For five years now, on the first Monday of every month, Jamaica Plain resident Evonne Wetzner has hosted the Underground Film Revolution at the neighborhood bowling alley cum rock club, the Milky Way Lounge and Lanes. On those nights a cinŽaste might quaff suds while bathing in the amber glow of a seldom-seen flick like Jackie Joice’s scabrous documentary on the feminists of the So Cal hardcore scene, Punk Pretty, or Jeff Cioletti’s Millennium’s End: The Fandom Menace, which probes the far reaches of Star Wars obsessives’ aberrant universe.

Now Wetzner is taking her passion for indie film to a new level — and a new building, just a few doors down Centre Street — with her new business, Video Underground. "The focus is on independent, cult, alternative, and foreign films," she says as she puts the finishing touches on the smallish space. "There will be some new releases, but definitely a limited amount. I can’t compete with Blockbuster."

And she doesn’t want to. Just as the UFR’s monthly installments are meant to "give [audiences] a chance to see films they wouldn’t ordinarily get to see," she explains, the Video Underground will be "devoted to the same idea of giving independent and local filmmakers a chance to share their work with audiences."

Although the bulk of the store’s titles are national and international films (many of which were once UFR features), Wetzner plans to devote a corner to local filmmakers. There you might find Roberto ArŽvalo, whose Somerville-based Mirror Project teaches local teens editing and production skills in order to give traditionally under-represented ethnic and economic groups the chance to tell their own stories. Or Mike Gioscia and Kurt St. Thomas, the former WFNX radio employees turned filmmakers whose psychodrama Captive Audience is about a late-night DJ taken hostage by an unhinged fan.

Although Video Underground’s total inventory currently stands at around 3000 titles (about a third are DVDs), Wetzner confesses the local section is not yet up to capacity. But those 10 or 15 flicks are about 10 or 15 more than you’d find at most chain outlets. And the shelves should fill steadily as she finalizes agreements with more than a dozen Boston-area filmmakers. Her original plan was to give each local artist a cut of the proceeds — but "it began to look like that would entail some extremely complicated bookkeeping." So she’ll be purchasing films directly from the filmmaker, at a negotiated price, just as she would with a mainstream distributor. And she has other ideas for making her store a good Hub citizen, like stocking Spanish-language films to cater to JP’s sizable Latino community, and seeking partnerships with Web sites like Newenglandfilm.com and the myriad theme-specific Boston film festivals that crop up around town every year.

Video Underground is slated to open this Friday, October 25, and it’ll celebrate in grand style this Monday at (of course) the Milky Way. "There’s a huge independent film audience in Boston," Wetzner points out. "Unfortunately, it’s so hard to rent independent films. The video market is saturated with Blockbuster-type stores, and JP in particular seems to have been lacking an adequate video store for quite a while. The overall frustration felt by the neighborhood was a motivating factor in taking on this venue."

The Video Underground is located at 389 Centre Street in Jamaica Plain. Hours are 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. daily; call (617) 522-5925. The grand-opening celebration, with film screenings and performances by Fighting Idols and Car Crash Show, takes place this Monday, October 28, at the Milky Way Lounge and Lanes, 403-405 Centre Street; call (617) 524-3740.