Back from the underground

Tulsa Overground film festival returns to Tulsa this month

Founded in 1998 by Holland Hall-grown film and video geeks Todd Lincoln and Jeremy Lamberton, The Tulsa Overground Film Festival ran for a decade, becoming an influential, non-competitive, all-genre tradition here, with few homegrown cinematic ambitions—building a seminal brand long before not hating the 918 became fashionable.

Morphing from a short-film review (albeit it one that was already drawing entries from Ben Stiller and the creators of “South Park”) into an annual film and music bacchanal, Overground garnered a reputation for its eclectic, mix-tape mash-ups of refined, rudimentary, funny, diabolically bizarre, and inspiring short films.

Local, domestic, and imported submissions were curated with the glee of demented ringmasters. They barely avoided litigation with one unwitting venue over a film depicting a sex act that was shot entirely in X-ray (let that sink in for a second). Lincoln and Lamberton started exhibiting at the PAC when no one went downtown for fun and drew packed crowds. When Overground went to the Circle Cinema, even once coinciding with one of the worst ice storms in Tulsa’s history, there were people in the seats.  

And just like that, it went away. 

For Lincoln, that involved a series of professional wins, personal heartbreak, and the idea of going out on a high note. “I had some major losses in my life,” Lincoln said, with “my mom passing away in July of 2008 and then my grandmother[s] the next year. At the same time I was ramping up to make this film adaptation I’d been developing at Universal called Hack/Slash.”

“Hack/Slash,” a popular comic series, wound up a victim to the vagaries of a new regime at Universal. But Lincoln eventually went on to write and direct 2012’s “The Apparition” for Warner Bros. This fall’s release of the third film in the popular “V/H/S” series, “V/H/S: Viral,” features his latest work, “Gorgeous Vortex,” an “experimental, high-fashion, horror film,” according to Lincoln, which was shot last year, entirely in Tulsa.

Meanwhile, Lamberton got married and made a movie about Biker Fox, Tulsa’s most loved and reviled motivational bike enthusiast, animal lover, and car-parts dealer since no one who has otherwise existed. Lately, Lamberton has been shooting a documentary about the rebuild of the Admiral Twin. His “Biker Fox” has hit iTunes for all to see. He also wore myriad production hats while shooting “Gorgeous Vortex” with Lincoln. 

“Yeah, getting married, starting the Biker Fox project…we always said the festival is hard work, especially when you’re as neurotic and controlling as we are. We’d literally done this festival, just the two of us for ten years,” Lamberton said. “Things had started to change. It seems crazy now, but YouTube came around about 2007 and everything was starting to adapt to the online stuff…it was just rethinking, ‘What is the role of a short-film festival in a time where anyone can put their short film online?’”

“And part of it was like knowing when to smash the guitar and go,” Lincoln adds. “You were either there for it or you weren’t and that’s it, we’re out.”

Now, eight years later, those who missed the boat will have at least one more chance to enjoy the ride.

The return of Overground to Circle Cinema this year is almost serendipitously timed. The films are all new, including a secret short film from Lincoln, though one or two old favorites may appear (you’ll not find anything with a million YouTube “likes” here). “We’re showing the most hot-off-the-press, bleeding-edge stuff…that you can’t see anywhere [except for the Circle],” Lincoln said. Tulsa Overground is a festival where a 15-year old kid from Coweta has as much of a shot at getting something on screen as Spike Jonze.

Bleeding edge is a good term for it, lest we forget X-ray sex. Over the years the lineup has always been a diverse, crazy, and explorative affair, and it seems that this year will be no different. Lincoln and Lamberton are looking for signs of a genre’s future in the films that make the cut, be it documentary, found-footage, narrative, experimental, animation, or something utterly unclassifiable. Anything goes as long as it strikes a chord of individuality and vision. They are, clearly, both fueled by it.

“There’s new genres I’ve never even heard of, like Machinima” Lamberton said with a grin.

“Yeah, that’s like taking a video-game engine, whether it’s Halo or Quake or something like that, forming their own stories,” Lincoln added. “Motion graphic films, augmented reality stuff…it points to where this festival could go. More interactive, immersive experiences.”

Would-be local filmmakers, take note: the Circle is 3D ready and, if all goes well, this won’t be the last Overground.

The four-night onslaught of films at the Circle is followed by four nights of raucous bands and libations at Soundpony, featuring acts from Lizard Police and Lesbian Summer to Who & the Fucks. Lamberton and Lincoln will be bringing the cinema aesthetic with them there, as well. 

“We’re going to have video projected all over the Soundpony to accompany the music and have a video installation at the Circle in the gallery,” said Lincoln. “It’s such a small percentage of people that get to make studio films but there’s so many other ways and formats to make things and show your work…and expanding people’s idea of what a film is.”

In the end, Lincoln and Lamberton (like many of their brethren) aspire for Tulsa to become the mecca of filmmaking that Austin became. But becoming a mecca takes time, talent, and a business catalyst. In the meantime, some on the Left Coast are aware of what’s about to happen.

“Hollywood is present and is watching” Lincoln said Overground’s return. “And something can change for somebody.”

The Tulsa Overground Film Festival runs Aug. 28-31. For films, bands and tickets, visit tulsaoverground.com and circlecinema.com.