The 30th Annual New Jersey International Film Festival

Schedule:

Friday, May 30, 2025

Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00 p.m.
Elisa in Wonderland - Clea van der Grijn (Sligo, Ireland)
Following a period of rehabilitation, Elisa (Nora Ní Anluain Fay) returns to her ancestral stately home, Stradbally, where she is haunted by acute anxiety, mental illness, and struggles with addiction. Despite the tender ministrations of Mary (Hilary Bowen-Walsh), the devoted housekeeper, she finds herself unravelling as reality and imagination blur and the paintings in her room come to life to pull her into their surreal narratives. Inspired by "The Raven" and other works by Edgar Allan Poe, this powerful and unsettling cinematic journey delves into the depths of the human psyche to explore themes of loss, madness, and the shadowy forces within. 2025; 107 min.

Saturday, May 31, 2025

Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5:00 p.m.

Wrestle-Off - Sabatino Ciatti, Jr. (Warren, New Jersey)
Tenacious high school wrestler Alex battles with the grief of her father’s passing and the hostility of her teammates as she fiercely competes for a varsity spot on an all-male wrestling team. 2025; 19 min.

The Sandy Mack Experience - Henry Donohue Frost, Sarah Ann McCuiston (Asbury Park, New Jersey)
The Sandy Mack Experience is an exploration into the vibrant music scene in a town that needs no introduction—Asbury Park, NJ. This documentary captures the musical journey of local musician Sandy Mack, and the jam music community he helped cultivate, with the help of his friends, both musicians and music fans. These friends have been described as the "Jamily", a community of like minded fans of music, where the mantra of "Spiritual Healing Through Music & Dance" often emerges spontaneously. A Jamily gathering creates an atmosphere where everyone can feel that they’re right where they belong. It’s not something that’s easily explained with words, but the feeling will be apparent if you come out to see what this "experience" is all about. 2025; 71 min.

Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00 p.m.

Chambers Street - Scott Dempsey Keenan (Brooklyn, New York)
A young man, shadowed by the ghost of his ex-girlfriend, spirals into the loss of the relationship. 2024; 8 min.

Broken Pieces - Justin Ho (Old Bridge, New Jersey)
One day in NYC the lives of five people cross paths with each other in unexpected ways, revealing the subtle yet important interconnectedness of their lives as they grapple with their own issues and try to make sense of the chaos that surrounds them. Love is a complicated and messy thing, and sometimes it takes being broken to find the pieces that fit. 2024; 83 min.

Sunday, June 1, 2025

Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5:00 p.m.

Short Documentary Program

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.

Birdfeeder - Daniel Feighery (Brooklyn, New York)
Birdfeeder is not just a documentary about birds; it's a visual and emotional exploration of the human connection to the urban wild, the challenges faced in the time of hardship, and the profound impact of the natural world on the human soul. 2024; 12 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.

Kanenon:we - Original Seeds - Katsitsionni Fox (Akwesasne Mohawk Nation Territory, New York)
Kanenon:we - Original Seeds carries viewers into the grassroots Indigenous seed sovereignty movement led by Haudenosaunee women. Prior to European contact there was a rich and vibrant diversity of foods, with women primarily responsible for caretaking of the seeds. Genocidal practices including, boarding schools, land theft, forced relocation, imposed religion and even food warfare contributed to a disconnection from our traditional foods and seeds. Indigenous seed keepers are vigilantly protecting the biodiversity of seeds under threat of Agro-Chemical Giants that currently control over sixty percent of seeds worldwide. As these Haudenosaunee women step back into their sacred responsibility as seed keepers they offer a powerful view of what is possible in Indigenous communities working towards food sovereignty. 2024; 27 min.

Our Borderlands - Viktor Witkowski (Hanover, New Hampshire)
The director's 92-year old grandmother Janina lives with her daughter Dana in a village in Poland close to the German border. Both women embody the shared Polish-German history of the region and the violent traumas it carries. Bringing attention to people who live in rural areas and who tend to be either romanticized or stigmatized, this short film is a meditation on place and landscape, history, personal choices and loss, and all those moments between laughter, grief, and wonder. In Polish, subtitled. 2024; 28 min.

Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00 p.m.

Freeing Juanita - Sebastian Lasaosa Rogers (Brooklyn, New York)
Juanita has been unjustly detained in Reynosa, Mexico for over seven years, accused of a crime she didn’t commit and forced to confess in a language she didn’t understand. This intimate portrait follows Ana and Pedro, Juanita’s aunt and uncle, on their thousand-mile journey from the highlands of Guatemala. With the help of their Maya Chuj community and a network of Maya interpreters, they fight for Juanita’s freedom and demand justice from the Mexican authorities, a cause that became internationally recognized for its defense of migrants’ rights and language justice. In Spanish, subtitled. 2024; 75 min.

Thursday, June 5, 2025

Online for 24 Hours.

Online Shorts Program

Home for None - Jacob Denton (Maplewood, New Jersey)
Deb is a lonely suburban woman, who only has her beloved dog left for comfort. Fired from her job and navigating through a divorce, she falls prey to investors looking to flip her childhood home after she couldn’t keep up with the bills. Deb must learn to confront her mounting issues, and accept change, before the world comes to collect its dues. 2024; 15 min.

Ash Wednesday - Grace O’Brien (Boston, Massachusetts)
When queer Catholic schoolgirl Bridget gets her period during Ash Wednesday Mass, she embarks on an odyssey with best friend Erin to find a tampon and make it back in time to get their ashes - or else they're suspended. 202; 17 min.

Child No. 182 - Camilla Roos (Helsinki, Finland)
A documentary about a girl growing up as a foster child in 60s and 70s Finland, based on official reports about the director's own childhood. 2024; 53 min.

Friday, June 6, 2025

Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00 p.m.

Shorts Program

The Creative Process - Nick Zweig (Bernardsville, New Jersey)
Making art is difficult, sometimes its frustrating, sometimes its infuriating. 2025; 2 min.

Toil and Spin - Maureen Zent (Atlanta, Georgia)
Cast off from shore. Into the dim, the dark. Away, away. Adrift in an oarless boat. And deep, deeper below the mirror surface. Then snap. Caught in eddies of regret, past slights, tasks undone, worries fresh and aged. Ever searching for a channel back to the elusive elsewhere. Toil and Spin uses the visual language of minimalism to describe sleep and sleeplessness. 2024; 5 min.

Becoming an Oyster - Elizabeth Schneider, Michael Covello (Kutztown, New York)
Becoming an Oyster is an animated short film by Michael Covello and Elizabeth Schneider. It explores the intersection of two significant generational crises: climate change and opioid addiction. Told through the eyes of a young boy, the allegorical narrative touches on themes of consumption, excess, and trauma. The metaphor of an oyster’s life cycle reflects the vulnerability of human and ecological systems. These filter animals become a two-way mirror through which one may glimpse ecological failure and the consequences of climate disruption as well as the broader struggles and individual trauma of addiction. Becoming an Oyster blends ecological metaphors with human narratives to create a surreal landscape of boyhood adventure, heartbreaking loss, and the legacy we each leave to future generations. 2025; 7 min.

Elemental - Marie Gayeski (Panama City, Florida)
Elemental, a silent film, addresses the transitioning of the body in form and matter. After experiencing lifelong genetic illnesses and a Category 5 hurricane that destroyed my family’s home and business, I searched to find peace, acceptance, beauty and connectedness in life, death, the forces of nature and the Cosmos. My work emerged from trauma, the recognition of reorientation and survival. I asked myself: How do you cultivate a sense of belonging and re-association with nature in the face of natural disaster and death? How do you go back to what is primordial, the elements and forces that create and destroy everything in the Cosmos? How do you move past your physical body and accept yourself as a being in transition? I believe all is not destroyed by nature but continually enveloped and recreated by it. The film includes universal natural patterning found in the coastal landscape of North Florida superimposed with fleeting images of my medical symptoms and hurricane damage that impacted my family. Seeing the relationship between our bodies and the Cosmos has been a healing force in my life. 2024; 7 min.

Butterfly Manoeuvres - Gor Margaryan (Babelsberg, Germany)
Butterfly Manoeuvres is an experimental essay film based on old, private film footage of fighter planes. The film documents the preparations and training for war, recorded as historical evidence. An artful fusion of images and sounds creates a unique cinematic experience. It is interesting to note that the soundtrack does not always correspond exactly with the visual impressions. This deliberate discrepancy between image and sound was chosen to create new associations and perspectives. A central motif of the film is the contrast between the destructive fighter planes and the fragile, seemingly lost images of butterflies. This juxtaposition symbolizes the transience and irreversible destruction caused by war. Butterfly Manoeuvres is therefore not only a documentary record, but also a profound reflection on war, loss and the fleeting beauty of life. 2024; 7 min.

Flocky - Esther Casas Roura (Brooklyn, New York)
Flocky is an animated allegory navigating pregnancy, exploring the connection between a mother and her unborn child. Set in a melancholic and enchanting world, the film beautifully captures the essence of love, and the poignant nature of loss. 2024; 12 min.

I Was There - Kamila Kuc (London, England)
I Was There is a haunting exploration of familial bonds, intergenerational memory, and the enduring impact of shared narratives. Filmmaker Kamila Kuc steps into the emotional stream of inherited family history as the lines between documentary, testimony, and fiction blur. She performs acts of bearing witness not just for herself but also on behalf of her grandmother. Together, they testify to their experiences and the reverberations these stories have over time. I Was There is a palimpsest - a layered tapestry where past and present intertwine in the intimate process of activating memory and vulnerability as forms of resistance. I Was There honors the testimonial object inherited from ancestors and the living connection that binds generations in the shared pursuit of justice and healing. 2024; 12 min.

Monument - Jeremy Drummond (Richmond, Virginia)
Monument pairs Super 8mm film footage of the decaying monuments of Presidents Park (Croaker, VA) with video footage captured at Marcus-David Peters Circle (Richmond, VA) during the Covid-19 pandemic and the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Themes of registration and re-calibration are explored through form and content. 2025; 17 min.

Soft Wind Shells - Bo Verpoten, Jeff Sermon, Tesse Baardman (Bruxelles, Belgium)
Soft Wind Shells is an audiovisual exploration that delves into the dynamics of transmission and echoes, weaving a narrative that captures the fluidity and fragility of communication and the inevitable distortions that occur through each act of transmission. The film draws inspiration from two classic children’s games that play with things getting lost and found when words are passed through. They are passed through the air, through water, our bodies, our hands, each material having different influences. The visuals depict abstract representations of sound waves, echoing patterns, and fragmented images that shift and morph as they are relayed from one frame to the next. The audio component, layered with whispers, echoes, and distortions, mirrors the organic evolution of the original messages. 2024; 17 min.

Burn Ceremony - Alexander Girav (Chicago, Illinois)
An unsanctioned observation of [redacted]’s largest oil refinery, processing 440,000 barrels of crude oil a day. By night, the complex becomes a heaving edifice of flame and fog. We observe its operation from afar as the inferno slowly engulfs the frame, accompanied by an original hypnotic soundscape by UK club experimentalist Loraine James. A vision of industrial desolation in which dread turns to awe. 2024; 17 min.

Saturday, June 7, 2025

Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5:00 p.m.

Supporting Actresses - Arturo Dueñas (Valladolid, Spain)
Shot in a single sequence shot, mixing formats, color and black and white, the film vindicates the role of supporting actresses in theater, cinema and real life: Yuste Monastery (Spain), September 21, 1558. Emperor Charles V, decrepit and sick, like a Don Juan on his last night, is dying, while the most important women in his life appear like nightmares. This is the play, titled Letters to the Emperor, that a group of actresses is about to premiere. But things don't go as planned. 2024; 81 min.

Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00 p.m.

Young Toussaint - Fernandel Almonor (Tinton Falls, New Jersey)
A people-pleasing black boy, gets fed up with being bullied by his tyrannically conservative American history teacher. 2024; 9 min.

Retaliation - Alex Lee (Cresskill, New Jersey)
A couple attempts to rekindle their marriage, but the real test comes when they run afoul of a group of hostile hunters. 2024; 17 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.

Will I See you Again - Christopher Hickey (New York, New York)
The screenplay follows Adrien and Alana, close friends and occasional romantic partners, on Alana's last night in Paris before moving back to New York. At a local bar, their bittersweet dynamic plays out, as Adrien declares his love for Alana, while she insists on just friendship to pursue her goals and a partner from her own culture. After fighting, making up, and meaningful conversations with the bar staff, they have an emotional last moment together, where Adrien supports Alana's path ahead while making clear his unwavering love and connection to her, wherever their lives take them. They end the night driving off together, Alana's head on Adrien's shoulder, their future unclear but their bond intact. 2025; 25 min.

A Place of Honor - Vanessa Roth (Shelter Island, New York)
A Place of Honor, which is part of a Storytelling Initiative at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial & Museum, recounts the lived experiences of veterans and gold star family members from before, through and after the war who found renewed purpose and meaning in their lives when they decided to create the only memorial and museum dedicated to the lives lost in Vietnam. 2024; 32 min.

Sunday, June 8, 2025

Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5:00 p.m.

A Mother’s Promise - Heather Waters (Armonk, New York)
It's the Roaring Twenties. Vivian Gordon takes the stage at a raucous Manhattan speakeasy and sings a sexy, playful rendition of "Who's Sorry Now." Vivian has escaped an abusive husband and created a new life for her and her 8-year-old daughter, Benita. Their happy existence, however, is destroyed when Vivian falls prey to an insidious extortion conspiracy among crooked cops, lawyers and judges that pervades New York's Women's Court. Vivian is falsely arrested and convicted on prostitution charges and wrongfully imprisoned in a "reformatory" for two years, with only her haunting memories of the injustices that brought her there and the desperate longing for her daughter. When she is finally released, she can't get a legitimate job, so Vivian turns the tables. She starts an escort service through which she blackmails her male clients and raises money for her fight to regain custody of Benita. Despite numerous attempts, her appeals are denied. Then, when Governor Roosevelt appoints a crime commission to investigate the court system, Vivian is determined to testify, believing that setting the record straight is her best chance of reuniting with her daughter. On the eve of her testimony, she retakes the speakeasy stage and belts out a bitter, vengeful performance of the opening song that ends abruptly and leaves open the question - who is sorry now? Inspired by a true story. 2024; 13 min.

Faces of Agata - Malgorzata Kozera (Warszawa, Poland)
When she was 16, Agata heard that she would most likely bleed herself to death within 2 years. On that day she was born anew. After 20 years and over 30 face surgeries, she lives in London and works as an artist who turned her struggle with a lethal disease into art. Her disease and the pain caused by it continue to accompany her, but more and more promising treatment options are being developed. Nevertheless, the most important form therapy is her art. Her face becomes even more deformed with recurring angiomas, which is the major theme explored by the protagonist in her art. In Polish, subtitled. 2025; 73 min.

Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7:00 p.m.

Nobody Wants to Shoot A Woman - Kerry Ann Enright (New York, New York)
A mother embraces a violent crime spree as a means to survive. Nobody wants to shoot a woman, do they? This film is about a woman against all odds, marginalized by society and trying to find a way to survive in a world where motherhood, misogyny, crime, and independence meet. This film is a noir crime drama set on the streets of Brooklyn brought to life by a female writer/director, producer and with a female lead. We wanted to pay homage to the great crime films set in New York City, where the city becomes one of the characters. 2024; 92 min.

Friday, June 13, 2025

In-Person Only at 7:00 p.m.

Mike Kovacs Audio-Visual 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. On September 15, 2023, 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 by Marjorie Conrad, Anita LaBelle and Al Nigrin. On February 21, 2025, acclaimed singer-songwriter Renee Maskin did an audio-visual concert to videos created by Al Nigrin. On June 13, 2025, Mike Kovacs will do an audio-visual concert as well supported by Chris Zadravec on cello as well as Mary Ann Wilson, Dottie Gallop, and Dorothy Dobkowski on back-up vocals. Mike Kovacs is a guitarist, composer, teacher, and multimedia artist born, raised, and working in Central New Jersey. His first multimedia work, "sacred/dirty katie" debuted in New Brunswick in the Summer of 1995. His collaboration with New Jersey artist Vladimir Aituganov, "crescendo", debuted at the Ukrainian Institute in NYC in February of 2004. Following the death of dear friend and bandmate, he returned to music and film with a video for his song "Someday beautiful" and the multimedia rock opera, "After the Valentines" which debuted at The George St Playhouse in the summer of 2009 and in NYC at the NYC Poetry Club in late November of 2010. He then formed the spoken word and music ensemble, "The Fractal Ensemble" playing the NYC Poetry Festival two years in a row, as well as a sold-out benefit show with spoken work legend Buddy Wakefield in Jersey City in February of 2015. Presently he is working on another multimedia project and will be debuting a new piece featuring dancer/choreographer Josie Coyoc who spent many years dancing with both the Bill T Jones and Pilobolus dance companies.

Date: May 30 - June 13, 2025

Location:

Voorhees Hall
71 Hamilton Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

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