Black Maria Film and Video Festival

Black Maria Independent Film Festival at the Shawnee Playhouse The Black Maria Independent Film Festival will take place on Saturday, March 22, 2008 at the Shawnee Playhousein Shawnee-on-Delaware.

The Black Maria is celebrating its 27th year as a showcase for cutting edge independent film. Each year the festival receives 700-800 submissions fromwhich a jury of film experts selects about 50 of the best films for inclusion in the festival. BlackMaria is unique in that it travels to over 50 venues in the U.S. and abroad, bringing independent film to a wide audience. Black Maria has the distinction of qualifying short films for consideration for Academy Awards, and has been honored recently by retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum of the Smithsonian Institution.

The festival will begin at 2 PM and features a special selection of short films presented by John Columbus, Festival Director. Part of the proceeds fromthis event benefit the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Poconos. Advance ticket purchase is suggested as seating is limited. Tickets prices are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Students with a current ID may purchase tickets for $5, limited to space available 15 minutes before showtime. For further information on the Black Maria Film Festival, please see their website (http://blackmariafilmfestival.org)

  Phoenix Dance (Best of Festival - Documentary)   

Karina Epperlein and Nicole Johnson,     Boston, MA           

Prize level: Grand Prize   Duration: 11 min

Sky David,   Carlsbad, CA

A haunting mixed media animation by a master artist in which he resurrects images from the sketchbook he carried as an American soldier in Vietnam. This beautifully rendered work recaptures a close brush with death and the inner trauma that is its legacy. The film is a timely reminder of the long lasting effects of war on the human psyche.

Prize level: Grand Prize   Duration: 8 min

 Energie!

Thorsten Fleisch,  Berlin, Germany

A visual tour de force, Energie, is crackling with the sound and phosphorescence of a lightening storm. The tempest’s rolling thunder, claps and sparks create a spellbinding work of raw power that captures the primal force of nature.

Michael Langan  San Francisco, CA

In this stunningly inventive, semi-absurdist work, a young man must face a dancing Oldsmobile, endure a boozy encounter with God on a frozen tundra, and brush his teeth, comb his hair, floss, lather and shave his face all simultaneously. Doxology combines groundbreaking stop-motion animation techniques and crazed storytelling in a quest for spiritual enlightenment. The result is an experimental piece that Animation World Network calls “a well-crafted, truly strange and highly atmospheric film that dares to ask the big questions.”
Prize level: Director's Choice (3^rd Prize)  Duration: 6 min

Casimir Nozkowski,  Brooklyn, NY

Emcees Dallas Penn and Rafi Kam reveal their street wise, corrected food pyramid in this funky and funny tongue in cheek work. A humorous yet searing commentary about the choices confronting people who live in “the poorest urban county in the country.” The protagonist/hosts illustrate the finer points of the Bodega Food Pyramid.

Prize level: Director's Choice   Duration: 7 min

Jason Messina, Philadelphia, PA

Save Me seems, at first, to be an obviously mimetic film about an encounter with a backwoods butcher but suddenly and unexpectedly, the plot takes a decidedly unconventional turn.

Prize level: Director's Choice   Duration: 4 min