2015 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival at Rutgers University on February 20+21, 2015!

2015 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival
Now in its 27th year, the United States Super 8mm Film + Digital Video Festival is the largest and longest running juried Super 8mm film and digital video festival in North America. The festival encourages any genre (including animation, documentary, personal, narrative, and experimental) made on Super 8mm/8mm film, Hi 8mm/8mm, or digital video. We invite you to discover the cutting-edge works created by passionate filmmakers with these small-gauge media formats. The 27th annual United States Super 8mm Film + Digital Video Festival will be held on February 20-21, 2015 at Voorhees Hall #105, beginning each evening at 7:00PM, on the College Avenue Campus of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. The Festival will include a different program each evening.

All of the submitted works were screened by a panel of fifteen jurors comprised of media professionals, journalists, student interns, and film scholars. The panel included: Lauren Caputo, Sam Green, Chris Hammarberg, Kelly Hannavi, Paige Morton, Paige Navalny, Albert Nigrin, Molly Rich, Matt Riddle, Jason Redlitz, Eden Sapir, Heather Van Ness, Steven Yurovsky, and Andrew Zrebiec. The finalist works were selected from over 101 works submitted by filmmakers from around the world. In addition, the jurors chose the winners in conjunction with the Festival Director. During the two days of the festival, audience members will also participate in the judging process by voting for their favorite work via the “Audience Choice Prize.” All of the award-winners will be publicly announced after the closing-night screenings on Saturday, February 21, 2015.

2015 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival Friday, February 20, 2015 Schedule

PROCESS - Susan Hansen (London, England)
A film about the creative process and the processing of film stock. Industrial twentieth-century screen-print and letterpress machines are captured with long-expired and hand-developed Super 8 film. The decay of the emulsion appears as a living process, as the silent film’s reticulation, while color shifts and other signs of aging are animated with organic, electrical, and machine noises, which are layered beneath a synched, site-recorded soundtrack. 2014; 3 min.

Surface Waves - Reed O’Beirne (Seattle, Washington)
A woman rises to confront herself through a dance of self-liberation. Featuring choreography and dance by Carolyn Pavlik, along with an original soundtrack by Robin Guthrie, the film evokes a mystical story-line of struggle and release. 2015; 4 min.

Moon-Lite - David Dibble (Durango, Colorado)
Shot on Super 8mm film, Moon-Lite tells the tale of a young boy who discovers a magical secret held by an eccentric old man. 2014; 7 min.

September Sketch Book - Ronnie Cramer (Denver, Colorado)
An experimental film created through traditional animation techniques, with over 5,400 drawings made with pen and paper. The film is abstract in nature, with sequences based on flags from around the world. 2014; 8 min.

National Scars: The Albert Pike Monuments - Jet Wintzer (Old Bridge, New Jersey)
Confederate General Albert Pike was a prominent white supremacist who spewed hate speech in the Reconstruction era. From his bully pulpit as the editor of the Memphis Daily Appeal, he berated African-Americans with vile attacks calling for their oppression and even extermination. Yet our tax dollars are spent maintaining an honorary statue in Washington, DC that portrays him as a “scholar poet philanthropist jurist [and] author”. His brethren have protected him for a century from all attacks, and the statue remains despite attempts to lobby Congress to remove it. This film exposes editorials published by Pike that have been missing from the national dialogue until now, and calls for the removal of the statue from our nation’s capital. 2015; 12 minutes.

Segments of Jonah - Tommy Graef (Estelli Manor, New Jersey)
Segments of Jonah is the story of a man’s struggle with guilt and anger. Meant to be an ever-developing series making use of various artistic styles and techniques, the film delves into the effects of child abuse, revenge, love, and faith, as Jonah’s created worlds begin to coalesce and create new mysteries. 2014; 25 min.

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2015 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival Saturday, February 21, 2015 Schedule

Rue – Andres Cerezo (Bronx, New York)
What goes around comes around…. Or does it? 2014; 4 min.

Trip – Andrreu Suarez – (Bronx, New York)
There is never an easy way out. 2014; 4 min.

Wake Up – Stephanie Fox (Cambria Heights, New York)
We all walk alone. 2014; 4 min.

Self Portrait Portrait- James Hollenbaugh (Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
Bryan Lewis Saunders has been creating a self-portrait every day for nearly twenty years. This short documentary is itself a portrait of the artist, as it examines his process and determination to create without pretension or boundaries. This short film was shot on Super 8mm film. 2014; 6 min.

Sons of Jacob Synagogue - Francesca Soans (Waterloo, Iowa)
A poetic documentary that tells the history and struggles of a small Jewish community in Iowa. Focusing on the synagogue, the symbolic and spiritual heart of the community, the documentary explores the connections between memory, identity, and place. 2013; 57 min.

The 2015 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival, which is part of the New Jersey Film Festival Spring 2015, is funded and sponsored in part by The Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center; The Rutgers University Program in Cinema Studies/School of Arts and Sciences; Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission/Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts; The Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences; The Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program; The Rutgers University Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs (GAIA Centers); Confucius Institute of Rutgers University; The Rutgers University Office of Academic Engagement and Programming; The Rutgers University American Studies Department; The Rutgers University Office of the Dean of Students; The Rutgers University Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities; The Rutgers Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs; The Rutgers University French Department; Johnson & Johnson; WCTC/WMGQ; WRSU; The Home News Tribune; Jungle Software; New Brunswick City Market; Footage Firm; Videoblocks; The Rutgers University Office of Community Affairs; The Rutgers University Digital Classroom Services Department; Design Ideas; Advanced Printing; Steven C. Schechter, Esq.; Share and Harris.

2015 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival
Friday+Saturday, February 20+21, 2015 at 7:00PM
Voorhees Hall #105 * College Avenue Campus * Rutgers University,
71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.A.
$10=General; $9=Students and Seniors; $8=Film Co-op Friends
Information: www.njfilmfest.com; 848-932-8482

Free Food courtesy of Jimmy Johns will be given out prior to this screening of the New Jersey Film Festival!