The Museum is pleased to host a series of screenings of Black Maria Film Festival award-winning films, presented by Festival director Jane Steuerwald.  On Wednesday, Apr. 3, at 7 pm,  we are pleased to present two films by our very special guest, Eugene Richards, acclaimed photographer, filmmaker and author, who will stay for a discussion after the screenings.

For each program, doors open at 6:30 pm, the film screens at 7 pm, followed by Q&A. Light refreshments will be served. A suggested donation of $5 will be collected at the door. Admission is free for students and teachers. Upcoming screenings are on Wednesday, May 1; and Wednesday, June 5. Guest filmmakers to be announced.

On April 3, we will show the following documentaries:

The Rain Will Follow (15 min.) by Eugene Richards, Janine Altongy, and Sam Richards.

A hazy sunset envelops a dark farmhouse while a tractor barrels along. Sunflowers sway unanimously to the right in a brightly lit field. An unhinged door opens to a decaying kitchen. Outside, a rusty chain clanks against a pole. A husky narrator begins telling the origin story of his time on this barren land. Soon, swift, machinated sounds of automatic doors and wheelchair lifts fill the air, as the image of 90-year-old Melvin joins his narrated voice. From here, an astute tension emerges between the glowing images of North Dakotan farmland and Melvin’s poignant and often tearful recollections of wartime and strife. Quietly, thoughtfully, and in so few words, filmmaker Eugene Richards captures the disappointment of a generation of unhappy settlers while creating a powerful meditation on life. 

Thy Kingdom Come (42 min.) by Eugene Richards, Brooklyn, NY, with Javier Bardem

“I’m here to listen,” the priest says, clasping the hands of the grieving mother, who has been blamed for her baby’s death.  When the young woman closes her eyes, she sees her eight-year-old son settling her baby into the bathtub, as the water is running.  The water is everywhere… “Thy Kingdom Come” is a deeply moving rendering of life in small-town Oklahoma.  An unknown priest, portrayed by acclaimed actor, Javier Bardem, enters the lives of the townspeople who seem to be expecting him, and listens to their confessions.  A dying cancer patient reveals that she is angry at God, a Ku Klux Klansman hopes for redemption, an expectant father is afraid for the future of his child.  Bardem spoke of the experience as by far one of the hardest of his life.  “I was not an actor in there.  I was there for them, and I had to be empty to be filled with their statements, with their words, with their dreams, with their nightmares.” Unscripted and woven from a dozen real life stories, “Thy Kingdom Come” reveals life to be alternately precious and harsh, painful and hopeful.  

Eugene Richards is a photographer, writer and filmmaker who has authored 17 books. His first publication, Few Comforts or Surprises (1973), which speaks of the lives of sharecroppers in the Arkansas Delta, was followed by Dorchester Days (1978), a portrait of the inner-city neighborhood where he was raised. Subsequent books include Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue (1994), a study of the impact of hardcore drugs on inner city communities; The Blue Room (2008), a study in color of abandoned houses across rural America; and War Is Personal (2010), a documentation of the consequences of the Iraq war.

Recent books include Red Ball of a Sun Slipping Down (2014), which contrasts life in the Arkansas Delta decades ago and today; and The Run-On of Time (2017), a retrospective of his photographic work from 1969 to 2014. Richards has filmed and directed a half dozen short films; his recent film, Thy Kingdom Come, premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2018.

Now in its 38th 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.

The Black Maria Film Festival’s Hudson County Movie Tour is made possible through the generous support of The Hudson County Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs & Tourism, Gina Hulings, Director/Administrator.

The Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium – Black Maria Film Festival has generous support from the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, NJ State Council on the Arts, the Charles Edison Fund, the Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs and Tourism, the Hoboken Historical Museum, WithumSmith+Brown, and Lowenstein Sandler LLP. For further information, visit www.blackmariafilmfestival.org.