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For 30 years, the New Jersey Film Festival has been bringing cinema of all stripes to the heart of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. It should come as no surprise then that the lineup for the festival's latest installment has a little bit of everything: features, documentaries, animation and music videos spanning a number of genres.
"It's all over the place," said festival curator Al Nigrin, noting that the eclectic lineup is appropriate for the festival's 30th anniversary.
Presented by the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center and the Rutgers University Program in Cinema Studies, the festival kicks off Friday, Jan. 20 and runs through March 1, with screenings at Voorhees Hall on Hamilton Street and the Ruth Adams Building on George Street.
While there is plenty of variety in this season's lineup, according to Nigrin there are also some connections between the works that will be screening.
"There are some themes, there are some ‘chick flicks' as I call them. ‘Calendar Girl' (screening tonight), ‘The Big Bad' (Feb. 11) and ‘The Red Corvette' (Feb. 3) all feature strong, beautiful women that have to deal with the male society that surrounds them, and I think they each deal with it in their own way, and they're all very interesting films," Nigrin said. "So it seemed like despite the fact that it is a potpourri of different types of films, there are some links between them."
Wild ride
Part crime drama, part coming-of-age tale and part thriller, "The Red Corvette" is the second film by Fair Lawn resident Frank Lisi.
"My first production in 2009 was a short that was strictly a crime drama, it was called ‘A Sicilian Tale,' and I wanted to do a coming-of-age story. I have teenagers, I see what's going on in the schools and how these kids are so vulnerable to everything, materialistic stuff, first loves and all that stuff, and the story started off inspired by true events at the very beginning of the script and I added to it as I went," said Lisi.
The film, which follows a young woman who befriends a mafia princess, was shot in Philadelphia, Williamstown and Asbury Park, according to Lisi.
"We wanted to get the right footage, the right people and I wanted to get it out to a younger crowd," he said. "My first short was just strictly crime drama, it was (aimed at) guys that would sit around and watch gangster movies, usually from 35 to 55, and I wanted to go a little younger, so I threw in two gorgeous girls and the car and a wild story. Every festival we've been in has been packed and everybody loves it."
Decades after directing the shockers "Video Violence" (1987), "Video Violence 2" (1987) and "Captives," Gary P. Cohen is bringing his latest film, the documentary "Halloweenville," to the New Jersey Film Festival on Jan. 27.
"My last 23 years have been spent as the producer of this theater, Plays in the Park, in (Edison in) Middlesex County, and that's an all-encompassing job," said Cohen, a resident of the Avenel section of Woodbridge and Lambertville. "What basically happened was, in brief, in 1986 and 1987 you could shoot a movie on video and there was a market for it, so we made our three horror movies ... which have all enjoyed this recent DVD re-release, but that petered out.
"Video itself and digital video became as mainstream as film, so there was nothing unique about it, and so I went into the theater end of things, but I never lost the love of shooting video or film."
Halloween haunt
Co-directed by Cohen and Paul Kaye and featuring narration by "Troll 2" (1990) actress Deborah Reed, "Halloweenville" examines the extravagant lengths residents of idyllic Hunterdon County hamlet Lambertville go to in celebration of Halloween.
Why is Halloween such a big deal in the city?
"We asked almost everybody that question and we got a wide variety of answers, but I would say the consensus is it is a very, very artistic town, you can't throw a rock without hitting an artist or a musician or a playwright or an author," said Cohen. "And since Halloween is such a creative holiday and allows for that sort of creativity, that's why the people of the town have embraced it as their own sort of Mardi Gras."
Among the 2010 Halloween season events highlighted in the film was the festive screening of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975) at the Acme Screening Room on South Union Street. But in celebration of the 2011 release of "Halloweenville," the screening schedule was switched up a bit.
"This year they didn't show ‘Rocky Horror,' " said Cohen, "they showed us."
Alex Biese: 732-643-4059; abiese@njpressmedia.com
New Jersey Film Festival Spring 2012,Jan. 20 through March 1 ,screenings held at Voorhees Hall on Hamilton Street and the Ruth Adams Building on George Street, New Brunswick. Tickets $8 to $10. For more information, visit www.njfilmfest.com
