Black Maria Film Festival’s Hudson County Movie Tour Coming To Hoboken

From Hoboken Historical Museum: Starting Wednesday, Sept. 20, the Hoboken Historical Museum welcomes back the Black Maria Film Festival for a four-part monthly series of documentary film programs from the Festival collection. Black Maria Executive Director Jane Steuerwald will host the custom-curated programs, and lead a discussion with the audience. Doors open at 6:30 pm, and the films will screen at 7 pm, each lasting about an hour. Admission is a suggested $5 donation, which includes light refreshments.

Each month, an award-winning one-hour documentary film from the Black Maria’s Global Insights collection will be presented, thanks to the support of the Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs and Tourism. The second program is Wednesday, Oct. 18, the third is Wed., Nov. 29, and the final session is Wed., Dec. 13. Now in its 36th consecutive year, the Black Maria Film Festival focuses on diverse short films – narrative, experimental, animation, and documentary – including those, which address issues and struggles within contemporary society such as the environment, public health, race and class, family, sustainability, and more.

Wednesday, Sept. 20, 6:30 pm: Program 1 features “Truth Has Fallen,” by Sheila Sofian, a film about three innocent people who were convicted for murders they did not commit. Using innovative painting-on-glass animation, the film examines their cases and sheds light on weaknesses in the United States justice system.

Wednesday, Oct. 18, 6:30 pm: Program 2 features “The Land Beneath Our Feet,” by Sarita Siegel and Gregg Mittman. When the earliest known surviving motion picture record of Liberia resurfaced – rare archival footage from a 1926 Harvard expedition to Liberia – it began a collaborative project to bring the film footage back to Liberia. “The Land Beneath Our Feet” is an extraordinary film spanning a four-year investigation into history, memory, and present-day land conflicts in Liberia.

Wednesday, Nov. 29, 6:30 pm: Program 3 features “A Bastard Child” by Knutte Wester. His grandmother grew up in shelters and orphanages in Sweden in the early 1900’s, unwanted, rejected by society. Wester brings her memories to life through his own exquisite hand-painted animated images and has us witness someone being rejected in order to unite others.

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 6:30 pm: Program 4 features Susie Rivo’s “Left on Pearl,” a film set in 1971, when classified ads for employment were still segregated by gender, battered women's shelters did not exist, abortion was illegal, and married women couldn’t open a bank account without their husbands’ permission. “Left on Pearl” focuses on a highly significant but little-known event in the history of the women's liberation movement, the 1971 takeover and occupation of a Harvard University-owned building by hundreds of Boston area women.

For further information, contact the Hoboken Historical Museum at 201-656-2240, www.hobokenmuseum.org; or Black Maria Festival Director Jane Steuerwald, jane@blackmariafilmfestival.org, 201-200-2043. Program information is posted on the Black Maria Film Festival website under the Tour Schedule link: www.blackmariafilmfestival.org.

Photos courtesy of Hoboken Historical Museum