36th Annual Black Maria Film Festival Tour
James M. Stewart ’32 Theatre
Thursday, February 23 at 7:30 p.m.
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Marking its 36th Annual Festival Tour in 2017, the renowned Black Maria Film Festival celebrates creativity and innovation in the moving-image arts. The Festival’s juried collection of short films includes animation, experimental, documentary and narrative works. Black Maria celebrates the short form in all its permutations for its artistic challenges, aesthetics, and substance.
The Festival was named for Thomas Edison’s West Orange, NJ film studio dubbed the “Black Maria” due to its resemblance to the type of black-box police paddy wagon known as a “black maria.” The Festival is a highly regarded international juried competition traveling to audiences at museums, cinemas, cultural centers, colleges and universities throughout the United States and abroad.
The program, hosted by Princeton University, will be presented in-person by Festival Director Jane Steuerwald, and will feature a collection of stellar works chosen to tour in the Festival’s 36th season.
Films to be screened:
Mr. Sand – Animation
8 min. by Soetkin Verstegen, Leuven, Belgium
A dreamy tale about early cinema, told as an ironic bedtime story. A mix of techniques brings to life the atmosphere of this dangerous new medium. In the back of the story moves Mr. Sand, a mysterious character that might be real or imagined.
TYSON! – Narrative
18 min. by Rebecca Ocampo and Matthew Leutwyler, Toluca Lake, CA
After being abandoned by his mother at the village medical clinic, a young boy named Tyson spends his days making the best of his new living arrangement. A volunteer nurse takes an interest in him and fights the local bureaucracy that forces patients to stay if they cannot pay their bill. Set in Kenya, TYSON! is a story that shines a light on healthcare, orphaned children, and poverty in the developing world.
Microspectrum – Experimental
2 min. by Kate Balsley, Johns Creek, GA
A surreal journey through the natural world. Leaves, flowers and other organic materials are abstracted and exist as shapes, forms, colors and textures. Nature is at once strange and beautiful. Microspectrum invites the viewer to reflect upon its complexities.
Altimir – Documentary
18 min. by Kay Hannahan, Jackson Heights, NY
Since the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, Bulgaria has experienced the most extreme population decline in the world. Low birth rates, high death rates, and two large waves of emigration have erased many villages from Bulgaria’s map and pushed others to the verge of extinction. This short documentary explores life in Altimir, one of Bulgaria’s disappearing villages. As he rides his bike through the quiet village, Yordan Dimitrov is our guide to the life that remains.
A – Narrative
14 min by Joseph Houlberg, Quito, Ecuador
A world with only one letter. The earliest certain ancestor of the letter A is aleph, the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet. In turn, the ancestor of aleph may have been a pictogram of an ox head in proto-Sinaitic script influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled as a triangular head with two horns extended. This story begins with that one essential letter – A.
Decision – Animation
3 min. by Mary Jo Zefeldt, Chicago, IL
A short animated film that explores one woman’s experience with anxiety and how she handles a perceived false choice.
More Dangerous Than a Thousand Rioters – Experimental
6 min. by Kelly Gallagher, Chester Springs, PA
An experimental animated documentary exploring the life of revolutionary Lucy Parsons, the wife of Haymarket anarchist Albert Parsons. She was an organizer first and foremost and led an inspiring life engaged in the struggle against capitalism. As a woman of color who was married to a famous white male anarchist, she is often unfairly and frustratingly overlooked in many labor histories. Parsons went on to become one of the most powerful voices in the labor movement, helping to found the legendary Industrial Workers of the World. She dedicated her entire life to fighting for the rights of the disenfranchised.
Prison Fight – Documentary
16 min. by Robert Pilichowski, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Two men, Sean McNabb and Komkit Ketnawk are from opposite ends of the globe. This film is a window into their lives as they move towards facing each other in a prison fight in Thailand.
How Do You Raise a Black Child? – Narrative
4 min. by Seyi Peter-Thomas, South Orange, NJ
This short film adaptation of Cortney Lamar Charleston’s poem “How Do You Raise a Black Child?” paints an important portrait of everyday life for a young black man growing up in America. It is an impressionistic piece that explores the delicate balance parents must strike as they steer their children toward adulthood.
