The 29th installment of the juried New Jersey Film Festival is set for showings Fridays through Sundays from May 31 through June 9.
This year’s festival uses a hybrid format that couples in-person screenings at Rutgers University in New Brunswick with video on demand.
In addition to the lineup of feature, documentary, animated, experimental, and short films — many with New Jersey connections — the festival also includes a concert by singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler on Saturday, June 15, at 7 p.m. in Voorhees Hall on the Rutgers campus. Tickets to the concert are $25.
“We have a really excellent line-up of films,” said Al Nigrin, executive director, curator and founder of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, in a press release. “Plus, there are quite a few other New Jersey filmmakers showing their work, too,” he added.
The schedule is as follows:
Friday, May 31
“Film Is Dead. Long Live Film!” Peter Flynn’s work explores the vanishing world of private film collecting. 102 minutes. Online 24 hours/in person at 7 p.m.
Saturday, June 1
“Shame on You.” Animated documentary by Jeffrey Himpele of Princeton exposes the untold personal costs of victims of the debt collection industry that is enabled by fear of the judicial system and hidden shame about debt. 11 minutes. Online 24 hours/in person at 5 p.m.
“Altona,” by the Canadian Affolter brothers, is a true crime documentary examining the far-reaching effects of a deadly attack that shattered a community and the survivor who needed to face his demons in order to overcome them. 94 minutes. Online 24 hours/in person at 5 p.m.
“The Featherweight” by Robert Kolodny of Brooklyn presents a gripping chapter in the true-life story of Italian-American boxer Willie Pep — the winningest fighter of all time — who, down and out in his mid-40s and with his personal life in shambles, decides to make a return to the ring, at which point a documentary camera crew enters his life. 99 minutes. Online 24 hours/in person at 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 2
Shorts Program #1 features the following:
“Stuck” by Giselle Bonilla of Los Angeles, about a man who gets stuck in a sex doll that has become attached to him romantically.
“Tlaloc (Lines Drawn in Water)” by Abinadi Meza of Austin, Texas, is a hand-painted cameraless 16mm film — an enigmatic otherworld where hues of water evolve into prismatic blooms.
“Judy’s Garden” by Evie Metz of Richmond, Virginia, is about a woman is confronted by death and taken on a journey through her past.
“Tennis, Oranges” by Sean Pecknold of Los Angeles is about a robotic vacuum that quits its job at a hospital and sets out to find community and a greater purpose.
“Use Your Words” by Michelle Tattenbaum of Maplewood is a story of the healing power of friendship.
“The Double Room” by Martin Del Carpio of New York City is about Honor, an artist and dreamer, who finds himself in a dystopian reality of the corporate world.
“Brain Freeze” by Kelsey Comeau of Brooklyn is a snapshot of lifelong friends Carrie and Madison Hu as their relationship crumbles at the seams.
“Along The Rail” by Jonathan Harkel of New Jersey if about a photographer who begins capturing graffiti with his cell phone from the window of a commuter train, then builds a device to develop cyanotype prints at home. Online 24 24 hours/in person at 5 p.m.
“I Still Love You” by Diane Pontius of New York City is a short documentary about the filmmaker’s father, Bob Pontius, a one-time pediatric heart surgeon who struggled for independence after a mental health crisis. 30 minutes. Online 24 hours/in person at 7 p.m.
“Crossing The River” by Allan Novak of New York City is the story of the world’s oldest living Holocaust survivor siblings and captures more than 100 years of one family’s history. 30 minutes. Online 24 hours/in person at 7 p.m.
Friday, June 7
Anima # 1-4 by Vaco Diogo of Portugal is a mash up of four different experimental animations that finish a cycle of creative work.
“This is a Story Without a Plan” by Cassie Shao of Pasadena, California, is a short animated film about two people and an explosion.
In “Claire Facing North” by Lynn Lukkas of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Claire returns to Iceland, a place she visited decades earlier, to tend to a difficult task. While on the road she meets Iris, a young aimless hitchhiker, and together they connect and collide as they struggle to come to terms with the realities of their lives. 90 minutes. Online 24 hours.
“Pripyat Horse” by Sally Patricia Pearce of the United Kingdom is a moment for mourning, for a friend, for the earth.
In “Five Loaves” by Nicholas Diodato of Shamong, the goings on at a food pantry reveal the workings of a corrupt church.
“Muted” by Chris Zou of Bridgewater is about Jessica and the actions she takes after taking pills to cope with the pressure of an upcoming chemistry test.
In “The Miracle of You” by Peter Spruyt of Hollywood, California, a man takes us on his meditation journey towards inner-peace and harmony, showing that in these enlightened times one can achieve self-forgiveness for just about anything.
“I Want to Live on Mars” by Mariya Somova of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, is about two unlikely friends embarking on a journey to escape life in a ghost town devastated by disaster. 80 minutes. Online 24 hours/in person at 7 p.m.
Saturday, June 8
Shorts Program #2 features the following:
“Good Girl” by Jenny Kleiman of Elmhurst, New York, features a well-behaved, Jewish, OBGYN who decides to turn her brain off and her body on by exploring BDSM.
In “INFINITY!” by Benjamin To of Chino Hills, California, a famous Japanese-American ballroom dance duo must choose between their passion or their lives as WWII concentration camps begin to rise in the U.S.
“Game Interrupted” by Ilayda Iseri of Turkey takes place in 1979, Turkey: While the mood on the streets of capital Ankara is charged with tension shortly before the military coup, a young sister and brother find their way out of boredom by switching from one game to another during their winter break. In Turkish with subtitles.
“National Pride” by Rod Ibsen of Denmark features a collision between a brutal cancel culture and a male-dominated football culture. In Danish with subtitles.
“Gary” by Irina Arnaut of Jackson Heights, New York, is a dark comedy about an early-career artist couple who make ends meet by moonlighting as contract killers. Online 24 hours/in-person at 5 p.m.
“Found: The King of Matsutake Ridge” by Anastasia Forde of Palmyra is a documentary short that explores the beautiful and intense world of Philip Manganaro, renowned chef, forager, and owner of Park Place Café in Merchantville. 34 minutes.
“Fencing for the Edge” by Holly Buechel of South Orange revisit a high school girls’ fencing team’ push to unseat their rivals as state champions 10 years after the fact. 75 minutes. Online 24 hours/in-person at 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 9
In “Musical Angels” by Saul Pincus of Torontoa heartbroken violin maker tests the healing power of music. 9 minutes.
“LIVE FEED” by Daniel Maldonado of New York City is an interpretative short that playfully examines the role of intermedia ( as an “in-betweeness) and the work of award winning electro acoustic composer, Jeff Morris. 13 minutes.
In “Cowgirls and Synthesizers” by Joe Wallace of Springfield, Illinois, UK hit-maker and Eurovison songwriter Ricardo Autobahn follows the synthesizer pop duo Hyperbubble, described by Alternative Press as “the sonic equivalent of a truckload of Twizzlers,” as they drive to Nashville to record a country and western album using only synthesizers, drum machines, and theremin. 80 minutes. Online 24 hours/in-person at 5 p.m.
In “CARNÍVORA” by Felipe Vargas of Los Angeles, two estranged sisters are forced to caretake for their catatonic grandma after their mother vanishes, only to realize that grandma isn’t grandma at all. 12 minutes.
“STAKES IS HIGH” by Jean-Pierre Caner of Los Angeles is about Will Goldin, the everyman of this moment, living off the fumes of a dream, turning to the gig economy with hopes of a better future only to find a rat race to the bottom. 90 minutes. Online 24 hours/in-person at 7 p.m.
In person screenings are scheduled for Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, Voorhees Hall #105, New Brunswick. Online access is available via the website below. Single tickets per showing range from $10 to $15. An all-access pass is available at $120.
For more information, go to njfilmfest.com.
