On Friday April 1, 2022, the Thomas Edison Film Festival (TEFF)  and the Hoboken Historical Museum present a program of powerful and unique documentary shorts.

The program will launch on Friday April 1st and will run through the end of the month, April 31^st, 2022.  Docs Pushing Boundaries will be available on-demand for free to the public on the TEFF website: www.tefilmfestival.org. Go to https://tefilmfest.org/curations.php, scroll down and click on “Docs Pushing Boundaries.” 

Generation 328 – Documentary 18 min. by Veranika Nikanava, Belarus and NY, NY, US

A group of mothers defy Europe’s last dictatorship, fighting to free their children from draconian sentences in brutal Belarusian prisons. The filmmaker, Veranika Nikanava, was born in Belarus – she was an actress, filmmaker, and activist. She died on 25 July 2019 in an attempt to cross the Teklanika River in Alaska at the age of 24. Nika was deeply concerned about human rights and liberties in her homeland, and she was an active member of a Belarusian community in New York, where she lived since 2017. “Generation 328” was her last film project.

My Brother is Deaf – Documentary  10 min. by Peter Hoffman Kimball, Bethesda, MD, US

A moving and personal film told through the heart and mind of a boy with a deaf younger brother. When his family learns that his younger brother is deaf, he and his family try their best to get to know his younger brother, and what it means to be deaf.

When the Swallows Fly Away – Documentary 20 min. by Sébastien Pins, Marchin, Belgium

In a small rural village, a young boy befriends Fernand and Andrée, a farming couple who at 80 years old, face a life crisis. Sadly, they find themselves no longer able to feed and take care of their remaining livestock.

Avenuers – Documentary 28 min. by Roberto Santaguida, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Six avenues, in south-central Montreal, revisited. Elegantly shot in the style of cinema-verité, the film reveals the gritty earthy-ness deserving of this community in Montreal.

Guadalupe Maravilla & The Sound of Healing – Documentary 10 min. by Rafael Salazar and Ava Wiland, Brooklyn, NY, US

Sculptor, performer, cancer survivor and sound healer, Guadalupe Maravilla, combines his personal experiences with indigenous knowledge to create new rituals for healing. The film follows the artist as he creates epic cast metal towers at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City and conducts healing “sound baths” for his community. Produced by the Peabody Award-winning documentary non-profit, Art21.

The Beyond – Documentary 10 min. by Daniel Maurer, Renens, Lausanne, Switzerland

The second wave of Covid significantly increased mortality in hospitals. What does this mean for the work of Mathieu, employed in the morgue of a regional hospital center? How does he relate to these people whose souls have recently left their bodies?

Wangechi Mutu: Between the Earth and the Sky – Documentary 15 min. by Ian Forster, NY, NY, US and Jackie Lebo, Nairobi, Kenya

From her Nairobi studio, internationally celebrated artist Wangechi Mutu unpacks her relationship with the natural world and the ways in which it has influenced her artistic practice. A self-described “city girl with a nature brain,” Mutu recounts her upbringing in Kenya. These experiences instilled a profound respect for both nature and the feminine in Mutu, alongside a curiosity about African history, heritage, and culture.

The Sticklet Weaver – Documentary 7 min. by James Hollenbaugh, Harrisburg, PA, US

Brent Brown is a self-taught artist with lifelong mental health challenges. Intuitive and deeply talented, in recent years he began building complex, highly fanciful “puppets” constructed from dozens of cardboard elements with fully moveable joints. “The Sticklet Weaver” explores Brent’s process and celebrates his unique artistic journey.

Utopia of the Outraged – Documentary 5 min. by Marcelo Lagreze, Santiago, Metropolitano, Chile

Chile woke up on October 18th, 2019. The streets were flooded with people demanding to be heard, “until dignity becomes a habit.”  While some people demonstrated peacefully, others known as “the first line,” confronted the police to guarantee the safety of the protesters. This film is represented in a metaphorical and poetic way through the reading of Eduardo Galeano’s poem “The Right to Delirium.”

Kaotic Drumline: Drumming with a Difference – Documentary 12 min. by Aaron Steinberg, Chicago, IL, US

On the South Side of Chicago, the Kaotic Drumline brings people together with creativity, energy, and hope.

 Dawn – Documentary  4 min. by Timon Birkhofer, Pasadena, CA, US

Five unique individuals take us on a journey where their achievements shine beyond preconceived ideas of what is possible.

For 41 years, the Thomas Edison Film Festival has been advancing the unique creativity and power of the short form. The Festival is an international juried competition open to all genres and filmmakers across the globe. The Festival’s touring program reaches out to diverse audiences in diverse settings with screenings of cutting-edge, cross-genre films including narrative, experimental, animation, and documentary. The Festival’s homebase is the Hoboken Historical Museum where we work together to enrich the community. These programs are made possible in part through the generous support of the Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs and Tourism. 

Donations are welcome and much appreciated. To donate, visit the festival’s homepage – www.tefilmfestival.org, and scroll down to “Donate.”

TEFF is grateful for generous funding and support from:

New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, The Charles Edison Fund – Edison Innovation Foundation, The Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs and Tourism, Hoboken Historical Museum, Puffin Foundation, WithumSmith+Brown, Lowenstein Sandler, LLC, The NBA, Big Sky Edit, Monster Remotes, Syracuse University Dept. of Film and Media Arts, Fairleigh Dickinson University School of the Arts – Filmmaking, East Brunswick Tech School of the Arts, Corporations and private donors