37th Annual Black Maria Film Festival Tour

The Visual Arts Program is pleased to be bringing the Black Maria Film Festival to campus once again with a great array of narrative, documentary and animated short films, including works by Jeannie Donohoe, Ashley Brandon, Joshua Tuthill, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, Honora Talbott, John Valeriani, Daniel Boord and Luis Valdovino.

Thomas A. Edison Media Arts Consortium – Black Maria Film Festival

The films that become the centerpiece of the Black Maria Film Festival honor the vision of Thomas Edison, New Jersey inventor and creator of the motion picture. It was his New Jersey studio, the world’s first, which he called the “Black Maria” from which we take our name. The Festival reaches out to diverse audiences in diverse settings including universities, museums, libraries, community organizations, and arts venues. The cutting edge, cross-genre work that makes up the Festival’s touring program, has been traveling across the country every year for decades.

We focus on short films – narrative, experimental, animation, and documentary – including those, which address 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.