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ANDA is the directorial debut of Jayendra Ganta. Despite it being his first film, he showed no fear in taking on something extremely conceptual and outlandish. There are really only about five set locations, yet the movie feels drastically bigger due to the surrealist ideas and some of the visuals. It, in short, follows an older woman, Norma, who has reconnected with her mother for the first time since her teenage years. This is hard to discern at first due to her mom appearing much younger than she should, even younger than Norma herself. It is revealed throughout the film how this is achieved with a special serum that involves a strange form of sacrifice, tied to Norse culture. Seemingly, a weird alien mummy is the key to procuring this elixir, and after a while of caring for it, one can sap it of the goo. This looks to be grown from a bird that is fed a certain diet to allow this, birds are a common image in the film. A story is told by Norma’s mother about a master who wanted control and got a bird, this did not work quite as expected so he ended up clipping the wings off of it, which made it more subservient to him. This is likely as it knew that even if it were let out of the cage, it still would never truly be free.
The 2026 New Jersey Film Festival has screenings this weekend on Friday, January 23, Saturday, January 24 and Sunday January 25. Check out the Festival schedule and more info at this link: https://newjerseyfilmfestivalspring2026.eventive.org/welcome
Al Nigrin, Executive Director and Curator of the New Jersey Film Festival, sits down with Trina Bardusco, director and producer of the short documentary A Way to Be Together, for a filmmaker interview. A Way to Be Together will be screened on January 24, 2026.
Portrait of a Monastery is a documentary by John Decker that follows the life of monks in the Order of the Holy Cross. They mainly rely on the teachings of the Rule of St. Benedict, focusing on peace, prayer, and work. This documentary differs from others by choosing to omit interviews. This gives it a very unique feel, as Decker instead chooses to highlight the beauty in and around the Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York. Scenes tend to jump from nature to the monks singing or partaking in regular activities. Everything is captured very gorgeously and makes use of the sounds that are present, rather than adding music in post-production, leading to birds heard chirping or the beautiful songs of the monks. Decker’s cinematography makes you feel as if you are there witnessing this in real time, and the use of the sounds that are naturally occurring adds to this. The outside shots tend to be very still, and there is a serene quality to these that encapsulates the way the monks must feel.
Anda directed by Jayendra Ganta is a haunting folktale of beauty and obligation. In it, an older woman finds the elixir of youth. It gives her body vitality and her face smoothness for days on end, turning her eyes its custom striking green. Based on a Nordic folktale, this film has a magical rhythm, accentuated by atmospheric music and the revolving settings of forest and home.
Al Nigrin, Executive Director & Curator of the NJ Film Festival, sits down with Louis Cacchione, director of the short documentary Arrested at Delaney Hall, for a filmmaker interview. Arrested at Delaney Hall will be screened on January 24, 2026.
What led you to this article? A love for film? B.F. Skinner believed this wasn’t a choice but the result of psychologically programmed behavior. Skinner stands alongside Ivan Pavlov as a father of modern behaviorism. Yet, Skinner was interested in topics far beyond science. He wrote on the philosophical impacts of his discoveries, questioned free will, and became one of the most enigmatic academics of the 20th century.
Remember that time when Batman and Superman stopped fighting because they realised they had both been raised by women named Martha? Chloé Zhao's Hamnet, adapted from the 2020 novel by Maggie O'Farrell, is centred on an equally silly contrivance. Just as Zack Snyder noted the aforementioned tenuous link between Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, O'Farrell twigged that William Shakespeare had a short-lived son named Hamnet and also wrote a play titled 'Hamlet'. Could the two be linked? Err, no. 'Hamlet' was based on the Danish legend of Amleth and doesn't feature so much as a single dead son. But in O'Farrell's eyes Willy the Shake wrote the tragedy as a coping mechanism for the grief he felt over the loss of his boy, which is odd given how the bard penned a couple of comedies in the immediate aftermath of his kid's death.
The beautiful short documentary A Way to Be Together screens at the New Jersey Film Festival on Saturday, January 24, 2026! Here is my interview with A Way to be Together Director Trina Bardusco.
A moving meditation, Portrait of a Monastery is a stunning documentary on the Holy Cross Monastery in upstate New York. In it, we are taken through three seasons in the lives of these monks. We enter a space of cultivated peace and reflection—the monastery itself and the natural world surrounding it.
