Tired of superheroes? Here are six offbeat film series in Philly

Sure, summer blockbusters offer a few hours' respite to give your brain a vacation and escape into the air-conditioned comfort of your local multiplex. But three months is a long time to subsist on a visual diet of nothing more than caped crime-fighters, wisecracking animals, gunshots, explosions, and tire squeals. A number of local film series provide an offbeat alternative, celebrating the independent and the outrageous on a regular basis.

Founded by Madeleine Koestner, managing editor of Fangoria magazine, and longtime pop-culture blogger Alex Gardner, PUFF will host its inaugural festival in September, but in the run-up has been presenting a series of monthly screenings at CineMug, one of the city's few remaining video stores. PUFF offers new films by up-and-coming talent in horror, sci-fi, and other nonmainstream genres. Their next free event is Saturday, with an evening of short films by Scottish horror filmmaker Andy Stewart, followed in July by a screening of throwback slasher film Lake Nowhere with cast and crew in attendance.

8 p.m. Saturday, CineMug, 1607 S. Broad St., free, $2 BYOB; unnamedfilmfestival.com

PhilaMOCA director Eric Bresler launches this local chapter of the long-running film society that celebrates all things eccentric and inscrutable in the world of exploitation cinema. Psychotronic encompasses a wide variety of oddities, covering everything from horror and sci-fi to beach party and biker films. Following the kickoff meeting and surprise screening on Monday, the PPFS hosts a monthly event with guest curators and special guests and titles such as The Thing With Two Heads and The Astounding She Monster.

7:30 p.m. Monday, PhilaMOCA, 531 N. 12th St., free, philamoca.org

Founded in 1999 by award-winning filmmaker Michael Dennis, a graduate of NYU and the American Film Institute, Reelblack is both a film-production company and a film programmer dedicated to showcasing the best in African American cinema - or, as Reelblack puts it, "good movies 'bout black folks." Mike D., as he's better known, presents regular screenings at the African American Museum and on second Fridays at PEC's United Bank Building on Lancaster Avenue. The next entry features a pair of films celebrating Aretha Franklin: 1988's Aretha: Queen of Soul, an American Masters documentary covering her life and career leading up to her induction in the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame; and Aretha: Live in Paris '71, a 20-minute concert film originally recorded for French television.

7 p.m., July 8, United Bank Building, 3750 Lancaster Ave., $5, reelblack.com

Often featuring guest programming by the city's fellow cinematic obsessives, Andrew Repasky McElhinney's series features overlooked and unavailable entries in the filmographies of otherwise revered filmmakers, long-unseen classics, off-kilter genre entries, and generally unexpected, sometimes challenging, often unjustly neglected movies in need of curious audiences. Next month, Phawker critic and host of the Fun 2 Know Podcast Dan Buskirk hosts a double feature of White Comanche, a 1968 Spanish western starring William Shatner as both a cowboy and his messianic twin brother; and Clearcut, a dark 1991 Canadian environmentalist fantasy.

8 p.m., July 14, the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., free, armcinema25.com/avv

For almost 25 years Jay Schwartz has adhered to his mantra of "not video . . . not ever," lugging projector and film canisters to a variety of venues on a semi-regular basis to screen obscure features, kitschy shorts, vintage educational films - in short, anything imaginable that's ever been committed to celluloid. His next program, "Old Films About Old Films About . . . " will feature unique short films about the filmmaking process from the silent era through the 1960s.

7 p.m., July 21, Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 W. Lancaster Ave., $12 (adults); $6.50 (members); $9 (seniors), $8 (students); thesecretcinema.com

Halloween weekend, Exhumed celebrates the 10th anniversary of their annual 24-hour Horrorthon, an event that has become the highlight of many a gorehound's annual calendar. But they continue to program screenings of vintage horror and exploitation movies, on film throughout the year. Next up is "Masters of Italian Horror," an all-day, five-film marathon of classics from Italian genre-film giants including Dario Argento, Mario Bava, and Lucio Fulci.

Noon, July 31, International House, 3701 Chestnut St., $30, $25 (members); exhumedfilms.com