Premiere Film Screenings at the New Jersey Film Festival at Rutgers University this Thursday and Friday!

Premiere Film Screenings at the New Jersey Film Festival
at Rutgers University this Thursday and Friday!

Portrait of Jason - Shirley Clarke
On the night of December 2, 1966, acclaimed independent film-maker Shirley Clarke and a small crew convened at the Hotel Chelsea to make a ground-breaking documentary. There, for twelve straight hours, they filmed the one-and-only Jason Holliday as he sang tunes, donned costumes and reminisced about his life as a gay hustler and cabaret performer. The result is a mesmerizing portrait of Jason—a remarkably charming man, who spins tales that are by turns hilarious and heartbreaking--as well as a deeply illuminating documentary about gay life in New York City. Ingmar Bergman called Portrait of Jason “the most extraordinary film I’ve seen in my life.” When it first screened in a sneak preview, the audience included Tennessee Williams, Robert Frank, Andy Warhol, Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, and many others. But for decades, Clarke’s powerful and prophetic Portrait of Jason was thought to be lost. Now, after a two-year search, the film has been masterfully restored. Almost fifty years after it was filmed, Portrait of Jason is also a potent reminder of what the world was like for black gay men in the heat of the Civil Rights movement and on the cusp of the Stonewall Uprising. 1967; 105 min.

Co-sponsored by the Rutgers University School of Arts and Sciences, 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 and the Rutgers University Cinema Studies Program!

Thursday-February 27 at 6PM
Ruth Adams Building #001/Rutgers University,
131 George Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey
$10=General; $9=Students+Seniors; Free for all Rutgers University Students with valid ID! $8=Rutgers Film Co-op Friends

Friday-February 28 at 7PM
Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University,
$10=General; $9=Students+Seniors; Free for all Rutgers University Students with valid ID! $8=Rutgers Film Co-op Friends

Information: (848) 932-8482; www.njfilmfest.com