New Jersey Stage logo
New Jersey Stage Menu


?>

 

Stephen Elliot’s After Adderall Premieres at the New Jersey Film Festival on Sunday, September 25!


By Al Nigrin

originally published: 10/24/2016




Stephen Elliot’s After Adderall Premieres at the New Jersey Film Festival on Sunday, September 25!

Here is an interview with After Adderall Director Stephen Elliot:

Nigrin: Your 2009 memoir The Adderall Diaries was turned into a feature film starring James Franco, Ed Harris and Amber Heard last year. Your film After Adderall  is essentially a movie about James Franco making a movie about you. Please tell us what motivated you to make your film. 

Elliot I saw The Adderall Diaries at TriBeca in April 2015. It inspired me in so many ways to think about who owns a story. What does it mean to write about yourself? Is honesty ephemeral? The script poured out of me in two weeks after seeing that movie. 

Nigrin: Did you find it difficult directing yourself? 

Elliot: In many ways it's easier to direct yourself. If I needed a pickup shot I just called my camera guy. If I wanted to add voice over I could just record it on my phone and try it out. The only downside is sometimes I was so focused on my own performance I might have missed some things or not given the other actors as much support. But overall, it's easier to make a movie when you're playing the lead. I'm easy to work with :)




Follow New Jersey Stage on social media
Facebook, Threads, Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky



Nigrin: Do you see any parallels between writing a memoir and making a film?

Elliot: On my first two movies there was no parallel. But on After Adderall there were very strong similarities. It's an incredibly personal movie. There's tons of voice over. It's literary and it's a movie that's more about idea than action. After Adderall is much more like a book than a movie. It's much more like my memoir, The Adderall Diaries, than The Adderall Diaries movie. Because though the action is very different from the book, the ideas that it wrestles with are similar. 

Nigrin: Are there any memorable stories while you made this film or any other info about your film you can rely to our readers?

Elliot: So many! We made this movie for $10,000 (maybe $15,000 after post-production expenses). So we had to be really scrappy all the time. In order to shoot the scene in the bookstore we got Marie Howe and Nick Flynn to give a reading. Then our actress got in front of the audience and read a poem. Same thing with the panel. In order to shoot the panel scene we did an actual panel. Jerry Stahl, Susan Orlean, Evan Wright, and I were all on this panel about adaptation moderated by Derrick C. Brown.  I organized the panel because it was in the script, and there were some scripted lines we quickly shot before the crowd arrived. But in order to get the space for free and the audience we just did an actual panel as a fundraiser for 826, a children's tutoring program.

Also, the weirdest parts of the movie are the things that actually happened, like the phone call with James Franco. It's mostly the mundane things that were made up.

After Adderall Trailer:  https://vimeo.com/157340767

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three terrific short films will precede After Aderall. Here is the skinny on this screening:




Follow New Jersey Stage on social media
Facebook, Threads, Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky



Five Minutes of Fun - Matthew Riddle (Piscataway, New Jersey)  A collection of assembled clips that are meant to be enjoyed without context or plot. See them as the daydreams of a filmmaker who spends much of his time re-mixing unfinished thoughts. 2016; 7 min. With an introduction and Q+A session with Director Matthew Riddle!

Auto-Cowrecked - Hannah Leder (Sherman Oaks, California) A man's life is turned upside-down by a rogue auto-correct. 2015; 8 min.   

Twitch - Jesse Richton (New York, New York) A young man with Tourette’s Syndrome moves to New York City, but finds that getting a job when you have Tourette's is no small matter.  2016; 15 min.

After Adderall - Stephen Elliot (New York, New York)  In 2015, The Adderall Diaries premiered at the TriBeca Film Festival.  Based on Stephen Elliot’s memoir, the film stars James Franco in the lead role.  Watching from the sidelines, Elliot was inspired to make his own movie, a movie about James Franco making a movie about him. The result:  an intriguing film, set on the borderline between reality and fiction.  2016; 77 min.  With an introduction and Q+A session with Director Stephen Elliot!

Sunday, September 25, 2016 at 7:00 p.m.


Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University


71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey


$12=General; $10=Students+Seniors; $9=Rutgers Film Co-op Friends


Information: (848) 932-8482;
www.njfilmfest.com

Jimmy John’s of New Brunswick will be providing free food prior to all New Jersey Film Festival Screenings!

 




Albert Gabriel Nigrin is an award-winning experimental media artist whose work has been screened throughout the world. He is also a Cinema Studies Lecturer at Rutgers University, and the Executive Director/Curator of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, Inc.

FEATURED EVENTS

ART | COMEDY | DANCE | FILM | MUSIC | THEATRE | COMMUNITY

To narrow results by date range, categories,
or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.


How

How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

Friday, July 11, 2025 @ 7:00pm
Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC)
100 South Street, Morristown, NJ 07960
category: film


 

How

How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

Saturday, July 12, 2025 @ 2:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: Moana 2

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 @ 7:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: Moana 2

Tuesday, July 15, 2025 @ 10:30am
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


 

FREE

FREE SUMMER MOVIE: The Wild Robot

Tuesday, July 22, 2025 @ 7:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


 


 

EVENT PREVIEWS

The

The ShowRoom presents: UNSTREAMABLE CINEMA – Four Daring Films You Won't Find Online

(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- This summer, The ShowRoom proudly launches UNSTREAMABLE CINEMA—a provocative new series showcasing four bold and controversial films that are currently unavailable on any streaming platform. These are rare, one-night-only opportunities to see these uncompromising works on the big screen, where they belong.



Fall

Fall 2025 New Jersey Film Festival Preview

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The New Jersey Film Festival returns to Rutgers University September 5 through October 10, 2025. As it has done the last few years, the festival will include select in-person screenings with all films available via video on-demand (VOD) as well. There are also a few screenings available only via VOD. Twenty films will have their New Jersey or Area Premiere (Middlesex County).



The

The Levoy Theatre hosts the CUT International Short Film Festival

(MILLVILLE, NJ) -- The Levoy Theatre hosts the CUT International Short Film Festival September 19-20, 2025. The festival's motto is 'Short Films for Quick Minds'. Its aim is to become the premier festival in New Jersey for short form films.



Count

Count Basie Center for the Arts presents An Evening With Francis Ford Coppola and screening of "Megalopolis"

(RED BANK, NJ) -- Legendary director, Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Outsiders) is bringing his monumental 2024 film, Megalopolis, to select cities across the country. The tour kicks off at the Count Basie Center for the Arts on Sunday, July 20, 2025 at 7:00pm.



The

The Williams Center to Screen "Wayward Kin" by David Joseph Volino

(RUTHERFORD, NJ) -- After a four-year-long production process, filmmaker and New Jersey native, David Joseph Volino, is sharing the full-length feature, Wayward Kin, with local audiences. See the film for one night only at The Williams Center in Rutherford on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. The screening begins at 7:00pm with the cast and crew in attendance.