Ten great films screen at the Spring 2025 New Jersey Film Festival this weekend!
New Jersey Film Festival Website
Still from IT’S A to Z: The ART OF ARLEEN SCHLOSS by Stuart Ginsberg
Friday, January 31, 2025 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!
Demi-Demons – Martin Gerigk (Krefeld, Germany) Demi-Demons is an essay film about the contradictions of contemporary existence, which separate us from our natural instincts, opening abysses within us. The glorification of the hermaphrodite, the hedonism of virtual realities, the search for new levels of physical attraction and forms of higher consciousness, ambivalence towards sexual reproduction, these abysses embody the existential struggles inherent in navigating the terrain between instinct and enlightenment in a rapidly evolving world. Demi-Demons is made and animated from vintage photos and collages, creating a surreal and thought-provoking atmosphere. 2024; 17 min.
IT’S A to Z: The ART OF ARLEEN SCHLOSS – Stuart Ginsberg (Bloomfield, New Jersey)
IT’S A to Z: The ART OF ARLEEN SCHLOSS is a feature-length documentary about Arleen Schloss, an underground artist, director, and curator who became an influential figure in the downtown New York art scene from the 1970s through the 1990s. Through exclusive never-before-seen archival footage shot by Schloss herself and mixed with commentary from people from the scene, we trace Schloss’s story and see, from her point of view, we see the texture of New York City's downtown art scene from the 1970s through the 1990s.2024; 62 min.
Saturday, February 1, 2025 – Online for 24 Hours!
The Accidental Spy – Anthony Wonke (Tunbridge Wells, United Kingdom) Days after 9/11, Blerim Skoro was recruited from a Manhattan prison by the CIA. For over a decade, he was America’s infidel mole, roaming the Middle East as a spy deep inside al-Qaeda. Blerim lived in constant danger amongst terrorists, leaking intelligence to the US government in the desperate hope of getting a Green Card and a ticket back to his family in Brooklyn. The Accidental Spy is the story of how one man became tangled in a complex geo-political web, how he risked everything to protect his family, and how he was cruelly betrayed by the country he strived to defend. 2024; 97 min.
Saturday, February 1, 2025 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!
Shorts Program #2
Dinner at Manny’s – Stephen Joseph Craig (Huntington Beach, California) A six-year-old boy’s dinner turns into a living nightmare while he endures the trauma of neglectful parents. 2024; 5 min.
Disoriented – Maura Garnett (New York, New York) A phone call they cannot help but answer changes the lives of three individuals forever. The news of a death, illness, and a breakup, leaves them each feeling disoriented. Now they must face the struggle of returning back to reality after receiving the tragic news. 2024; 6 min.
The Hollowing – Steve Weinzierl (New York, New York) A couple reeling from tragedy join a drug trial in a desperate effort to get a handle on their lives, but violence ensues after the treatment produces unforeseen, psychopathic side effects and pulls the duo into the darkest of places. 2024; 13 min.
Help Yourself – Hedvig Andersson (United Kingdom) Andie, a desperate writer, abandons her family to finish a script in a flat she borrows from her colleague Diane. But Andie keeps getting interrupted by bizarre and hostile strangers who all have unfinished business with Diane. Andie’s quiet evening turns into a surreal vortex of emotional experiences and revelations. 2024; 14 min.
Phantom Limb – Alice Jokela (New York, New York) A young woman faces the world after the amputation of her arm. 2024; 14 min.
Brooklyn – Timur Guseynov (West Hollywood, California) After saving an abused pit bull, a troubled Brighton Beach teenager who makes ends meet through crime while raising his little brother, must protect the dog from its nefarious owners. 2024; 20 min.
Still from No Somos Maquinas: We Are Not Machines by Mark Nistico
Sunday, February 2, 2025 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5PM!
No Somos Maquinas: We Are Not Machines – Mark Nistico (New Jersey) Hidden in the shadows is a Latino workforce that feels they have no voice. Part of a strategy to distance themselves from workers, temporary and sub-contracted work offers little protections and few legal obligations by employers. But these workers do have a voice, and together they are empowering one another to move progress forward. This film was produced in cooperation with Rutgers Professor Dr. Todd Wolfson and his students. It tackles the subject of temp labor and focuses on the New Labor worker center founded in New Brunswick, NJ. 2024; 137 min.
