THERE ONCE WAS A time when independent films and underground films were one and the same thing. Then in the early '90s, the emergence of the Sundance Film Festival changed everything. Suddenly, "independent" became more of a genre than a way of making movies.

Now, independent filmmakers are considered people who make low-budget films as calling cards to Hollywood. The fact that they have, intentionally or not, coalesced into a group and are now floating away to oblivion (or straight-to-video features) allows jaded film critics to focus on the next wave of interesting films and filmmakers: the new underground.

I'm not about to say underground films are always interesting or even good, but they are full of much more potential than so-called independent films. In response to a growing interest in underground film -- perhaps fueled by the success of unconventional films like Pi and The Blair Witch Project at Sundance -- underground film festivals are beginning to thrive, from the old stalwarts like New York and Chicago to new ones popping up all over the country, from Baltimore to Seattle.

For its first year, the Seattle Underground Film Festival (SUFF) has put together a surprisingly strong lineup on virtually no budget. The brainchild of Jon Behrens, Steve Creson, and Marc Burgio, SUFF was created to give light to films which aren't seen that often in Seattle, particularly experimental films. Says Behrens, "We're definitely an experimental-friendly film festival. There are a lot of film festivals who don't have an experimental film category, but list an experimental film category on their application. They just do that to take your entry fee, and then throw your film in the garbage."

For a new film festival, I would've thought 10 days of screenings (evenings only) would be overly optimistic. They disagree. According to Burgio, "I have noticed an effort between all three of us to actually try to work within the budget, to present diverse films at as many different venues as possible without overextending and bankrupting ourselves within the first year, which is an easy trap to fall into when you're starting your own film festival." SUFF venues include Hugo House, 911 Media Arts, one night of 35mm film at the Broadway Performance Hall, and a base at the relatively new Cinema 18, near 18th and Union.

Beyond a program of new work (Creson says they probably accepted about 80 percent of the submissions), they're peppering the festival with little-seen films from both classic and overlooked directors, like the tribute to Peter Watkins (Cinema 18, Sat Oct 9, 7:30), who made subversive films for the BBC in the mid-'60s. Then there's the entertaining Italian Exorcist rip-off, Beyond the Door (Cinema 18, Sat Oct 9, 11:30); Daniel Mann's 1958 film The Rose Tattoo (Cinema 18, Sun Oct 10, 7:30), based on Tennessee Williams' play and starring Burt Lancaster and Anna Magnani; Sam Fuller's 1950 film The Baron of Arizona (Cinema 18, Tues Oct 12, 7:30), starring Vincent Price; Carl Lerner's 1964 film Black Like Me (Hugo House, Thurs Oct 14, 7:30), about a white reporter who takes a drug that allows him to pass as black; as well as one of Alfred Hitchcock's silent films, Easy Virtue (Cinema 18, Thurs Oct 14, 9:30), featuring a live score by Lori Goldston and Paul Hoskins.

I had a chance to sample some of the other films in the festival, and they're exactly what you would expect from a start-up festival, minus much of the sex and shock elements. The new feature films are often full of unrealized potential, and once in a while a short film will achieve brilliance. The opening night film, Fishing With Gandhi (Cinema 18, Fri Oct 8, 7:30, and Sat Oct 16, 9:30), is recommended for the two amazing performances by John and James Reichmuth, who brilliantly fill out their redneck characters amid a host of stereotypical hipsters. Night Train (Broadway Performance Hall, Wed Oct 13, 9:30) has an engaging style but a clichéd story, and although I didn't see Love My Guts (Cinema 18, Mon Oct 11, 9:30), the Seattle filmmakers who made it would kill me if I didn't at least mention it.

As for the future, Behrens says, "We're not trying to be too big too fast. We're going to do this next year, and we're going to hopefully be able to just keep doing it, and it will just become an institution. We're hoping." They're off to a great start.