25th Black Maria Film & Video Festival

Friday, April 21 2006 7:00 PM Huntsville Museum of Art 300 Church Street Admission: $7 / $5 members of the Film Co-op or the Huntsville Museum of Art

Bold Contemporary Film & Video Since 1981 The Alabama Filmmakers Co-op and Huntsville Museum of Art are co-sponsoring this festival of award winning videos and films. The works vary in length and represent various styles and genres with an emphasis on cutting-edge work. Popcorn and soft drinks will be available for a small charge. A reception and informal discussion hosted by the Alabama Filmmakers Co-op will take place immediately following the films at Burning Nun Books, 2nd floor of Flying Monkey Arts Center, 2211 Seminole Drive. John Columbus, Director of the Film Festival, will be on hand to introduce selections and field questions throughout the evening. The following filmmakers will also be in attendance at both the screening and the reception: Deron Albright from Narbeth, PA: The Legend of Black Tom (16 minutes, animation based on true story exploring the golden age of bare knuckle fighting) Jane Steuerwald from Glen Rock, NJ: The Memory Box (8 minutes, grouping memories into three universal themes--loss, mystery, and love) Clay Walker from Atlanta, GA: The Cole That Nobody Knows (21 minutes, documentary about Freddy Cole, the talented younger brother of Nat King Cole) Since 1981 the annual Black Maria Film and Video Competition, Festival and Award Collection Tour has been fulfilling its mission to advocate, exhibit and reward the poetic, expressive, and insightful vision of independent film and video makers. The Black Maria is known for its national public exhibition program featuring a diversity of bold contemporary works through its tour of curated programs reaching audiences at museums, libraries, film societies, colleges and community institutions from coast to coast. The Festival's roots are in New Jersey where just over 100 years ago the inventor Thomas Edison developed motion picture technology at his West Orange lab facilities which included the Black Maria, the world's first motion picture studio (a purpose built structure which incorporated a hinged roof and rotated on a circular track in order to follow the sun and illuminate the stage within). Acrobats, strong men, vaudeville performers, actors and dancers (such as Annabelle Whitford whose artful Serpentine and Butterfly dances challenged late Victorian mores), and a spectrum of people from all walks of life (including cowgirl Annie Oakley) were invited to the Black Maria to be filmed. This early history is part of the diverse fabric of film culture, but today the works exhibited by the Black Maria Film Festival explore the human condition as well as the creative terrain of the medium. They offer a mosaic of artistically conceived film and video forms (documentary, experimental, installation and animation as well as narrative) which the Festival Tour brings to audiences in settings that are conducive to a genuine appreciation of the work. More information about Black Maria Film Festival