Baton Rouge doesn’t mind being the place for “underdogs” — especially since it is hosting the Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival. This four-day annual event aims to celebrate the artistic and cultural value of the incredible indie and genre-focused talent that flows to and from the city of Baton Rouge while also fostering a vibrant, interconnected independent film community. Beyond the lineup of ambitious and one-of-a-kind shorts and features, the festival will include networking bays, industry-led workshops, insightful panels, themed galas, fun afterparties and more.

Opening night takes place Aug. 21 with a screening of Steven Soderbergh’s Schizopolis, a 1986 film about Fletcher Munson, the lethargic employee of a pseudo-religious self help company, and his doppelganger, the friendly but dull dentist Dr. Jeffrey Korchek. Soderbergh’s 1989 drama Sex, Lies, and Videotape won the Palme d’Or at that year’s Cannes Film Festival, making him the youngest solo director to win the award; he was 26 at the time. Principal photography on the film took place in Baton Rouge.

The Traveller and The Troll, a short film in the vein of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, which screened earlier this summer at Palm Springs Short Fest will screen as a part of the 10:30 a.m. Aug. 22 genre block and is a must see for any 80s fantasy enthusiast.

Baton Rouge Underground Film Festival will take place Aug. 21-24 at the Manship Theatre. Passes are available now, as well as rates at the nearby Indigo Hotel, by clicking here.