2009 Black Maria Film Festival is Underway

The quirky, independent touring film festival, the Black Maria, kicked off its 28th edition the other day at its home base, Jersey City State University. I caught its show last night at a screening sponsored by the Hoboken Historical Museum, and as usual it offered an extremely diverse range of short films. There was a one-and-a-half-minute film of a filmmaker dressed as a monk in a crucifixion pose beside a highway; an amazing film noir story that combined live action and cut-out images; and a look at a matzo-ball-eating contest in New York, to name just a few.

I've written before about the history and origins of the Black Maria Film Festival, which pays homage to the Thomas Edison's film studio of the same name, which was the first movie studio in the world. The Festival tours the Northeast extensively and also ventures out to other areas of the country, altering the lineup of films to mesh with local interests and filmmakers. Check the Web site above for dates, times, and locations. The screening I attended was only $5, and some are even free (such as one I went to last year at a branch of the New York Public Library).

If the Black Maria is coming near you, skip whatever's playing at the local multiplex and check out this Festival's innovative short films instead.

"Falling Slowly" from "Once" Wins Oscar

"Falling Slowly," the nominee from the movie "Once," has won the Oscar for best original song.

“Once,” a film about two singers making music on the streets of Dublin, was made for just $100,000.

The winners of the Oscar, songwriters Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, also played the lead roles in "Once" Both Hansard and Irglova are actual musicians, not actors.

Glen Hansard is best known in the U.S. as the leader of the Irish rock band The Frames. Marketa Irglova is a singer and songwriter from the Czech Republic.

Based on the popularity of “Once” in its theatrical release, Hansard and Irglova have toured together under the name The Swell Season, and have released an album of the same name.

Podcast Review: Filmspotting Offers Movie Reviews and More

It would be easy to say that the movie review podcast Filmspotting is a thinking man's Ebert & Roeper, but that might make it seem pretentious. Rather, it's a more thoughtful, in-depth look at current movies, but with extra features for movie fans.

Adam Kempenaar and Matty Robinson's podcast takes the format Siskel & Ebert established many years ago--two critics with different backgrounds and opinions offering their takes on movies--and gives it a more detailed treatment, and while these two critics are considerable younger than Ebert and his co-host Roeper, they have a decent grasp of cinema history, and a good handle on film history in the last 20 years or so.

Kempenaar and Robinson discuss two or three main movies each week on the show, but the "extras" in the show are what make it really enjoyable. They usually have a "Top 5" list that ties into one of the main films under discussion (top 5 films about brothers, etc.) They also have an ongoing series of "marathons," in which they decide on a genre or subject to tackle--Westerns, silent films, documentaties, etc.--and choose a half-dozen or so films in that genre to review, considering one per week. (Following the death of Ingmar Bergman they embarked on a Bergman marathon, still in progress at this time.)

Filmspotting also includes other fun features, including "massacre theater," in which the hosts read lines of dialogue from a well-known movie and challenge listeners to identify the film, with the chance to win a DVD of their choice. Feedback from listeners is another regular feature, and Filmspotting also includes snippets of several songs from a particular independent musician each week--a good chance to discover some new or lesser-known musical talent, such as Alejandro Escovedo or Calexico.

Filmspotting is a very enjoyable podcast for movie watchers of all interests and backgrounds.

Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca... Hoboken?

That's right, the Mile-Square City of Hoboken, New Jersey is joining those other famous venues in launching a film festival this year. The first Hoboken International Film Festival, which runs from June 1st to the 7th, hopes to spotlight the city's long and illustrious connections to filmmaking.

Best known as the birthplace of Frank Sinatra, Hoboken was itself practically a star of the classic '40s film "On the Waterfront" (alongside a young Marlon Brando), which was filmed largely in the city. More recently, a number of films, commercials, and other works have been shot in Hoboken, taking advantage of the city's old-time urban grit and many examples of classic architecture, many of which have been refurbished since Hoboken's resurgence beginning in the 1980s.

Danny Aiello, who has appeared in a number of films that were partly filmed in Hoboken, was to meet Hoboken's mayor on May 15th to formally announce the Hoboken International Film Festival. (Several of Aiello's films will be screened at the Festival.) I'll have more on Aiello's films and career in a future post.

And Hoboken is home to legendary indie filmmaker John Sayles, whose acclaimed movies range from "Brother from Another Planet" to "Eight Men Out," "The Secret of Roan Inish," "Lone Star," and "Passion Fish."

New Jersey's role in movie history goes back much further than "On the Waterfront," though. Thomas Edison was a motion picture pioneer and created America's first movie production studio, called Black Maria, not far from Hoboken in West Orange, New Jersey. And since 1981 there has been a Black Maria Film and Video Festival--based in New Jersey--that has toured around the U.S.

The Hoboken International Film Festival will include a mix of narrative feature films, documentaries, and shorts. Some of the features to be screened at the Festival include:
"Polycarp," a horror/psychological thriller
"Fingerprints" starring Lou Diamond Phillips
"Animal People," a look at the animal protection movement in the U.S.
"Get Thrashed: The Story of Trash Metal"
"Chasing the Lotus," a documentary that takes a worldwide look at surf culture