The Joburg Underground Film Festival: NIGHT FOUR

The Bioscope is proud to host monthly events in partnership with Joburg Underground (@jhb_under). Joburg Underground is committed to bringing you unconventional low-budget independent cinema screenings, in addition to throwing the occasional alternative event. As Joburg Underground's flagship event, the Joburg Underground Film Festival is a celebration of experimental, radical, and unorthodox cinema from all corners of the globe.

SEE THE FULL FESTIVAL PROGAM HERE.

PROGRAM OF THIS SESSION

Reddening

Dir. Sinem Kayacan & Elina Pirinen (Finland, 15 min)

Four good friends travel through time and space for an alchemical and sensuous celebration full of phantasms. Familiar yet unexpected faces appear along the way.

I am a Microscope

Dir. Karl Nussbaum (United States, 7 min)

A 2 channel installation consisting of two separate films made by painting directly onto 35mm film and working with various chemical solvents.

TT

Dir. Charles Leo Panadan (India, 11 min)

A man suffering from memory loss encounters a furious stranger who shares his face — their meeting unfolding at the edge of a cliff. With no understanding of the stranger’s rage, only driven by curiosity, he follows this mysterious double through surreal landscapes.

Intermission 15 min

Seasons of Longing

Dir. Robyn Phillips (South Africa, 16 min)

A short film about how queer love survived in the secrecy of a 1930s  South African farming community.

Too Many

Dir. Robin Bernard (South Africa, 2 min)

A man and a woman go on a date where strange things happen.

Fig. 2 - Absence

Dir. Nika Hood (South Africa, 3 min)

A handmade, frame-by-frame meditation on loss and memory, created in honour of my grandfather and uncle, who both passed away from cancer in 2020. The film unfolds in stark monochrome, with a single bloom of colour drawn from photographs and sounds of them, allowing them to live on, if only for a moment, through film.

The Petal Between Us

Dir. Angelina Mandzavinos (South Africa, 4 min)

The Petal Between Us traces the emotional arc of a toxic relationship from first connection to inevitable change. Told through symbolic imagery, movement, and projections rather than dialogue, the film explores love not as a story, but as a feeling: tender, textured, and transient.

Post-screening Q&A with Filmmakers 15 min