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Ten great films screen at the 2025 New Jersey Film Festival this weekend!


By Al Nigrin

originally published: 01/31/2025



Still from Demi-Demons by Martin Gerigk

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.

The Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, in association with the Rutgers University Program in Cinema Studies, is proud to present the Spring 2025 New Jersey Film Festival which marks our 43rd Anniversary. The Festival will be taking place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 24-February 21, 2025. The Festival will be a hybrid one as we will be presenting it online as well as doing 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. Plus, we are very proud to announce that acclaimed singer-songwriter Renee Maskin will be doing an audio-visual concert on Friday, October 18 at 7PM! The in-person screenings and the Renee Maskin concert 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 Show Student Ticket=$10 Per Program. Ticket buyers will also have special access to Filmmaker Introductions and Q+A Sessions for many of the films.   

 

 

 




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Albert Gabriel Nigrin is an award-winning experimental media artist whose work has been screened throughout the world. He is also a Cinema Studies Lecturer at Rutgers University, and the Executive Director/Curator of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, Inc.

FEATURED EVENTS

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or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.


2025

2025 United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival Day 1 – Program 2

Saturday, February 15, 2025 @ 12:00am
VIRTUAL
category: film


 

2025

2025 United States Super 8 Film +DV Festival Day 1 - Program 1

Saturday, February 15, 2025 @ 7:00pm
NJ Film Festival
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


 

2025

2025 United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival Day 2 - Program 2

Sunday, February 16, 2025 @ 12:00am
VIRTUAL
category: film


 

2025

2025 United States Super 8 Film and Digital Video Festival Day 2: Program 1

Sunday, February 16, 2025 @ 5:00pm
NJ Film Festival
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
category: film


 

World

World Cinema Series - "The Look of Silence"

Thursday, February 27, 2025 @ 6:00pm
Monmouth University - Pollak Theatre
400 Cedar Avenue, West Long Branch, NJ 07764
category: film


 

EVENT PREVIEWS

2025

2025 United States Super 8 Film + DV Festival line-up for Sunday, February 16!

The second and final day of the 2025 United States Super 8 Film + DV Festival is this Sunday, February 16. Here is the line-up for the two programs slated for this date.



Algonquin

Algonquin Arts Theatre presents Asbury Short Film Concert: World's Best Short Films

(MANASQUAN, NJ) -- Asbury Shorts USA, New York City's longest running non-competitive short film showcase returns to the revered Algonquin Arts Theatre in Manasquan on Saturday, March 8, 2025 to present their national touring "44th Short Film Concert- An Evening of the World's Best Short Films."



2025

2025 United States Super 8 Film + DV Festival line-up for Saturday, February 15!

The 2025 United States Super 8 Film + DV Festival begins this Saturday, February 15. Here is the line-up for the two programs slated for this date.



2025

2025 United States Super 8 Film + DV Festival Video Q+A with Memory Film Director Jeni Thornley

Here is the 2025 United States Super 8 Film +DV Festival Video Q+A with Memory Film Director Jeni Thornley, as well as New Jersey Stage entertainment writer Anran Li and Festival Director Al Nigrin.



Teaneck

Teaneck International Film Festival Offers Online Screening of "Home Court"

(TEANECK, NJ) -- The Teaneck International Film Festival offers an online screening of the documentary film Home Court by Erica Tanamachi, Jenn Lee Smith, and Brandon Soun on Wednesday, February 26, 2025. The screening is part of a five documentary film series called Indie Lens Pop-Up.