Two words. Charles fucking Manson. Well three actually. Never has a name provoked so much controversy or been so vilified in the media. Never has a man instilled so much dread from the annals of US crime, or a case been more bizarre than case of Charles Manson. Manson also fascinated filmmakers. Many feature films, documentaries and shorts have been made about the Manson phenomenon and his Family. AT MUFF this year we bring you a selection of the best of this weird cinematic sub-genre, that will touch on all the most interesting aspects of the Manson case; from the Beatles white album and the Beach Boys connection, Charlies own musical ambitions, the Manson girls like Squeaky and Susan Atkins, the link to La Vey’s Church of Satan and underground filmmaker Kenneth Anger, the time in Death Valley, Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski. Expect to Rise and be part of this years most chilling section of our festival.

We do not condone Manson’s actions either as we are all huge Polanski fans (RW met him at Stockholm Int. Film Fest in 1999) and found the infringement on the life of this genius with the murder of the gorgeous Sharon Tate unforgivable. But it should be remembered that Manson did not actually kill anyone, he only gave the orders whilst everyone was off their gourd on LSD on the flip side of a Kesey like trip to go “Furthur”. Manson had this to say in relation to the issue that he had never actually killed anyone himself, “Believe me, if I started murdering people, there’d be none of you left”.