The Black Maria Film Festival Comes to The Madison Public Library

The Black Maria Film + Video Festival The Black Maria Film Festival, now in its 37th year, features some of the best short films and videos being made today. Programs are custom curated for each site, featuring a rich international selection of narrative, documentary, animation and experimental works. Festival representatives are on hand to provide perspective and a post-viewing discussion. Selected trailers and clips from the films can be viewed on the Black Maria Website.The Madison lineup is listed below. Tickets are $10 and are available at the door. Student Discount $5 with valid ID Tickets can also be purchased in advance through Writers Theatre of New Jersey's online service. (a $2.00 processing charge per ticket applies) Tickets can be purchased online until 7 pm Saturday, February 17 Doors open at 7:30 pm for the 8:00 pm screening.

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The Madison Program

Person of the Forest - Documentary
17 min. by Melissa Lesh and Tim Laman, Richmond, VA
In the vanishing lowland rainforests of Borneo, research is underway to uncover and understand the unique cultural behaviors in wild orangutans. There, photographer Tim Laman, researcher Cheryl Knott, and young explorer Robert Suro shed new light on the similarities between ourselves and our ancient ancestors, before it's too late.

Fear - Animation
7 min. by Dawn Dreyer, Durham, NC
Dr. Zenglo Chen remembers his childhood in Beijing at the height of the Chinese Cultural Revolution: "I started my depression when I was close to 4 years old. My parents were prosecuted and they'd been taken away by the Chinese authority. I felt tremendous fear: hopeless, helpless, and paralyzed." Decades later, Dr. Zenglo has lived half his life as a Chinese and half as an American. He speaks with grace and humor about his journey, sharing his wisdom, small victories and ordinary joys.

Not a One-Way Street - Documentary
15 min. by Eva Colmers and Dr. Heidi Janz, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
"The world isn't black and white." young Tyler says so fittingly in this insightful documentary. "Not a One-Way Street" offers viewers a look at the bonds that evolve within three stories about reciprocal caring. The film challenges the dominant assumption that caregiving is strictly a one-sided transaction, where an able-bodied person provides for a disabled care-recipient.

Ginevra - Animation
4 min. by Tess Martin, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Based on Percy Shelley's poem "The Dirge," "Ginevra" depicts the aftermath of the murder of a young woman. As her distraught mother looks on, she learns that life after death involves a transition she never could have imagined.

Red Lopez - Narrative
15 min. by Stephen Frandsen and Hadleigh Arnst, Brooklyn, NY
"Red Lopez" is a narrative short about a Mexican-American outlaw who sparked one of the greatest manhunts the West has ever seen. Based on the real-life story of Rafael 'Red' Lopez, the film takes us back to 1913, and another immigrant, Julius Sorenson, who emigrated from Denmark. Sorenson, one of the deputies involved in the manhunt, is given the chance to prove himself in his adopted country as he pursues his nemesis.

Phototaxis - Animation
7 min. by Melissa Ferrari, Val Verde, CA
"Phototaxis" draws parallels between Mothman, a prophetic and demonized creature in West Virginia lore, and Narcotics Anonymous, the main treatment program in West Virginia's addiction epidemic. Rooted in nonfiction, this animated film contemplates synchronicity and the role of belief systems in perception; the tendency to assign supernatural meaning to tragedy and the unknowable; anonymous and apocryphal oral histories; and the moth to the flame. To visualize these narratives, natural materials and pastel-on-paper palimpsest animation are woven together using a multiplane and analog overhead projection.

The Icons - Experimental
4 min. by Mitchell Rose, Worthington, OH
Alternative interpretations of signage from America's favorite generic couple, The Icons.

Sans Chlorophyll - Animation
3 min. by Phil Davis, Baltimore, MD
A short experimental film created using hundreds of scanned and photographed leaves animated and choreographed in time to an original banjo score by the filmmaker.

Festival Jurors for the 2018 Festival Tour

Henry Baker works in video, television, film, sound, print and interactive media. In 1987, he founded his video company BXB in NYC. Clients include HBO, Cinemax, SONY, Panasonic, Four Seasons Hotels and many others. At BXB he received numerous awards for his creative work in video and television including: Houston International Film Festival, Broadcast Designer's Association, ACE and IFTA awards.

His work has been screened at various locations including: Leslie Lohman Gallery, National Museum of LGBT History, Simon Watson Gallery, Vancouver College, Hallwalls, Intermedia Arts Center, Matrix Gallery et al. His works are in the collections at The NY Public Library and the Everson Museum. He administered the Video Artist Grant Program at Synapse Video Center, Syracuse NY, serving ultimately as Director of the Center from 1978-81. At Synapse he also curated their video exhibitions and distribution programs. He served as a panelist at the National Endowment for the Arts, the WNET-TV Lab, the Broadcast Designer's Association and the Ithaca Video Project. In 2015, he served as a pre-screening juror at Black Maria Film Festival. Henry has given lectures at the International Television Society, Video Free America, Greenwich High School, Boston Film and Video Foundation and the San Francisco Art Institute. He co-founded the New York State Media Alliance.

A consummate sound aficionado, he produced regular radio broadcasts for over a decade at WAER-FM and WONO-FM. Henry has worked in film since the 1950s and video since the 1970s. He received a BFA in Media Communications and an MFA in Synaesthetic Education at Syracuse University. He later received an MS in Information and Library Science at Pratt Institute. He is currently Chief Creative Officer at BXB LLC, Washington DC.

Margaret Parsons is curator of film and media programs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Besides an international film exhibition program, the Gallery maintains an archival collection of documentary media on the arts. Parsons has organized media events for other organizations including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, American University, the National Archives, and the Smithsonian Museum of American History. She has served as a trustee for film organizations ranging from the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar to CINE, and she has been on the editorial boards for The Moving Image and the Getty Trust's experimental Art on Film in association with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has served as festival juror for numerous international film festivals including Washington, Nashville, Syracuse, Turin (Italy), and Tulcea (Romania).

Currently, Parsons is a member of the advisory board for the Washington DC Environmental Film Festival and curator for Glimmerglass Film Days, a festival she founded in central New York State. She has recently received awards for her work in film preservation from the governments of France, Georgia, and the Czech Republic, and in the U.S. has been the recipient of awards from the Black Maria, the Washington DC Independent Film Festival, and from Women in Film and Video. Her other interests include photography (35mm film and dark room), as well as naïve and outsider art which she collects. Her writing has been published in the journals Raw Vision, Folk Art, The Folk Art Messenger, New York Folklore, Curator, and The Moving Image.

The Black Maria Film Festival is sponsored by the Madison Arts and Culture Alliance. MACA is a coalition of arts organizations, cultural institutions, neighbors, colleagues, and friends dedicated to encouraging collaborations among the wide-ranging cultural offerings in "the Rose City." Projects include partnerships with the Madison Downtown Development Commission on Bottle Hill Day, The Madison Sidewalk Gallery, The Madison Holiday Arts Festival, and The Storytellers Festival.

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