Centenary Stage Company Hosts THOMAS EDISON FILM FESTIVAL

Centenary Stage Company, is hosting the Thomas Edison Film Festival on-line at CentenaryStageCo.Org. Funding for the festival was provided by the Warren County Cultural and Heritage Division of Land Preservation.

The Festival is free to view online and will open on Monday, March 15th at 10:00 AM and run until Thursday, March 18th at 10:00 PM. Interested parties can also participate in a Q&A with the Festival Director, Jane Stuerwald, taking place via Zoom on March 17th at 7:30 PM.

Films featured in this year's festival are: Liberate, an experimental film by Karen Lavender of Beverly Hills, CA; I want to Make a Film About Women, a documentary by Karen Pearlman of Sydney, Australia; BoxBallet, an animation by Anton Dyakov of Saint Petersburg, Russia; and Mutiny!, a narrative by Matthew Gratzner of Los Angeles, CA.

Since 1981, the Thomas Edison Film Festival has been celebrating and preserving the diversity, invention, and vitality of the short film. The Festival was originally named after Thomas Edison's original West Orange film studio dubbed the "Black Maria" because of its resemblance to the black-box police paddy wagons of the same name. Edison's films did for the eye what his phonograph did for the ear. He made 75, 20-second long films in the "Black Maria." The earliest included magic shows, plays, vaudeville shows with dancers and strongmen, cowboys, boxing matches, kisses, and sneezes.

Renamed in 2021, The Thomas Edison Film Festival (TEFF) is an international juried film competition. They have embraced their mission for decades by focusing on short films including those which shine a light on issues and struggles within contemporary society. They advance and exhibit the work of diverse filmmakers from across the US and around the world. These artists often represent an under-served constituency who may not have the opportunity for live public exhibition.

The TEFF will run from March 15 - 18, 2021 online at www.CentenaryStageCo.Org and www.blackmariafilmfestival.org. The video stream for viewing the featured short films will open at 10:00 AM on the 15th and remain open until 10:00 PM on the 18th, and a Zoom Q&A with the Festival Director will take place on March 17th at 7:30 PM.

Funding for the TEFF 2021 is provided by the Warren County Cultural and Heritage Commission.

For more information, visit centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979 - 0900.

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