The Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center proudly announces the 43rd Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival. 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. Each ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings. The in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5PM or 7PM on their show date. Tickets: $15=Per Program; In-Person Show Student Tickets=$10 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$120.

Schedule of the Event :

Friday, January 24, 2025 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!

Shorts Program

Annabel Lee – Liat Kisos (Tel Aviv, Israel)

A visual response to Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee"; the last complete poem he composed. 2024; 3 min.

Le Charade – Erika Totoro (Dobbs Ferry, New York)

A psychological comedy set in a run-down 1950s diner. Le Charade follows the final performance of a lonely mime and the psychotic episode that ensues after his imaginary friend breaks up with him and he is forced to re-enter society. 2024; 3 min.

His New Girl – Madeline Hettrick (New Brunswick, New Jersey)

A girl gets ready for a date with her boyfriend. 2024; 5 min.

Sylvia – Hannah Zipperman and Ezekiel Goodman (Leonia, New Jersey)

A newly divorced woman decides to go after what she's always wanted. 2024; 7 min.

You Still Can – Samuel Edelsack (Westfield, New Jersey)

A father talks her daughter out of suicide despite their estranged, bitter relationship. 2023; 9 min.

The Performance! – Salvatore Zeppi Rubinetti (Parsippany, New Jersey)

Pierrot longing for Columbine is interrupted by Harlequin until he decides to take things into his own hands. 2024; 10 min.

Chicken Broth Soup – Deniz Büyükk?rl? (Istanbul, Turkey)

A doctor comes across unusual symptoms at the man said to have died of a heart attack when he examined the corpse. He decides to refer the body to forensic medicine. Thereupon, the mans wife confesses; she said poisoned her husband, who constantly beat her. A big surprise awaits the doctor, who has to make a vital decision for the woman. 2024; 19 min.

Mad Clean – Jordan Campbell (New York, New York)

Ebony, a home cleaner, finds herself cleaning the home of Leanne, a unique client in the midst of a manic episode. 2024; 21 min.

Saturday, January 25, 2025 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!

Supercritical - John Osment (Brooklyn, New York)

In a post-apocalyptic nuclear fallout shelter, a young scientist bothers their team leader with a series of progressively inane HR requests. 2024; 7 min.

Dead Community Guild – Emil Minasyan (Amarillo, Texas)

The world has transformed dramatically. Scarcity of resources has driven the remaining population to become increasingly ruthless and barbaric. Mysterious radio broadcasts provide a glimmer of hope, inviting people to join a community that promises a better life. Two sisters, eager to escape the traumas of their past, embark on a journey to find this town and start anew. Yet, what they discover there will irrevocably alter everything they believed. The film is shot on Kodak motion picture film. Starring Taylor Norman, Karen Colin & Eric Roberts. 2024; 66 min.

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 and In-Person at 5PM!

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.

Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!

Shorts Program

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.

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.

Friday, February 7, 2025 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!

The Traumatist – Michelle Beck (Brooklyn, New York)

In this psychological thriller, Avery Vaughn, played by Amelia Workman (Anita Tucker, A Thousand and One), searches for retribution and release from her childhood traumas. She enlists the help of Dr. Theodore Hubbell, a questionable character with an unorthodox method of trauma therapy. The “Immersive Retribution Trauma Therapy” program, or IRTT, provides a cathartic release through vengeful and violent reenactments. Starring the talented Robert Picardo (The Doctor, Star Trek Voyager) as Dr. Hubbell, this stirring piece of fiction is told with suspense, passion, and humor. See how one person’s trauma can last generations and the lengths someone will go to make their oppressor pay. 2024; 15 min.

God Teeth – Robbie C. Williamson (Puntaneras, Costa Rica)

God Teeth is a wildly original and fantastical odyssey about four recently deceased souls who find themselves on an abandoned ship at sea. Part confessional, part elegy, the narrators must recount the circumstances which led to their untimely deaths, before a marauding gang of sting rays destroys their memories, banishing them to an eternity in purgatory. Created entirely from found internet footage, God Teeth offers the viewer a new and profound experience culled from the infinite digital world and turns it into a thought provoking, cinematic song of mourning and acceptance - The glory of life and death. Boom, a 10-year-old swimmer endeavors to make sense of the loss of her father in a world of dragons, magical sea creatures and underwater superheroes, but will she be destined to repeat history? Albert, leather clad and speeding through a tunnel, flashes back to his life wandering the streets of Hong Kong in search of desire and connection, but with an increasing sense of unease and isolation, he must finally confess to a long-held and shameful secret. Rose, an ambitious sports agent is on the cusp of experiencing a career defining moment, when out of the blue, she takes a bold left turn - with horrific and unintended consequences. Devoted family man, Campbell, speaks only in third person as he reluctantly recalls a raging forest fire that would forever change his existence, leaving him stuck atop a thousand-foot pole. 2024; 60 min.

Saturday, February 8, 2025 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5PM!

Giant’s Kettle - Markku Hakala, Mari Käki (Ylöjärvi, Finland)

Somewhere up north at the age of peak modern there is a man longing for connection but unable to break loose, and a woman feeling alien to the world which has everything figured out for her, without her. They make their best to fit in and fulfill their roles but struggle to connect with the world, themselves and others. Something important is missing. As if the whole world was drained of love, chugging along on mere duties and bureaucratic inertia, passing over the baggage of the generations. During the family trip back to the past everything starts to break apart. For how long is it possible to resist the force of life? Giant’s Kettle is a journey into the unconscious, a love story without love, an epic tragicomedy of the mundane, and a mystery in a world emptied of mystery. 2023; 71 min.

Saturday, February 8, 2025 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!

Embryo – Joy Waldinger (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Sometimes a couple needs a little magic to start their family. This short film explores the stages of embryo development using non-traditional baby bump photos to celebrate growth and normalize different paths to parenthood! It documents the long and winding journey to parenthood via surrogacy and explores how to maintain a closeness to one’s child while they are in someone else’s uterus. 2024; 6 min.

Crowboy – Alexander S. White and Cynthia N. White (University Park, Pennsylvania)

Crowboy is a contemporary parable about childhood loneliness. Captivated by a crow, a young boy embarks on a journey to return her lost feather. Though faced with challenges and self-doubt along the way, the child finds courage and comfort in new friendships that lead him to a place of inner connection. 2024; 5 min.

The Storm and The Boats - Jody Small (Fair Lawn, New Jersey)

In this compelling documentary about the first year of the pandemic, New Jersey residents shared their raw emotions and personal stories. Filming began immediately after the first vaccines became available. The producer created a makeshift studio in her home to film the participants who are diverse in age, background and life experience. Once underway, the film received some grant support from the Rutgers University Oral History Archive and the New Jersey Historical Commission. 2024; 53 min.

Saturday, February 15, 2025 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!

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

View the winning films and digital videos of the International United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival, selected by a jury of filmmakers, Rutgers University student interns, and media professionals. The festival--now in its 37th year—will feature finalist works by independent filmmakers from the United States and around the world. Co-sponsored by Pro 8mm!

The Itch – Emma Hamel (USA)

The desire to create overshadowed by a desperate desire to be good. A frantic state of wanting and the paralysis that accompanies it. 2024; 3 min.

Launching Lagrange – William Pierce (USA)

The physics of skateboarding is going to outer space. 2024; 3 min.

Lavinia – Sarah Dutton (United Kingdom)

Lavinia is inspired by a character from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronichus. Despite undergoing a huge transformation within the play, Sarah felt that there was a key moment in Lavinia’s character arc that was not featured in the text. 2024; 3 min.

Fed up – Annabelle Vine (United Kingdom)

Seymour, a gentleman of the road, is hungry and fed up. He is overjoyed when a secret benefactor leaves him daily treats, but maybe it would have been wise to look this gift horse in the mouth. 2024; 4 min.

Haunted Cursed Anxious Hateful – Brandon Scullion (USA)

Two men, haunted by the realities of their lives, confined by their bodies and surroundings, engage in a hateful battle of wills with dreadful consequences. 2024; 4 min.

No Signal – M-Alain Bertoni (USA)

All she knows comes from the screens. All she has known is the screens. When one breaks, it changes everything. 2024; 5 min.

garboface – Zona Gilreath (USA)

garboface is an experimental, sort-of-narrative film about, as Roland Barthes puts it, face-as-object and, as Plato definitely didn't put it, identity as pharmakon—simultaneously cure and toxin. Shot on Super 8 and edited digitally. 2024; 6 min.

Rain – Vasilios Papaioannu (USA)

Rain, as circular shapes of memory imprinted on the fast-paced celluloid or as liquid moving sculptures of the present in digital form, documents a verbal interaction between two people. 2024; 6 min

Who the F**k is Jacky Bumpers? – Alan Halls (USA)

In a dark, grimy corner of a bar somewhere in LA, three old Barflies get to bickering about one salty, charming, two-faced swindler from the past... So, pull up a barstool, get a drink and find out just "who the F**k is Jacky Bumpers?" in this candy colored Super 8mm film. 2024; 6 min.

Sometimes I Hear the Light Leak in Through the Corners of My Room – Jeremiah Carter (USA)

Heartbroken, Madeline goes out on the town ruminating on the cyclical nature of love. She passes from one thrill to another looking for answers. Relationships come and go but memories are forever. 2024; 9 min.

Wrecked a Bunch of Cars, Had a Good Time – James P Gannon and Matt Ferrin (USA)

In America, the things we create we also find a way to destroy. We follow four people who have never met but will smash each other to smithereens in a Demolition Derby. 2024; 12 min.

A Return to Eden – Broderick Rule (Canada)

A young woman falls victim to a local psychopathic murderer. Upon her death, she awakens in a surreal forest, a 'limbo' with an identity of its own, that helps her make it back to the land of the living, so that she can take revenge against her killer. 2024; 14 min.

Sunday, February 16, 2025 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5PM!

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

View the winning films and digital videos of the International United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival, selected by a jury of filmmakers, Rutgers University student interns, and media professionals. The festival--now in its 37th year—will feature finalist works by independent filmmakers from the United States and around the world. Co-sponsored by Pro 8mm!

a film with sound (take three) – Josh Weissbach (USA)

A father and daughter make a new movie after the daughter requests to make a film with sound after making a silent one the previous year. 2024; 3 min.

Fighting Sleep - Kevin Obsatz (USA)

A super-8 documentary that grapples with the sometimes grim realities of parenting a newborn, and my personal need for a violent outlet for all the accumulated frustrations. Featuring voiceover recorded through a baby monitor accompanied by music played on a child's xylophone. 2024; 6 min.

Take Care, Tar Creek – Aaron Gibson (USA)

Located in far northeast Oklahoma, the area generally known as Tar Creek is considered one of the most toxic places in the US. In the early 1900s and for decades thereafter, the region known as the Tri-State Mining District, encompassing Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri was heavily mined. Lead mined here was used for ammunition in both WWI and WWII. When the mines were abandoned in the 60s and 70s, some of them caved in, some filled with water which became extremely toxic over time. Mountainous piles of spent mine tailings called "chat" were left littering the landscape. These mountains of waste, though they look like sand dunes, are concentrated with heavy metals. High concentrations of metals including lead, cadmium, zinc, and others, can be found in the land and water. Since the 1980s the region has been designated an EPA Superfund site. Over time, towns have been abandoned, and infrastructure left to wither away. Take Care, Tar Creek is a message; a letter, a poem, as told from Tar Creek to all humans. This short film, authentically photographed in Super 8, encapsulates the perspective of the region from the water, from Tar Creek. The film asks us to consider the implications of human behavior, the intrinsic value of water, and the impact our decisions, have on the future. 2024; 7 min.

The Insides of Our Lives – Misja Pekel (Netherlands)

The Insides of Our Lives is a poetic blend that combines fiction with found footage. A selection from thousands of hours of found footage - mostly 8mm material - tells the coming-of-age story of two girls growing up along a border in Europe, as the border gradually drives them apart. The story sensitively portrays what it means to grow up in a world where one day fences appear, creating an 'us' and a 'them'. The film, though composed with footage of hundreds of different lives that have been filmed, is crafted in such a way that it feels like the life of one person. 2024; 50 min.

Friday, February 21, 2025 – In-Person Only at 7PM!

Ascension From the Disco Inferno – Anita LaBelle and Albert Gabriel Nigrin (New Brunswick, New Jersey)

Ascension from the Disco Inferno is an experimental film that focuses on climate change. A match sets the film in motion as two women descend to an infernal disco looking for an escape from the catastrophes facing the modern world. The only way out is up! 2025; 12 min.

Renee Maskin in Concert

We have started a new concert series with a moving image component as part of our Film Festivals with the hope of reawakening the mostly dormant New Brunswick Music Scene. Last September 15th guitar virtuoso Tim Motzer performed to an experimental film. That was the first true audio-visual concert we put on. Acclaimed singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler also did an amazing concert with her own movie projections on June 15, 2024. Noise-Ambient musician Jim Haynes came from California and did a concert on October 18, 2024 with accompanying projections of experimental films. On February 21, 2025, acclaimed singer-songwriter Renee Maskin will also be doing an audio-visual concert. Festival Director Al Nigrin said: “We are inviting musicians whose work I really admire and whose work I think is also very cinematic.”

Known for her distinctive voice, literally and artistically, Renee Maskin is a staple of the thriving music scene in Asbury Park, NJ. With three solo LPs released in three years, her prolific output pulls from a deep well of influence, from country, to garage, to modern indie-rock. Maskin has notably opened for a wide range of acts, including Jon Langford (Mekons), William Tyler, Del Amitri, Tyler Ramsey, and notably toured with her former group, Lowlight, in support of The Pretenders. Maskin was named “Songwriter of the Year 2023” by New Jersey Stage Magazine. Her most recent LP, Shimmer, was named one of 2023’s National Top Albums by The Aquarian.

Buy Tickets

Date : January 24 - February 21, 2025

Location : Voorhees Hall, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901

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