LOGAN SQUARE — The Chicago Underground Film Festival is returning to the Logan Theatre this week for the second year.
The festival has come a long way since it was founded in 1993, when organizers would have screenings in downtown hotels to save money.
"When we started out we had very little budget so we got these hotels to give us screening rooms," said the festival's artistic director, Bryan Wendorf. "Filmmakers stayed in the hotels, so we got the hotels to show the movies for free."
After a couple years of doing that, the festival, or CUFF as it's known for short, made it to the big screens of theaters such as the Music Box and Chopin as well as few others around town, some now closed.
Before coming to the Logan, it spent three years at the Gene Siskel Film Center, but Wendorf said he's glad to have the festival back in a neighborhood, particularly Logan Square.
"The Logan's actually been a great venue for us both in terms of the location and the size of the theaters — and the way the Logan is set up since it has the lounge," he said.
Organizers are able to use the lounge for events in between the screenings, such as film discussions and meet-and-greets with filmmakers.
Though he likes the Siskel Film Center, Wendorf said the Logan Theatre has turned out to be a boon for the festival in more ways than one.
"At the Siskel people had a tendency to come see a film and go, and at the Logan they tend to come see a program, hang out in the lounge, see another program, and so on, so attendance has gone up at the Logan," he said.
This year, the festival will also be taking advantage of other venues in the neighborhood.
Its opening- and closing-night celebrations will be held at the Hairpin Arts Center, less than a block north on Milwaukee Avenue, while other afterparties throughout the festival will be held at The Owl, The Burlington and Township.
"All of these are within a few blocks of the Logan, so it's very convenient," Wendorf said.
The festival itself will feature 20 or so films, about half of those full feature and half of them shorts. Many submissions were from Chicago filmmakers, but Wendorf said there are films from "just about everywhere" including Austria, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
A full schedule of screenings and other events can be found here.
