BMFF Brochure 2017-web

The
BLACK
MARIA
FILM
FESTIVAL
The
Thomas Edison
Media Arts
Consortium
Fueling
the
independent
spirit
since
1981

Message
The Director
Jane Steuerwald
The history of film began with the short. The first films, including those created in Thomas
Edison’s “Black Maria” film studio in West Orange, were about a minute long. Film was
a novelty, and entertainment for the masses was the goal of early film pioneers.
In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the
phonograph. It soon became the most
popular home entertainment device in
history. Edison saw even more potential
in the link between sound and image and
commissioned his young lab assistant
William Dickson, to develop a motion picture
camera to complement the phonograph.
The result was Dickson’s invention – the
Kinetograph - which addressed the problem
of recording and reproducing moving
images.
In 1895, Edison bought the rights to a state-of-the-art projector, developed by the
American inventor Thomas Armat, and in early 1896 Edison began to manufacture and
market it. On April 23, 1896 in New York City, Edison’s Vitascope brought motion picture
projection to the United States and was at the forefront of American film exhibition for
years.
In honor of the tradition of Edison, we “fuel the independent spirit” by sustaining the
Black Maria Film Festival. Edison was truly the quintessential American inventor – a
fiercely independent man who moved forward with his vision against all odds. The
filmmakers we represent in every Black Maria Film Festival program do exactly that.
Their films celebrate the indomitable human spirit, shine a light on injustice, educate us,
and entertain us, frame after frame after frame.
The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc. 2

About us
Since 1981, the Black Maria Film Festival has been celebrating and preserving
the diversity, invention, and vitality of the short film. The Festival is named after
Thomas Edison’s original West Orange film studio dubbed the “Black Maria”
because of its resemblance to the black-box police paddy wagons of the same
name.
Black Maria is an international juried film
festival competition. We have embraced
our mission for close to four decades by
focusing on short films including those
which shine a light on issues and struggles
within contemporary society. We advance
and exhibit the work of diverse filmmakers
from across the US and around the world. The
festival has a serious, abiding commitment
to the short form as its centerpiece and
reason for being.
Black Maria is an open-genre festival
including narrative, experimental, animation,
documentary, and hybrid films that push
artistic boundaries. The festival’s touring
collection often addresses topics such
as the environment, poverty, civil rights,
education, climate change, immigration,
people with disabilities, and LGBTQ issues.
Like Thomas Edison, we support filmmakers
exploring what the medium can do, and
favor conceptual and cross-over films rather
than conventional categories.

Mission and History
The Thomas A. Edison Media Arts Consortium was incorporated in 1981 by
founder, John Columbus, with its main project being the Black Maria Film
Festival. With assistance from the Charles Edison Fund, created to maintain
the legacy of Thomas Edison, the first year of the Black Maria Film Festival
had one hundred submissions and three screenings. The first program was
held at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park’s Visitor Center and
projected exclusively 16mm films.
Documentary Animation Experimental Narrative
John Columbus wanted to take the Black
Maria to cities that did not have any
film festivals, which is exactly what the
Black Maria does today. The idea was
to bring the Festival to the people, not
the other way around. Today, following
the Festival’s premiere in February,
Black Maria film programs reach out to
audiences at museums, schools, art house
cinemas, cultural centers, and colleges and
universities throughout the United States
and abroad.
Thomas Edison was open to unconventional
people coming into his studio to experiment
with moviemaking. The results were
scenes and sketches made by curious,
creative people who wanted to see what
the medium could do. Now for nearly four
decades, the renowned Black Maria Film
Festival continues to celebrate the short
film for its artistic challenges, aesthetics,
and substance.
Notable Institutions that have Hosted the Festival
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
American University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY
Cal Arts, Santa Clarita, CA
Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, NY
Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
Crandall Public Library, Glens Falls, NY
Capri Theater, Montgomery, AL
Hoboken Historical Museum, Hoboken, NJ
LBI Foundation of A & S, Loveladies, NJ
University of Wisconsin, Fond Du La, WI
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
University of Gloucestershire, UK
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
ArtsEmerson, Boston, MA
The Des Moines Art Center, IA
The Roxie Theatre, San Francisco, CA
The Paramount Theater, Charlottesville, VA
The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc. 4

Unique Features
The Black Maria Film Festival is a constantly touring festival, not a oncea-year
destination festival, like most. We hold anywhere from 50 to 60
screenings annually, throughout the United States and internationally.
Black Maria’s New Jersey host sites span the following counties: Bergen, Essex, Hudson,
Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Sussex, and Warren.
Each year program booklets are published and then distributed at every Black Maria
screening. The booklets contain descriptions of the films in the current annual collection
as well as monographs written by well-respected filmmakers, artists, curators, and scholars.
Since the early days of the festival, these monographs critique, examine, and deconstruct
subjects relevant to aspects of cinema. Often they are a critical analysis of the state of
contemporary cinema itself. The annual program booklet is available each season in digital
form on the festival’s website which facilitates large print for those with vision impairment.
“I am so thrilled to have my short film, A Way Back, selected for the touring program for
the upcoming Black Maria Film Festival! This is such an iconic and important festival
for independent filmmakers like myself, and being presented with the opportunity to
have my film screened on the tour is one for which I am truly honored and grateful.”
Alan King Director / Producer A Way Back (Victoria, Australia)
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The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc.

Global and National Participation
Each of the last two years filmmakers from six of the seven continents including
35 countries have submitted work.
Over the same period submissions in the US have come from 34 states.
Each year we present custom curated programs at 50-60 venues
across the US and internationally.
The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc. 6

Testimonials & Quotes
“The Black Maria Film Festival is unquestionably one of our major
showcases for the independent short film. The poetry of the form,
its history and its relevance, is underscored and celebrated by
the Black Maria, and as a platform for exposing new genius and
contemporary talents, this festival is second to none.”
Margaret Parsons
Curator, Film
National Gallery of Art
Washington, D.C.
“Thank you so much for your emotional words and recognition to my film
Resplandor, it’s a great honor to know that my artistic work had made an
impact on you and the jurors. Warmest regards from Argentine.”
Fernando Priego Ruiz – filmmaker (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
“We are so very, very happy about being selected for your beautiful festival!!
I’m so excited! Thank you for this honor! Again, thank you so very much!”
Emile V. Schlesser, artist-filmmaker (Düsseldorf, Germany)
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The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc.

Samples from Our Collection
How Do You Raise a Black
Child?
Narrative
By Seyi Peter-Thomas
South Orange, NJ
Starfish Aorta Colossus
Experimental
by Lynne Sachs and Sean
Hanley, Brooklyn, NY
NYC poet Paolo Javier invited
filmmaker Lynne Sachs to create a
film that would speak to one of his
poems from his newly published
book “Court of the Dragon.” She
asked film artist Sean Hanley to
collaborate with her in the editing of the film. Together, they traveled through 25 years of the
unsplit Regular 8 mm film that Sachs had shot - including footage of the A.I.D.S. Quilt from
the late 1980s, a drive from Florida to San Francisco, and a journey into a very “un-touristic”
part of Puerto Rico. Paolo Javier’s text became a catalyst for the digital sculpting of an 8mm
Kodachrome canvas.
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. Poet
Cortney Lamar Charleston is a recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Artist
Fellowship.
“When I first proposed the Black Maria Film Festival to the Thomas Edison
National Historical Park in 1980, my idea was to find and gather fresh cutting
edge independent films, mostly shorts, for the public to see - work that would not
normally be seen at mainstream outlets… The Festival continues to be appreciated
for its exhibition of adventuresome, whimsical, absurdist, exploratory, affecting,
diverse and provocative works by both veteran and emerging filmmakers.”
John Columbus, Founder and Director Emeritus, Black Maria Film Festival
The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc. 8

Radiance (Resplandor)
Documentary
By Fernando Priego Ruiz
Buenos Aires, Argentina
At the foot of the Patagonian Andes,
Camilo Peña is an old gaucho suffering
from a disease that is leading him
to blindness. He knows that sooner
or later his worsening condition will
bring him to the edge of darkness.
This sensitive portrait is imbued with light and grace and reflects details of Camilo’s daily
life and the way in which nature always comes into its own. His wish is to stay among his
animals, isolated in the harsh winter, in the beautiful mountains where he is still a free man.
Feral
Animation
By Daniel Sousa
Providence, RI
A wild boy is found in the woods by
a solitary hunter and brought back
to civilization. Alienated by a strange
new environment, the boy tries to
adapt by using the same strategies
that kept him safe in the forest.
“Feral” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film – 2013. Daniel
Sousa has been a professor of animation at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) for 15
years.
“Black Maria Film Festival called and they said that “Bedhead” is a smash! The
director of the festival talked to me about it and said audiences were raving
about it. He said that they go crazy when Becca summons the water hose. I
told him how we shot it and he can’t believe the primitive equipment we used.
He said that it has a professional feel and style to it. He loves it.”
Excerpted from Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker with
$7,000 Became A Hollywood Player by Robert Rodriguez
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The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc.

Board of Trustees
and Staff
Jane Steuerwald
Executive Director
studied photo, film and video at Syracuse
University and Bard College. Her films have
screened at MoMA; the National Gallery of
Art in Washington, D.C.; the Thalia Cinema,
NYC; The Kitchen, NYC; Anthology Film
Archives, NYC; The Gramercy Theater,
NYC; and numerous festivals nationally.
She received Artist Fellowships from NJ
State Council on the Arts, and grants from
the NJ Historical Commission, the Puffin
Foundation, Lightworks, and Sony/AFI.
She teaches film, video and graduate media
studies at NJ City University.
Maureen DeCicco
Board President
has more than 30 years of professional
accounting, auditing and consulting
experience, encompassing 25 years at
WithumSmith+Brown, PC a top Regional
Public Accounting Firm. Maureen is an
active member of the Media Financial
Management Association and New Jersey
Broadcasters Association and serves as an
advisory board member for William Paterson
University’s college of business. She is an
audit and advisory practice partner and the
team leader of Withum’s Media Broadcasting
and Entertainment Group and team member
of Withum’s Risk Advisory Group
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“I’m incredibly honored and grateful for receiving this
email. I can’t wait for my film to go on this journey with
Black Maria. Thank you!”
Katrine Holmgren, filmmaker (London, UK)
Matt Savare
Board Vice-President
is a partner at the national law firm of
Lowenstein Sandler LLP. With over 13
years of experience, he is known for his
tireless commitment and dedication to client
service. His practice is focused on media,
entertainment, sports, intellectual property,
online advertising, technology, and privacy
issues. Matt represents a range of clients in
many facets of the media and entertainment
industries, including film, television, music,
publishing, theater, visual and performing
arts, and new media.
Steven Gorelick
Board Treasurer
is Executive Director of the New Jersey
Motion Picture and Television Commission,
the state agency responsible for promoting
film and television production in New Jersey.
During his tenure with the Commission, New
Jersey has hosted over 22,000 projects,
enhancing the state economy by over $2
billion. He has also authored articles that
have appeared in numerous publications
such as the New York Daily News, New York
Post and Variety, and has received screen
credits on dozens of motion picture and
television productions.
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The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc.

Jon Cole
Board Secretary
has been working within the insurance and
capital market industries for nearly 30 years.
In the early 1980’s he designed, programmed,
and implemented one of the first PC-based,
networked commodity trading systems for
gold and silver traders of the Comex, part of
the NY Commodity Exchange.
Cole served more than a dozen years on
The Glen Rock Board of Education, as well as
multiple terms as its President. He is also a
founding trustee of a 9/11 non-profit.
Clayton Hemmert
Trustee
A founder of Crew Cuts, New York: a postproduction
company for editing, graphics, VFX,
sound design and mixing. For 30 years they’ve
collaborated on features, shorts, television
content, commercials, and music videos.
Their work has garnered over 200 awards
from Sundance, Cannes, Emmys, Grammys,
and includes Monsters Ball, Kissing Jessica
Stein, along with SNL and MTV content. An
editor, filmmaker and entrepreneur, Clayton
has also been an industry leader as President
of AICE: a non-profit representing over 2,000
post-production professionals in the US and
Canada.
Joel Katz
Advisory Board
works in experimental and documentary film
and video. His works have been broadcast
on national PBS television, shown at the
Museum of Modern Art, and are in festival
and educational distribution worldwide.
He was a Fulbright Scholar in 2008 and a
professor of media arts at NJ City University.
David S. Denenberg
Trustee
As Senior Vice President, Global Media
Distribution & Business Affairs for NBA
Entertainment (NBAE), David Denenberg is
responsible for negotiating agreements and
helping manage relationships relating to all
facets of NBAE’s domestic and international
media business, including television, film,
radio, music, digital media, photography and
talent.
Denenberg currently serves on the Board
of Governors for the Naismith Memorial
Basketball Hall of Fame where he also serves
on the Finance Committee and Governance
Committee.
A 1991 cum laude graduate of Harvard Law
School, Denenberg graduated magna cum
laude from Colgate University in 1988.
Edgar Hidalgo
Trustee
is Director and Corporate Counsel at Toys
R’ Us, Inc. in Wayne, NJ. He has extensive
experience in drafting and negotiating
a broad range of transactions including
licensing, promotion, distribution, services,
development, and joint venture agreements
in the retail, media, entertainment, technology,
and digital advertising industries.
Christopher Corey
Advisory Board
is both a filmmaker and has been a NJ public
school teacher for a decade. He currently
teaches at Middletown High School South in
Monmouth County. He completed his MFA in
film production at William Paterson University.
The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc. 12

Don Jay Smith
Advisory Board
has more than 35 years of public relations,
marketing communications, fund raising
and concert production experience. He has
worked in the arts and entertainment field
for much of that time, with an impressive
roster of clients. He serves as an advisor to
businesses and arts organizations in matters
of organizational management, brand
development, marketing & public relations,
audience development, event production,
fund raising and strategic planning.
Thomas Torres-Cordova
Advisory Board
(MFA Bard College) is a filmmaker. His work
includes narrative, documentary, music
video and performance art in the tradition
of expanded cinema. He shot the awardwinning
documentary An Encounter with
Simone Weil (2010), and PBS-broadcast
documentary Strange Fruit (2002) His
films/videos, including, Sonido Blanco,
have aired on the Sundance Channel and
screened at numerous festivals. Everybody
Loves the Sunshine (2007), was featured
in a 2009 solo show at the Amie and Tony
James Gallery in NYC. Currently, Thomas is
co-directing a feature documentary entitled
LA Roll.
Cali Macchia
Advisory Board
is a graduate of NJ City University’s film
program. She began her career working as
cinematographer and first assistant camera
on independent features, shorts and music
videos. She also has a long history working
in corporate video production for advertising
agencies, public relation firms and press
junkets for film studios. Seventeen years ago
she began teaching digital video production
while simultaneously managing a local
access educational station. She continues to
work in education and manages a freelance
career while producing personal projects in
her free time.
Diana Hernandez
Festival Assistant
graduated from NJ City University’s Media
Arts Department in 2015. She is the registrar
for all Black Maria and NJ Young Filmmakers
submissions, and is responsible for
promotional materials, graphic design, and
administration.
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The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc.

The New Jersey Young
Filmmakers’ Festival
The NJ Young Filmmakers’ Festival is a project of the Thomas Edison Media
Arts Consortium. It provides young filmmakers, who either live in or attend
school in the State of New Jersey, the opportunity to exhibit work and have
it evaluated by prominent representatives in the field of media arts.
Since its inception, the purpose of the festival has been to recognize, celebrate, and
encourage emerging young talent in New Jersey, the state in which Thomas Edison
first developed the motion picture. A major goal of the festival in accordance with its
mission is to expand the reach of educational opportunities for New Jersey’s aspiring
media artists. NJ Young Filmmakers operates a cooperative made up of teachers in
public and private institutions, media professionals, faculty and staff from NJ colleges
and universities, and students in order to advance its mission and goals.
The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc. 14

Supporters
The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium is grateful
for the generous support of the following:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Adobe Systems
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
Arch Insurance Group
Crew Cuts Edit & Post
The Dodge Foundation
The William H. Donner Foundation, Inc.
The Edison Foundations
Hudson County Division of Cultural & Heritage Affairs
and Tourism Development
Lowenstein Sandler, LLP
Microsoft Corporation
MonsterRemotes, LLC
National Endowment for the Arts
New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission
New Jersey City University
New Jersey State Council on the Arts
TechSoup Global
WithumSmith+Brown, PC
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The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc.

The Black Maria Film Festival
Fueling the Independent Spirit
CONTACT US.....
https://www.facebook.com/blackmariafilmfestival/
Black Maria Film Festival
NJ Young Filmmakers’ Festival
Global Insights Collection
Are all projects of the Thomas A. Edison
Media Arts Consortium
https://www.instagram.com/blackmariafilmfestival/
https://twitter.com/BlackMariaFF
Address:
c/o Media Arts Department - Fries Hall
NJ City University
2039 Kennedy Boulevard
Jersey City, NJ 07305
Email: jane@blackmariafilmfestival.org
www.blackmaria.org
The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium, Inc.