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, May 1, at 7 pm,  we are pleased to present four Stellar Award-winning films from the Festival’s 2019 collection, featuring “Woody’s Order!” by Seth Kramer, written and performed by Ann Talman, actress, singer, writer, filmmaker and storyteller, who will be our special guest for a Q & A after the screening.

Ann Talman made her Broadway debut playing Elizabeth Taylor’s daughter in The Little Foxes. Her other Broadway credits include The House of Blue Leaves, Some Americans Abroad, and The Women. She’s performed off-Broadway, and in regional theater, film and television. The award-winning documentary Woody’s Order! premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

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. The fourth program is Wednesday, June 5, with the theme of LGBTQ Pride Month. Special guests to be announced.

On May 1, we will show the following films:

Henrietta Bulkowski (15 min. ), is an animated film by Rachel Johnson of Los Angeles, CA. The film is about a determined young woman, crippled with a severe hunchback, who will stop at nothing to fulfill her dream of seeing the world.  This is the story of how she finds happiness.

Voice (10 min.) is a narrative film by Takeshi Kushida of Tokyo, Japan, about a lonely man who becomes fascinated with a shadow that appears on the wall of his apartment.

The Elephant’s Song (8 min. ) is an animated film by Lynn Tomlinson, of Owings Mills, MD. The film tells the true and tragic tale of Old Bet, the first circus elephant in America, as recounted in song by her friend, an old farm dog. Their story is portrayed in colorful, handcrafted animation, created frame by frame with clay-on-glass animation, where oil-based modeling clay is spread thinly on a glass sheet and filmed like a moving finger painting. Old Bet the elephant sings the choruses, which are animated with oil pastel on video frames printed from archival films, paintings, and photographs.

Woody’s Order (16 min.) by Seth Kramer, of Red Hook, NY, is a documentary written and performed by Ann Talman, based on her one-woman show.  Family legend has it that Ann was “ordered” into this world in 1956 by Woody, her then eight-year-old brother with severe cerebral palsy.  Ann’s raison d’être was to care for Woody if and when their parents could not.  At the time, Woody was not expected to live past twelve.  Ann’s performance details her struggles to understand her brother’s disorder, build a career, and even sustain her sanity while fulfilling her sacred obligations.  Ann’s performance has been performed to overwhelming acclaim in New York, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, the Talmans’ hometown.

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.