On Thursday, July 23, at 6:00 pm, the Hoboken Museum is pleased to host the second online installment of the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film Festival 2020 Hudson County tour series, featuring the Hoboken premiere of the documentary, “The #1 Bus Chronicles” by acclaimed filmmaker, Joel Katz. 

Immediately following the film, stay tuned and view a pre-recorded conversation between Joel Katz and Festival Director Jane Steuerwald about Joel’s current film and his body of work.

To view the film and the talk:

• Go to www.blackmaria.org
• Click on Virtual Festival
• Type “Joel Katz” in the Search field
• Click Search
• Press Play to view the film and talk.

Katz uses a bus stop on an industrial highway in New Jersey to portray some of the most marginalized lives in America today: the working poor, the recently incarcerated, and immigration asylum seekers. These strangers share their hopes and dreams, resiliency, suffering and loss. Some are fleeting encounters; others draw us deeply into their lives. The film interweaves portraits of people whose lives intersect at this single bus stop

Streaming is free, and donations are welcome.  

For 39 years, the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film Festival has been advancing the unique creativity and power of the short form. The Festival was founded in 1981 and is named for Thomas Edison’s original West Orange, NJ, film studio, whose resemblance to the familiar black-box shaped police paddy wagons sparked the nickname “Black Maria.” The festival is an international juried competition open to all genres and filmmakers across the globe.

The Festival’s virtual touring program reaches out to diverse audiences in diverse settings with screenings of cutting-edge, cross-genre films — narrative, experimental, animation, and documentary. Subject matter includes issues and struggles within contemporary society such as the environment, public health, race and class, family, sustainability, and much more. These exceptional works range from animation, comedy, and drama to the exploration of pure form in film and video and are the heart and soul of the festival. Learn more at www.blackmariafilmfestival.org

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