(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- If you are an independent filmmaker, odds are good your path may have run into Albert Gabriel Nigrin over the years. For over 40 years he has been teaching Cinema Studies at Rutgers University and running several festivals (New Jersey Film Festival, New Jersey International Film Festival, and the United States Super 8mm Film & Digital Video Festival). But on Friday, September 27, 2024, the screen will belong to his own work.
Mr. Nigrin has an M.F.A. (in Visual Arts/Film and Video) and an M.A. (in French Literature) from Rutgers University and a B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts/ American Film Institute Mid-Atlantic Media Arts Fellowship Program and the Ford Foundation for his flm/video work. In addition, Mr. Nigrin was awarded a 2002 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Media Arts Fellowship.
On September 27, 2024, the New Jersey Film Festival presents a retrospective of Nigrin's works. Six of his films will be screened at Rutgers University Voorhees Hall #105 (71 Hamilton Street) in New Brunswick starting at 7:00pm. Films include "Portraits", "Pizzica; Mental Radio (a.k.a. Open Kennedy)", "Cold War Blues or Effects of the Bomb Varied, But...", "Aurelia or Echo In Her Eyes: Part 3/Brainwashing", and "Lamiai".
Tickets for the retrospective (online and virtual) are available for purchase online. The films will also be available via video on demand for 24 hours starting at 12:01am on the 27th.
New Jersey Stage reached out to Nigrin to learn more about experimental filmmaking and how he first got interest in films.
Still from 2001: A Space Odyssey
Do you remember the first film or films that caught your imagination and really got you interested in films?
The first films that caught my imagination were Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. My parents took me to see it when I was eight years old, and I was just blown away by it. I was actually a little scared by it too. I saw it again in college in a History of the Future class I took when I was an undergrad and that's when I really learned to appreciate it. People ask me what my favorite film is and I always cite 2001: A Space Odyssey along with Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon. Meshes is the film that made me want to make films.
At the time, would you say you were mostly interested in watching films or were you thinking about acting or filmmaking? Did your interests change or were you always interested in being behind the camera?
Yes, I started watching films when I was 7-8 years old. I went to see these with my folks. My Mom took me to see Michael Powell Emeric Pressburger’s ballet film classic The Red Shoes and Richard Fleischer’s “talk to the animals classic” Doctor Doolittle. She took me to see the more arty films and children's films. My dad didn’t like to see too many arty films. He liked escapist, action-adventure films. He took us to see movies like Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds Are Forever which are James Bond films; Kelly's Heroes, The Battle of Britain, and The Dirty Dozen which are war films.
As I got older, I saw movies with my friends all the time. I remember I snuck in with my friend Stanley to see The Godfather when it first came out in 1972 when we were 13-14 years-old. It was an R rated picture and we were both underage at the time. I also remember seeing Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now three days in a row when it first came out in 1979 too.
So, I pretty much-loved cinema from the get go but it was after I saw the band Genesis play in New York City in 1974 that I knew I wanted to become a visual artist using photography. Genesis was playing their new album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in its entirety and their stage show featured three screens with slides being projected behind them to reinforce the story because The Lamb is a concept album. Peter Gabriel, the writer of The Lamb, has called it a kind of Pilgrim's Progress story… basically a young man's journey exploring his own psyche. This led me to do similar things with my brother Mike’s progressive jazz fusion band in the late 1970s where I would project slides behind them while they played live. I think I created about 20 of these sync slide shows and that eventually led me to making motion pictures.
After I saw Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon in a graduate film class, I knew I wanted to make a movie like it. I saw similarities between Meshes and The Lamb and I think that was also a reason I fell in love with that film.
Still from "Cold War Blues or Effects of the Bomb Varied, But..."
You earned a Bachelor’s degree in French literature and history at Binghamton University. What were you originally intending to do for a career? How did you wind up as a filmmaker and teaching film courses?
After I finished my undergraduate degree at Binghamton University in 1980, I was awarded a Teaching Assistantship at Rutgers University. I was pursuing a Ph.D. in French Literature at that time. I very quickly realized I loved speaking and reading French but I disliked writing it so I switched gears after I earned my Master's degree in 1983. I then went on to complete a M.F.A. in Visual Arts with a concentration in Filmmaking at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers. It was one of the smartest things I ever did!
Were your first film projects experimental films? Have you exclusively worked on experimental films?
90% of my films are experimental. I made a few documentaries but even those have experimental tendencies. I like to make experimental films because you don't have to have the same beginning, middle and end structure that a narrative film has. Experimental films are akin to poetry whereas narrative films are akin to prose.
What is the most difficult aspect of creating an experimental film? Is it trying to match the vision you initially imagine for the story?
Yes, matching the vision is definitely one of the most difficult things but it is also trying to make sure you don't get bogged down. I like to keep things loose when I am working as I like the little accidents that occur when shooting. A gust of wind can transform your set in magical ways sometimes.
Still from "Pizzica"
Many of the short films and especially experimental films remind me of dreams or the concept of trying to recreate a dream on screen. Would you say your films are dream-related? Is that something you aim for?
Where does the inspiration behind your films come from?
All of my films are dream films. You go inside the mind of the lead characters and you see what they're dreaming. I really like that. David Lynch does the same thing.
Inspiration can come from a variety of sources. I stumbled on to the "Pizzica" dance when I was reading a book about rituals. That became the starting point for my film of the same name. The "Pizzica" is a folk dance which originated in the 1400s in Southern Italy. Though there are several different theories about its origin, the most accepted story is that this dance could fight off the poisonous bite of a tarantula.
Inspiration also comes from some of my dreams. I always keep a notebook handy by my bedside to write down the good ones.
What would you like people to know about experimental films? What do you think is the biggest misconception towards them?
Some old folks think they are too arty or pretentious but many of my undergraduate students get them right away. I think it is a generational thing.
Still from "Lamiai"
Have you had a retrospective night of your work before? If so, where and when?
I've had lots of retrospectives over the years, but they were mostly in the 80s and 90s. I had two in Bruxelles (Belgium), one in Montreal (Canada), one in Boston, two in Pittsburgh, two in Seattle, two in Portland, two in Chicago, one in Columbus, Ohio, one San Francisco, two in Los Angeles and four in New York City. I also just had my second one in China this past April! You can see a list of many of these 80s and 90s shows here.
My website really needs to be updated to add the China ones and others that I have done since 1999. I have just been too busy to do that.
What are you most looking forward to that night?
I am really looking forward to the Retro on the 27th of September because it will be a way to reconnect with old friends and show them my new work plus it is a way to raise money for a new Assistant Director staff position for the New Jersey Film Festival!
Tell me about the role your wife plays in your films. I know she has acted in some and has served in roles like editor, producer and writer.
My wife, Irene Fizer, is my main collaborator and my best friend. Our relationship in many ways coincides with my film career. She was my first muse! She was the star of my first six films and then she got busy doing her Ph.D. in English so she could only be in a few more and I then had to find other talent, but she is always the one I turn to for advice. She is the first person to see my work as I am editing it, and she always has great suggestions on how to make the film better or more interesting. I couldn't do what I do without her.
Irene Fizer in "Aurelia"
Your films have been in festivals around the world. How does your experience with submitting films to festivals help you run the New Jersey Film Festival? Do you try to incorporate the best experiences you’ve had elsewhere to the festival?
Being part of other film festivals around the world as a judge, participant or viewer has definitely informed me on how to run the New Jersey Film Festival. I really want our festival to be a “Filmmaker’s Festival” and by that, I mean a festival that goes out of our way to promote each and every film that we are screening. That means getting them as much attention in the press and media as we can as well as having as many viewers as we can muster.
Was it difficult to get the film festivals off the ground or was Rutgers University generally supportive of the idea?
Getting the New Jersey Film Festival off the ground has been deliberate process and we have had tremendous support over the years from the Rutgers University Cinema Studies Program, the Middlesex County Arts Institute, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and many, many other entities and individuals. We couldn’t do what we do without them.
I founded the New Jersey Film Festival back in 1982 and I have been running it for over 4 decades. Each decade has shown an evolution of the festival. At first, in the 1980s, we were mostly showing old revival films for FREE to the Rutgers University community. Then in the 1990s, the festival grew by leaps and bounds as we partnered with the State Theater in New Brunswick and got people coming from throughout New Jersey! We garnered the support of big-name filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, D.A. Pennebaker and we started to show first run and second run art house films. Then at the beginning of the new millennium, the festival started to show premieres of true independent films and that is what we have been doing almost exclusively for the last decade. As a result of the COVID pandemic we now have a world-wide audience as we have become a hybrid festival showing films online via Video on Demand (VOD) and also in-person. The VOD component kept us afloat financially during the pandemic and helped us find a new audience.
What classes do you currently teach at Rutgers?
Courses I currently teach at Rutgers are:
American Experimental Film – a lecture-discussion course which focuses on the history and development of the various American experimental cinema movements from its beginnings to the present. In-depth analyses of the structure and content of films by Andy Warhol, Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Sidney Peterson, Kenneth Anger, Bruce Baillie, and others.
Writing for Experimental Film – a hands-on experimental filmmaking course where students learn how to make their own experimental films.
Cult Films in American Culture – a lecture-discussion course which focuses on the “cult” film from its origins in the 1920s to its evolution in American culture. Close analyses of cult films are paired with readings by J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum, Sigmund Freud, and others. According to Freud, for example, social organization for the primordial horde came about as a result of the incest taboo and the law of exogamy. Several of the films to be screened depict scenes that violate this organization and break the taboo. This course will explore how and why these violations permeate cult films. In addition, many cult films are open-ended metaphors for contemporary social anxieties. We examine how some of these counter-culture films are a reaction to late ‘60s and ‘70s American society. Films include: The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Eraserhead, Night of the Living Dead, Cat People, and others.
American Film Directors - a course focusing on the films of American Film Directors: Maya Deren, Stanley Kubrick, John Frankenheimer, David Lynch, and others. In-depth analyses of the structure and content of films which include: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Cat People, The Magnificent Ambersons, Mulholland Drive, and others. Emphasis will be on the "mise-en-scene," narrative form, set design, sound, and special effects in the films of these celebrated filmmakers.
Still from "Cold War Blues or Effects of the Bomb Varied, But..."
You have earned several grants and fellowships for filmmaking over the years. How important are these for an artist?
Filmmaking and arts grants in general are crucial to help artists take chances and push the envelope. I received a New Jersey State Council on the Arts grant and a National Endowment for the Arts grant when I was a budding filmmaker in the 1980s and they really helped establish me as a filmmaker.
Finally, what advice would you give any budding young filmmakers out there?
For young filmmakers, live and breathe film 24/7 and you will become a good filmmaker!
The Fall 2024 New Jersey Film Festival runs from September 6 - October 18, 2024. For more on the festival visit www.njfilmfest.com
