By Mike Lucas

originally published: 01/18/2024

A scene from Join or Die, Rebecca Davis’ documentary that follows the half-century story of America's civic unraveling through the journey of social scientist Robert Putnam.

The Spring 2024 New Jersey Film Festival – hosted by Rutgers University and set for the weekends between Jan. 26 and Feb. 18 – features both online and in-person showings. More than 40 films from around the world will hit the silver screen at Rutgers University–New Brunswick during the Spring 2024 New Jersey Film Festival, which runs on the weekends starting Friday, Jan. 26, through Sunday, Feb. 18.

“We have a really terrific lineup of films,” said Al Nigrin, who is the executive director, curator and founder of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, which presents this event and other film festivals. “There are quite a few New Jersey filmmakers showing their work, too.”

The festival, which marks its 42nd anniversary, is a hybrid event: In addition to in-person screenings at Rutgers–New Brunswick, all of the films will be available online as videos on demand for 24 hours on their show date.

Each general admission ticket or festival pass purchased is good for both virtual and in-person screenings. In-person screenings will be held in Room 105 of Voorhees Hall, 71 Hamilton St., New Brunswick, with show times beginning at 5 p.m. or 7 p.m. General admission tickets are $15 per program; student tickets for in-person screenings are $10 per program. An all-access festival pass is available for $100.

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Festival organizers said in-person showings will feature special guest appearances by directors, artists and actors, including director Augusta Palmer, who Nigrin describes as “a friend and festival alumnus” as well as the daughter of the late music journalist and critic Robert Palmer.

The film festival’s lineup of feature-length movies, documentaries and short films includes:

The Blues Society, Augusta Palmer’s documentary on the 1960s Memphis blues community

Irish artist and filmmaker Cléa Elisa van der Grijn’s reworking of Alice in Wonderland, entitled The Disembodied Adventures of Alice

Buddy Farmer’s documentary, Jailhouse to Milhouse, which focuses on the journey of Pamela Hayden, the voice of Milhouse on the animated television comedy The Simpsons

Electra, Daria Kashcheeva’s live-action and animated film about a woman who rethinks her 10th birthday, mixing memories with imagination and hidden dreams

Marjorie Conrad's body cam film Body Issues

Muckville, a documentary examining the mental health and suicide epidemic on American farms through the eyes of a fourth-generation onion farmer in New York’s Black Dirt region.

Join or Die, Rebecca Davis’ documentary that follows the half-century story of America's civic unraveling through the journey of social scientist Robert Putnam

Nigrin, a cinema studies lecturer at Rutgers, said the films being screened are part of the New Jersey Film Festival and were selected by a panel of judges who included media professionals, journalists, students and academics. The finalists were selected from more than 636 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world, he added.