The 27th JEONJU International Film Festival (JEONJU IFF, Festival Co-Directors MIN Sungwook and JUNG Junho) announced the selection for the Special Focus: New York Underground – The Mavericks.
Special Focus: New York Underground – The Mavericks, this year's special program at the JEONJU IFF, presents a cinematic arena of revolution through films by three artists who stood at the core of the New York Underground Cinema that dominated the 1960s and 1970s.
Molly KIM, programmer of the JEONJU IFF, shared her insights and excitement regarding the thematic depth of the upcoming program, noting: “It will be thrilling to see how audiences today would resonate with these films subverting and transgressing the norms of cinema and society all at once.”
 |
| △ From the left: Putney Swope, Greaser’s Palace |
The program features a series of provocative works that challenge cinematic and social conventions, starting with Robert DOWNEY Sr.’s Putney Swope, a biting satire that dismantles the white-dominated advertising industry and power structures through the unexpected appointment of a Black CEO.
The film is followed by Downey's another masterpiece, Greaser’s Palace, a bizarre Western that blends religious allegory with black comedy, as a mysterious healer arrives in a brutal, surreal frontier town.
 |
| △ From the left: No President, I Was A Male Yvonne De Carlo |
Jack SMITH’s experimental No President lampoons the absurdity of political power, utilizing archival election footage and uncanny performances to create a surreal spectacle where a candidate is ultimately put up for auction.
The program continues with a selection of transgressive works by Jack SMITH, including I Was A Male Yvonne De Carlo, in which SMITH parodies the Hollywood sex symbol Yvonne DE CARLO, crafting a self-reflexive portrait of underground cinema by interweaving performance and archival elements amid a cast of chaotic fans and eccentric figures.
 |
| △ From the left: Blonde Cobra, Flaming Creatures |
Blonde Cobra (Ken JACOBS) is an experimental work centered on Jack SMITH’s performance, composed as a radical collage of images, song, and oral narration that navigates themes of nationhood, death, and sexuality.
The landmark film Flaming Creatures (Jack SMITH) provocatively examines gender and sexual identity through its signature avant-garde imagery, becoming a symbol in debates over censorship and freedom of expression.
 |
△ From the left: Viet-Flakes, Meat Joy, Fuses, Snows, Body Collage, Plumb Line
© The Carolee Schneemann Foundation. Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York.
© 2026 Carolee Schneemann Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York - SACK, Seoul. |
The program continues with a powerful collection of works by Carolee SCHNEEMANN, a pioneer in bridging the gap between personal experience and political critique. Her experimental film Viet-Flakes reconstructs harrowing images of the Vietnam War through montage and sound collage, creating an unsettling rhythm and a forceful act of protest.
The artist further explores the intersection of the body and art in Meat Joy, an iconic performance-based work that stirred controversy by presenting bodily liberation and “sacred eroticism” through sensory excess. In a similar vein, Fuses expands intimate love and sexual experience into a subjective and sensorial cinematic language using layered imagery and abstraction.
SCHNEEMANN’s multidisciplinary approach is also evident in Snows, a multimedia work that integrates projection, installation, and performance to examine the structures of war and violence by creating a participatory political space.
The collection also features Body Collage, a performance film where the artist experiments with the boundaries between body and image through dynamic movements. Finally, Plumb Line concludes the selection, intertwining anger over the Vietnam War with personal loss to merge private documentation with a public statement through the medium of the body.
Special Focus: New York Underground – The Mavericks will be presented to audiences at the 27th JEONJU International Film Festival, taking place across Jeonju City for ten days, from April 29 (Wed) to May 8 (Fri), 2026.
The 27the JEONJU IFF Special Focus: New York Underground – The Mavericks Selection
※Listed in program order
| no. |
Title |
Director |
Genre |
| 1 |
Putney Swope |
Robert DOWNEY Sr. |
Fiction |
| 2 |
Greaser's Palace |
Robert DOWNEY Sr. |
Fiction |
| 3-1 |
No President |
Jack SMITH |
Experimental |
| 3-2 |
I Was A Male Yvonne De Carlo |
Jack SMITH |
Experimental |
| 4-1 |
Blonde Cobra |
Ken JACOBS |
Experimental |
| 4-2 |
Flaming Creatures |
Jack SMITH |
Experimental |
| 5-1 |
Viet-Flakes |
Carolee SCHNEEMANN |
Experimental |
| 5-2 |
Meat Joy |
Carolee SCHNEEMANN |
Experimental |
| 5-3 |
Fuses |
Carolee SCHNEEMANN |
Experimental |
| 5-4 |
Snows |
Carolee SCHNEEMANN |
Experimental |
| 5-5 |
Body Collage |
Carolee SCHNEEMANN |
Experimental |
| 5-6 |
Plumb Line |
Carolee SCHNEEMANN |
Experimental |
|
