blistering Balani rhythms, will challenge even the most seasoned dancers to keep up with his breakneck tempos.
LUFF’s multidisciplinary approach is exemplified by its collaboration with the SPECTRAL collective, which curates an expanded cinema section pushing the limits of audiovisual performance. Artists like Leyla Rodriguez blend sound, film, and performance art into immersive experiences, with Rodriguez’s Recordis—an intimate sound piece mixing family recordings with avant-garde cinema—promising to be one of the highlights of this year’s program.
The 23rd edition of Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival's full lineup is available here.