PUFF Postscript - 2020

Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival
PUFF Postscript 2020

by Hunter Bush


With the news that Cineworld would be shuttering their theaters until 2021 coming out over the weekend, digital film festivals are looking more and more like the new status quo as opposed to a stop-gap solution. To that end, I sincerely hope you took advantage of the PUFF 2020 screenings over the weekend because things like PUFF - the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival - are important for filmmakers who don’t have studio backing. If you didn’t, you missed out on some great stuff, but we are trying our best to regularly cover similar fests here at Moviejawn.

PUFF 2020 - PUFF Preview

Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival
PUFF Preview 2020

by Hunter Bush



Last year, I was privileged to go to the 4th annual Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival with my partner Allison Yakulis and interact with a great group of people who were all passionate about genre films great and small. From the festival organizers to the filmmakers on hand to the audience members. I was even introduced to what ended up being my favorite movie of last year, The Invisible Mother. It is currently, to the best of my knowledge, sadly unavailable (but if you’re reading this Shudder, it’d be right up your alley) but I digress. My experience at PUFF was fantastic! I saw a dozen different pictures (and twice as many shorts), met and interacted with some wonderful people and got to explore a part of the city I’m otherwise rarely in.

Obviously, due to *gestures at viral pandemic* all this, PUFF was forced to go digital this year and has a smaller roster of films at hand, but I’m sure they’re no less interesting. Let’s take a look at the available trailers and see if we can’t find my next favorite movie of the year!

Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival - PUFF Part 2: Postscript

The films that screen at the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival, by and large, are difficult to pin down. Organizers prefer to think of it as an "Alternative" film festival, though a lot of the movies do tend to fall under the umbrella of "horror". But you may as well just classify them all as "movies" and call it a day for how unspecific that is. Hence the "Unnamed" part of the PUFF moniker; it's not just that they were too lazy to come up with a name.

Allison & Hunter were lucky enough to, between them, see all the films great and small shown at PUFF proper. As mentioned in PUFF Part 1 - Prologue, the short films on hand were largely broken up into blocks, though there were a few that played before the features like a film appetizer. Below we've got a round-up of what we saw and, in brief, what we dug about it:

Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival - PUFF Part 1: Prologue

PUFF 2019 Preview
“Allison & Hunter Write a PUFF Piece! Part 1 - Prologue”

For this, the fourth annual Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival (or PUFF), Moviejawn contributors Allison Yakulis and Hunter Bush are going to check out all the delicious independent genre films and shorts that are being screened in our own backyard. PUFF will be rocking and rolling from September 26th to September 29th at the 2223 Theater in Fishtown. There’s also a pre-PUFF event on September 25th that will include a screening of The Blair Witch Project with director Eduardo Sánchez in attendance (it’s the 20th anniversary of the film!) and a screening of Legacy Award to Exhumed Films winner Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural with its director Richard Blackburn there to introduce the film. Lemora is also going to be screened in 16mm, which is rad for all you format freaks out there.

PUFF is still growing, and this year will be screening 10 feature length films. There are also over 20 short films, broken up into blocks (you can catch Bizarre Shorts on Friday, International Shorts on Saturday, and Local Shorts on Sunday). Allison & Hunter couldn’t find a listing of the shorts that will be featured, but we did get to check out some synopses and trailers for the feature length films. Between the two of us we’re hoping to bring you full coverage of the festival proper after PUFF packs up.

So consider this a PUFF Prologue and if you’re in the area and want to check it out, tickets are available HERE. We’ll be back after the fest with some thoughts on the movies and the event itself. For now, read on to see what we’re looking forward to:

"The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)" and the greater Clover-verse (Go Birds!)

Firstly, I just wanna say one thing: Go Birds!

Now to the matter at hand: The film now known as Cloverfield Paradox. In case you aren't aware, I'm gonna give you a quick rundown of its history and how (if) it fits into the larger Clover-verse.


Fair Warning: There will be spoilers