I come before you today to break a promise. When I started Fandom Underground a few years ago, I said that this series highlighting fan works would not compare these works to their professional counterpart or use the series as a diatribe on the state of modern media. I meant
Joel Haver epitomizes everything I’ve been trying to get across with my series on low budget films. Like many creators on Youtube, he’s proven time and again that great stories only need talent and dedication. His video Fast, Cheap, Good, Pick Three explains how working within your limitations
Molli and Max is a meeting of opposites melds opposing forces like nothing I’ve seen before. In genre, tone, character, color scale, and technology, it epitomizes the heart of true romance: finding a home in the absurd, sometimes impossible challenges of life. In doing so, it makes itself a
Punisher: Nightmare is a miracle of filmmaking and a walking contradiction. Its portrayal of Frank Castle, one man force of destruction, uses all the techniques and artistry of budget filmmaking backed by the hunger and energy of the independent scene. The story is both brutal and thoughtful, grim and hopeful,
The People’s Joker is a walking contradiction. Exactly what I expected and wildly above expectation. At the same time it was stylish and artless, genius and stupid, ironic shitpost and sincere masterpiece. This portrait of trans comedian Vera Drew, her life and struggles, through the neon CG-soaked veneer of
Unsound doesn’t have to tell you that it’s based on a true story. Never have I seen something so real. Never has a film captured the complex, contradictory feelings only a caretaker for a parent with mental health issues could understand. Darious Britt’s independent feature is a
By looking deep into film history, Austin-based artist Eric Power found the template for a style of filmmaking unlike anything released in the past century. The story begins in 1926 ago, with a female director forgotten to most modern audiences. Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed is the
Demetrius Witherspoon’s Submerge Universe exemplifies the inverse proportionality of resources and heart that every artist must struggle with. The more personal and unique your work is, the harder it is to fund. The more money you take in, the more compromises you have to accept. For ten years, Submerge
