Shot on digital video, Portraits is three experimental films with each one focusing on an actor who helped me on two of my recent projects. Portrait of Yazmin focuses on the beguiling Yazmin Omana, Portrait of Alexia focuses on the stunning Alexia Fraser and Portrait of Natalie focuses on the lovely Natalie Tango. I made these short films as a thank you to each of these actors for helping me. They are a bit like film haikus that capture the essence of these beautiful friends.

Portraits

Shot on digital video, Portraits is three experimental films with each one focusing on an actor who helped me on two of my recent projects. Portrait of Yazmin focuses on the beguiling Yazmin Omana, Portrait of Alexia focuses on the stunning Alexia Fraser and Portrait of Natalie focuses on the lovely Natalie Tango.

Shot on Super 8mm film and digital video, Pizzica is an experimental dream film. Pizzica originated as a folk dance in the 1400s in Southern Italy. Though there are several different theories about its origin, the most accepted story is that this dance could fight off the poisonous bite of a tarantula.

Pizzica

"Our situation on earth seems strange... Everyone of us appears here involuntarily and are invited for a short stay without knowing why. To me it is enough to wonder at the secrets." -- Albert Einstein"One must cultivate one’s own garden"-- VoltaireBelieving she had telepathic powers, Mary Craig&nbsp;and her husband, the&nbsp;writer Upton Sinclair, set out to test these powers in the 1920s. Sinclair would draw pictures and then transmit them mentally to Craig; she would draw the image she received in an adjacent, closed room. Their experiments were 75% successful. The telepathic interaction between Craig and Sinclair served as one of the starting points for my film Mental Radio which depicts psychic and telepathic interactions between soul mates both animal and human. This film is also visual interpretation of my thyroid illness Graves Disease, diagnosed late in 1990. The physicals in the film replicate the weekly examinations I received for a 6-month period. The film’s editing was dynamically composed but not necessarily meant to fit the sounds and music. The pacing between staccato vs. still shots is meant to parallel or simulate the physiological sensations associated with Graves Disease which include heart palpitations and unstable feelings counterpoised with periods of tranquility. Mental Radio is also documentation of my garden following a chronological development -- from early Spring to mid-Summer with the garden in full bloom. The film juxtaposes the vitality and fragility of the human body with that of the earth/nature.---AGN&nbsp;&nbsp;

Mental Radio (a.k.a. Open Kennedy)

Mental Radio depicts psychic and telepathic interactions between soul mates both animal and human.

A playful cut-out animation focusing on the Cold War. With special guest appearances by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Mao Zedong, Nikita Khrushchev, John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, and many others.

Cold War Blues or Effects of the Bomb Varied, But...

A playful cut-out animation focusing on the Cold War. With special guest appearances by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Mao Zedong, Nikita Khrushchev, John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, and many others.

Aurelia or Echo In Her Eyes: Part 3: A woman sleeps.&nbsp;She dreams of a troubling encounter with a man at a futuristic cathedral.&nbsp;In this dream the proliferation of a day's images is reduced and refined into more enigmatic renderings.&nbsp;The world of color and movement translates into one of stone, shadow and light.&nbsp;In the epilogue the woman, now awake, lingers over the dream scenario which has just played; she prepares new variations.&nbsp;The film poses the problem of defining the relationship between dreaming and waking consciousness.&nbsp;Aurelia was shot on location in Barcelona, Spain&nbsp;at the unfinished Sagrada Familia church designed by Antonio Gaudi.&nbsp;It is based in spirit on Gerard de Nerval's novella&nbsp;Aurelia.Brainwahing: Brainwashing, shot almost exclusively inside a car wash, is a hypnotic film which functions as a metaphor for the drowning of the soul.&nbsp;The soundtrack consists of a condensed washing machine cycle: start, wash, rinse, dry, off.

Aurelia or Echo In Her Eyes: Part 3/Brainwashing

A woman sleeps. She dreams of a troubling encounter with a man at a futuristic cathedral.Brainwashing, shot almost exclusively inside a car wash, is a hypnotic film which functions as a metaphor for the drowning of the soul. The soundtrack consists of a condensed washing machine cycle: start, wash, rinse, dry, off.

Lamiai Shot on Super 8mm film and digital video, Lamiai is an experimental ghost film which is loosely based on a section of John Keats’s poem The Lamia.Lamia -- the daughter of Poseidon -- haunts the D+R Canal in central New Jersey.She rises up from the water and confronts a trespasser.Lamiai is the third part of an experimental dream film trilogy which includes Dream Screen and Pizzica.

Lamiai

Lamiai is an experimental ghost film which is loosely based on a section of John Keats’s poem The Lamia.

Albert Gabriel Nigrin Retrospective – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 7PM!

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The 2024 New Jersey International Film Festival All Access Festival Pass gives you admission to all the Festival Screenings for one low price.

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The 43rd Bi-Annual Spring 2025 New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 24-February 23, 2025. The Festival will be a hybrid one as we will be presenting it online as well as doing in-person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VOD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings which will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5PM or 7PM on their show date.  General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$100; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program. Full Program Schedule will be announced soon!

Welcome to the Spring 2025 New Jersey Film Festival! The 43rd Annual Festival will be taking place on the Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 24 - February 16, 2025. The Festival will be presenting the Festival online VOD as well as doing in-person screenings. 

Here's what's coming up soon. Can't make it? No sweat. Many live streams will be available for on-demand viewing as well.