Here is the 2025 New Jersey International Film Festival Zoom Short Documentary Filmmaker Panel with Marine Field Station Director Thomas Lennon, Harlem to Harvard Director Zuzelin Martin, Down The Line Director Vinit Parmar and Festival Director Al Nigrin.

 

The 30th annual New Jersey International Film Festival will be taking place between May 30-June 13, 2025. The Festival will be a hybrid one as we will be presenting it online as well as doing select in-person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VoD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. 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 Mike Kovacs will be doing an audio-visual concert on Friday, June 13 at 7PM. The in-person screenings and the Mike Kovacs 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=$120; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program. 

For more info go here: https://2025newjerseyinternationalfilmfestival.eventive.org/welcome

Marine Field Station – Thomas Lennon (New Brunswick, New Jersey) Nestled in New Jersey ‘s coastal marshes, a fabled research center has quietly tracked the marine life nearby. Now with water levels rising around them, these scientists face a new and unnerving subject to study: themselves. 2025; 10 min.

Harlem to Harvard – Zuzelin Martin (North Bergen, New Jersey) An inspirational short documentary about a teacher, Edouard E. Plummer, who helped over 600 students from Harlem attend the most elite boarding schools in the country creating countless ripples of generational impact. 2025; 15 min.

Down The Line - Vinit Parmar (Brooklyn, New York) Since the 1940s, New Jersey’s county political organizations have designed primary ballots to favor their endorsed candidates. Until 2024, 19 of 21 counties used grid systems that placed endorsed candidates in prime spots, known as the “county line,” which influenced the behavior of unsuspecting voters. In 2024, Senate candidate Andy Kim challenged this system in court and won a temporary injunction, leading to a more democratic “office block” layout. The film Down the Line investigates the problems associated with the county line design, exploring the system’s manipulative intent and results and its impact on New Jersey’s political landscape. 2024; 20 min.