(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) -- The Rutherfurd Hall Foundation (RHF) will present the Rutherfurd Hall Film Festival on Sunday, June 26. This festival will consist of three film showcases: High School student films (beginning at 1:00pm), Documentary and Experimental films (beginning at 3:00pm) and Narrative films (beginning at 5:00pm).
In an effort to showcase local creativity of young students in the filmmaking arts, this festival will include submissions from students at: Blair Academy, Middletown High School, Millburn New Jersey and Warren Hills Regional High School.
Mikey Kampmann’s Shell Jeff is a philosophical farce, outlining a day in the life of quixotic day-dreamer with hints of Napoleon Dynamite. Director Isaih Gomez, a Perth Amboy Native, brings to the festival a film entitled The Smile, a modern film noir. Many of the other films in the festival concern Warren County culture and history including the Extra 1104:The Rockport Train Wreck, a chronicle of how in 1925 a violent storm washed debris onto a grade crossing, derailing a Lackawanna Railroad train in Mansfield New Jersey killing 42 passengers and five crewmen.
Festival Judges include: Janice Kovach: N.J. Motion Picture and Television Commission; Boris Gavrilovic: Head of Film at Centenary University; Juan Mateo Menendez: Filmmaker; Judith Kampmann: Filmmaker, Writer & Actress; Christine Rusin: Chief Executive Officer at Parashoot Productions; Lydia Seed New: Film Editor with experience at the Sundance Film Festival; and Jeff Brelvi: Film Production Professional.
Tickets for the film festival can be pre-purchased online. Tickets are $7 for one screening session or $15 for entrance to all three screening sessions. The complete lineup is shown below in this article.
There will be an hour between screenings for a lively Q&A. Guests are invited to bring food and refreshments along with enjoying the historic grounds of Rutherfurd Hall.
Rutherfurd Hall is located at: 1686 Route 517 in Allamuchy, New Jersey.
COMPLETE LINEUP (click on the link to purchase that category's pass or click here to purchase a complete festival pass.)
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT FILMS PASS - 1:00pm
5 Years From Water. Documentary. A dream 19 years in the making. (5:52)
Black on Maroon. Narrative. A boy risks it all to save a friend. (5:00)
Airstream. Narrative. Attempt to heal a parental relationship. (13:05)
Unpopped. Animation. There’s always one (1:47)
Submergent Sound. Documentary. A musician & songwriter named Pete (4:45)
Staple. Narrative. A student takes on his classmates (2:00)
Conception. Animation. The story of a blue ball of clay (4:55)
An Experimental Experience. Experimental. A film takes a girl into the unknown (3:00)
Run Away. Animation. An inanimate object comes to life (2:51)
DOCUMENTARY & EXPERIMENTAL FILM PASS – 3PM
Extra 1104:The Rockport Train Wreck. Documentary. One of N.J.’s worst train wrecks (21:05)
Jewel’s Hunt. Documentary. Subsistence hunting in Alaska (9:02)
Postmark Vietnam. Documentary. A soldier’s letters home to his wife. ( 5:00)
Fixed Gaps Experimental. Narrative through dance illusion (20:00)
The Smile. Detective caught in a web of corruption ( 18:45)
Shell Jeff. Gas station attendant who is going nowhere (7:04)
Blink. Asian-American experience in 2020 (11:11)
The Slammer. Characters in an Atlanta prison (9:37)
Searching. 2 people find more than they’re looking for. (6:18)
The Rutherfurd Hall Foundation’s Celebrate the Arts Festival would not be possible without the support of: JOHN JOHNSON AUTOMOTIVE GROUP, STEVE SOMERS PHILANTHROPY FUND, THE HOUSE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD, JOHN AND MARGARET POST, ROBERT & ROSEMARY TUOHY, BLUE RIDGE LUMBER, RE/MAX HERITAGE PROPERTIES, PROGRESSIVE COMPREHENSIVE SERVICES LLC, WRNJ RADIO, FULTON BANK, THE FOUNDATION FOR HACKETTSTOWN MEDICAL CENTER, and WHITE SPACE ART & EVENT GALLERY.
Rutherfurd Hall is a cultural center and museum owned and managed by the Allamuchy Township Board of Education. For ten years it has provided educational and enrichment opportunities for the residents of Allamuchy and the surrounding communities. It is sustained through a combination of public funding, New Jersey Historical Commission grants, Rutherfurd Hall Foundation support, corporate and individual donations, volunteers and event-based fundraising. Additional operating revenues are obtained through an active rental program, public programs for a nominal fee, and other earned-income programs. Rutherfurd Hall is working towards its goal of becoming a self-sustaining enterprise that protects and preserves its historical, cultural and architectural integrity.
