Still from Vera Sebert's Silent chirping of invisible Digits.
2024 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival Day 1 - Saturday, February 17, 2024 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!
View the winning films and digital videos of the International United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival, selected by a jury of filmmakers, Rutgers University student interns, and media professionals. The festival--now in its 36th year—will feature finalist works by independent filmmakers from the United States and around the world. Co-sponsored by Pro 8mm!
Still from Julia Yezbick's Roses, Pink and Blue
Roses, Pink and Blue - Julia Yezbick (Detroit, Michigan) An elegy for a lost balloon. 2023; 4 min.
Kristin dan Kuching Kuchingnya – Michael Kam (Singapore) Shunned by her family, a 60-year-old trans woman seeks solace and balance between her faith, her identity and her beloved cats. 2023; 6 min.
Elevator to Stardom – Danny Plotnick (San Francisco, California) Crackling with the energy of a 1980s punk rock, seat-of-the-pants, totally wired DIY production, Elevator to Stardom is a reminder of how films got made back in the day. Come up with an idea, use the small footprint and immediacy of Super 8, and knock out a crowd-pleaser in a month’s time. Grain-be-damned, thread up the projector, and let’s get viewing. 2023; 8 min.
George – Gregg Chilingirian (London, England) Momentarily distracted from his existential crisis by the enigmatic Kiyoni, 30-year-old George is suddenly forced to confront his past to process a life-altering event. 2023; 11 min.
The Rocket Movies – Carl Weingarten (Alameda, California) Filmmaker and musician Carl Weingarten recounts growing up in St. Louis in the 1970s and his teenage hobby of shooting aerial movies with a Super8 camera mounted on top of model rockets. Decades before video cameras, GoPros and Drones, the film shows vintage Super8 footage and photographs, all shot, developed and edited with music composed by Weingarten for his DIY NASA inspired rocket launches and regional aerial photography explorations. 2023; 9 min.
Still from Carl Weingarten's The Rocket Movies
Silent chirping of invisible Digits – Vera Sebert (Austria) Like a single film frame, insects flash for the fraction of a second, only to immediately withdraw from the field of vision again. In between their flickering body fragments, the film shows undefinable voids. What can be seen when familiar filters of vision and the narratives associated with them are missing? 2023; 10 min.
how to outline grief – Kym McDaniel (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) Different water worlds - sea, snow, tears, bodies - collide as grief is poetically explored through movement and landscape. In English, Korean, subtitled. 2023; 6 min.
you thRill me – Phil Docken (Minneapolis, Minnesota) you thRill me is a montage that in a very oblique way suggests a narrative. So, one hopes it is engaging one’s intuition rather than, say, cognition. Coming from the world of visual art, I embrace the imperative that visual art is a sovereign language. Ideally, a person reacts to a painting free of instructions, information, or intent on the part of the artist. The painting speaks to you … or it doesn’t. Information accompanying a work of art corrupts the moment one becomes engaged with the art. While I was working on you thRill me, I was thinking: this is either a baroque fairy tale or a drawing. 2023; 16 min.
Still from Brecht De Cock's artifacts of you, artifacts of me
Errors and Trials – Brook Pruitt (Pharr, Texas) Errors and Trials is a 13-minute experimental project shot on Kodak Super 8 mm film. The audio is weird, strange, unique, and original. The film does not have a narrative story. Errors and Trials was recorded in Pharr, Texas; a park in Edinburg, Texas; and at South Padre Island, Texas. 2023; 13 min.
Shitfaced – Jack E.K. Collier (Shoreline, Washington) An aspiring artist attempts to sketch her boyfriend only to find the dissatisfaction in her own work does more harm than good. 2023; 4 min.
Lager Hogger – David Thomas Dibble (Hanford, California) Trains! Libations! Super 8! Isn't that what model railroading is all about? 2023; 2 min.
The 36th Annual United States Super 8 Film +DV Festival, which is part of the Spring 2024 New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place on Saturday and Sunday, February 17 and 18, 2024! The Festival will be a hybrid one as we will be presenting it online as well as doing in-person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show dates. The in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at either 5PM or 7PM on their show date. Each ticket is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings. Tickets: $15=Per Program; In-Person Shows Student Tickets = $10 Per Program. Go here for tickets and more info:
https://watch.eventive.org/newjerseyfilmfestivalspring2024
