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originally published: 04/04/2022 

(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) --  Centenary University will be hosting a free screening for the 41st Annual Thomas Edison Film Festival on Wednesday, April 6 at 6:30 pm in the Kutz Black Box Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center located on the campus of Centenary University at 715 Grand Avenue, Hackettstown, NJ. The Thomas Edison Film Festival is made possible by the Warren County Cultural and Heritage Division of Land Preservation andis free to attend. Seating is limited and on a first-come-first-served basis.  

The festival will feature a selection of several movies across many different genres and styles of film including animation, experimental, documentary, narrative, and screen dance. The shorts that will be featured in the 2022 festival are: 

Allowed by Zillah Bowes, Cardiff, UK.  Experimental.  During the first Covid-19 wave, plants and flowers were allowed to grow wild.  Using 3D animated photos, the film lyrically re-examines our relationship with urban plant life in the urgent context of biodiversity loss and climate crisis. 

Wangechi Mutu: Between the Earth and Sky by Ian Foster, New York, NY, US and Jackie Lebo Nairobi, Kenya. Documentary. From her Nairobi studio, internationally celebrated artist Wangechi Mutu unpacks her relationship with the natural world and the ways in which it has influenced her artistic practice. 

Miles and Kilometres by Sonali Gulati, Richmond, VA, US. Experimental. A lingering haiku poem of migration, separation, dislocation, and exile. 

 

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A Parisian Circus by Hugo Besson, Paris, France. Documentary. The Covid-19 crisis paralyzed the world, and circus artists were stopped. This audiovisual collage mixes the routines, thoughts, and artistry of these gifted circus performers. 

Babbit and the Dream Tree by Jeremy Mann, Oakland, CA, US. Narrative. Created by one person alone in a room, a creature named Babbit puts on a theatre play to express his feelings through dance for the first time and is surprised by the result. 

Any Instant Whatever by Michelle Brand, Hamburg, Germany. Animation. A man, in a room, in a film. The film explores our perception of the time and change, bodies and objects, and our inability to comprehend the full motion of things. 

The Sticklet Weaver by James Hollenbaugh, Harrisburg, PA, US. Documentary. Intuitive and deeply talented, Brent Brown is a self-taught artist with lifelong mental health challenges. This film explores Brent’s process and celebrates his unique artistic journey. 

Ten Degrees of Strange by Lynn Tomlinson, Owings Mills, MD, US. Animation. A music video based on a song by Robert Macfarlane and Johnny Flynn, from their album Lost in the Cedar Wood with inspiration from The Epic of Gilgamesh.  

Charon by Yannick Karcher, Strasbourg, France. Narrative. Freshly retired, a man doesn't know how to occupy his days. For fear of being killed by boredom, he gets involved in the crazy project of building a boat in the cellar of his suburban house. 

Digital Afterlives by Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman, Surry Hills, New South Wales, Australia. Screen Dance. A man in white-winged angel shoes in an infinite black space is awakened by the strains of Franz Liszt’s “Totentanz” (The Dance of the Dead). 

Dawn by Timon Birkhofer, Pasadena, CA, US. Documentary. Five unique individuals take us on a journey where their achievements shine beyond preconceived ideas of what is possible. 

For over 40 years, the Thomas Edison Film Festival (formerly known as the Black Maria Film Festival) has been advancing the unique creativity and power of the short form. The festival passionately embraces its mission to promote innovation and advocate for independent filmmakers through a juried international competition celebrating all genres and hybrids from filmmakers around the world. Thomas Edison Film Festival is a socially conscious, modern, fiercely independent traveling festival for short film. They reach out to diverse audiences with provocative, timely, edgy, and compelling new works by both accomplished and emerging filmmakers hybrids from filmmakers around the world.  

Centenary Stage Company remains committed to the health and safety of our community and adheres to all requirements set forth by the State of New Jersey.  For more information regarding CSC COVID-19 policies and policy updates, visit centenarystageco.org/faq. 

The 2021-22 season of performing arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, the John and Margaret Post Foundation, and CSC corporate sponsors, including Platinum Season Sponsor The House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Medical Center Atlantic Health System, Home Instead Senior Care (Washington), and Fulton Bank, Visions Federal Credit Union, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters. 

 

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