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Showing film results: From 431 to 441


Susan Hillary’s inspiring short The Pratt In The Hat screens at the Spring 2023 New Jersey Film Festival today Saturday, January 28
by Lauren Bromberg
published 2023-01-28

What, at first glance, may seem like a senior citizen’s decorative hat collection try-on haul video, is actually so much more. Pratt in the Hat (2021), directed by Susan Hillary, is a beautiful, 14-minute documentary about the inspiring, service-oriented life of Dr. Frances Pratt (otherwise known as Dr. Hat, Hat Frat, and the Pratt in the Hat), who is as poised and charming as her 100+ flowered, feathered, lacy, sequin-covered, rhinestone-covered hats that come in every color. Dr. Pratt is the President of Nyack’s chapter of the NAACP and she is the first black, head nurse of the Nyack Hospital Emergency Room. In this documentary, Dr. Pratt tells us about the importance of solidarity, education, voting rights, and, subliminally, fashion as we admire lovely, still photographs (taken by Susan Hillary, Dorice Arden, and Joe Zakko) of Dr. Pratt in her hats and matching outfits.




 

John Decker’s jazzy short film Marjorie Eliot’s Parlor Entertainment Harlem screens at the 2023 New Jersey Film Festival on Saturday, January 28!

by Lauren Bromberg
published 2023-01-27

Marjorie Eliot's Parlor Entertainment Harlem, directed and produced by John Decker, perfectly contextualizes, and captures the magic of Marjorie Eliot and the free theatre and jazz shows she has been putting on in the small, white living room of her Harlem apartment every Sunday for the last 30 years.



2023 New Jersey Film Festival Begins This Weekend!!

by Al Nigrin
published 2023-01-26

Here below is the Opening Weekend Schedule for the 2023 New Jersey Film Festival. The Festival will be presented online as well as have in-person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings. The in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5PM or 7PM on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$100; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program.



Superb feature Ocean City Monster Building screens at the Spring 2023 New Jersey Film Festival on Saturday, February 4

by Anita LaBelle
published 2023-01-25

Ocean City Monster Building directed by Chris Lane examines the question: How much can a position of power control what remains hidden behind the scenes - even after one dies?



Angelic short Fereshteh screens at the Spring 2023 New Jersey Film Festival on Saturday, January 28

by Loren Simon
published 2023-01-24

“Hi mommy, my beautiful fereshteh,” she greets her mother through a voicemail, letting her know that she, and her father, would not be attending dinner, leaving her mother in her familiar solitude once again. The short film, Fereshteh by filmmaker Elika Rezaee, details the daily routine of an Iranian woman who spends the entirety of her day in the company of herself and her dogs. The word “fereshteh” means angel in Urdu, and I believe its inclusion in the title highlights how much the protagonist mimics the ideal image of an angelic parent or natural caretaker who puts their family’s needs before their own. Her role as a mother begins immediately within the film, but of course not to traditional children. Her dogs keep her company as her husband and actual human kids are not home; preoccupied with other matters. We never experience their physical presence but learn of them through phone calls. After watching the film for a second time, I realized the dialogue of the main character consists solely of words that pertain to her services of her loved ones' needs, asking: if ‘everyone got home alright last night’, ‘are they hungry,’ and cooks them a meal that no one actually eats. It is a sacrifice many parents, more commonly mothers, have to make in order to fulfill roles placed upon them that revolve around maintaining a well-functioning home.





Neo-noir thriller City of Love screens on opening weekend of the Spring 2023 New Jersey Film Festival!

by Al Nigrin
published 2023-01-23

The terrific feature film City of Love, directed by Eric Boadella, features 148 Rides, 1 City, 1 Date, 2 Deaths and 1 Miracle. In this neo-noir feature, Spencer, a troubled rideshare driver in Los Angeles, will go to dangerous lengths to reconnect with the world he lost after spending 20 years in jail. Here is my interview with Eric Boadella:



Heartfelt Animation A Polar Bear Story screens at the 2023 New Jersey Film Festival

by Victory Furniture
published 2023-01-22

Al Nigrin, Executive Director and Curator of the New Jersey Film Festival, sits down to talk with Vanessa Nilsson, Director & Animator of "A Polar Bear Story" for a filmmaker interview. You can see it here:



The Language I Speak opens the 2023 New Jersey Film Festival on Friday, January 27!

by Alexia Fraser
published 2023-01-21

The Language I Speak is a feature length documentary that focuses on dialects in American culture. I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with the filmmaker, Ana Curadra, for a Q&A session about the film and her approach to filmmaking. After listening to an interview on accents in New York City, Cuadra was inspired to start a project focused on accents and dialects in the United States. She started her research by going to an event at Georgetown University for sociolinguists, where she met most of the linguists she interviewed for the film.



Poetic Film Exposed to Each Other screens at the 2023 New Jersey Film Festival on Saturday, January 28!

by Claire Apel
published 2023-01-20

Exposed to Each Other is a film by Mersolis Schone and comes to us from Vienna, Austria. This short film is based on a poetic text collage by Marion Steinfellner that brings together a multicultural and multilingual collection of Indian, Japanese, German and Austrian texts by Yuko Kaseki, Savita Rani, Mersolis Schone and Marion Steinfellner. Presented as a kind of film poem, the common thread of these texts is touch and touching which are presented as journeys and how interpersonal, intercultural encounters connect us to each other across the world. This is the fundamental question at the heart of Exposed to Each Other - How are we connected to each other? - and each scene propels us further on a multi-faceted journey exploring this idea.



Claudia Miatello’s charming animated film Buon Ferragosto screens at the 2023 New Jersey Film Festival on January 27!

by Al Nigrin
published 2023-01-19

Here is my interview with with Buon Ferragosto filmmaker Claudia Miatello: Nigrin: Your short animated experimental film Buon Ferragosto takes viewers on a fun ride through Florence, Italy with a 7-year-old-boy and his newly adopted cat. Tell us what motivated you to make this film.


 

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