Reel Jersey Girls Festival Honors Female Filmmakers
The ShowRoom Cinema Celebrates Women’s History Month On March 17
Female filmmakers, past and present, will be celebrated this month during a collaborative event at The ShowRoom Cinema, located at 707 Cookman Ave.
Held in recognition of Women’s History Month, the local independent theater partnered with the Barrymore Film Center in Fort Lee to present Reel Jersey Girls Film Festival, being held from 3 to 6 pm March 17.
“The Barrymore Film Center of Fort Lee thought that The Showroom was the perfect venue for this year’s Reel Jersey Girls Film Fest,” said Fort Lee Film Commission Executive Director Tom Myers.
The screening event pays tribute to the pioneering Alice Guy Blaché and to Jenna Laurenzo, who wrote, directed and starred in the Bob Farrelly [of Something About Mary] produced Lez Bomb, released in November.
The event kicks off with a screening of Algie the Miner – the 1912 short by Blaché, who is the undisputed first female filmmaker and studio owner.
Born in 1873, the French native was among the first to make a narrative fiction film; having experimented with sound syncing, color tinting, interracial casting, and special effects. Blaché founded Solax Studios in 1908, moving it from Flushing to Fort Lee in 1912; which was considered the center of American filmmaking at the time. That same year, she produced the comedic A Fool and His Money, which featured an all-black cast.
The historic short will be followed by the screening of Laurenzo’s Lez Bomb, a comedic film about the thwarted efforts of a young woman’s attempt to come out to her family by introducing her girlfriend during the Thanksgiving holiday.
There will be a post-film Q&A with Laurenzo, who will be presented with the Fort Lee Film Commission/Barrymore Film Center 2019 Alice Guy-Blache’ award, ShowRoom owner Mike Sodano said. A portion of the proceeds will support Youth Film Production Classes at Second Baptist Church’s Arts and Technology Summer Camp.
“Asbury Park serves as the center of the arts for all of New Jersey, which includes film,” Sodano said. “To celebrate the legacy of the first woman filmmaker, Alice Guy Blaché, along with the work of a current day woman filmmaker from NJ, here at The Showroom Cinema is magical.”
Tickets for the 3 to 6 pm March 17 Reel Jersey Girls Festival are $15, available via theshowroomap.com.
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