Arts Guides Fall 2019 Preview: North Jersey | Page 16

in the late 1890s as a response
to the U.S. government’s move
further west and the decimation
of cultures, livelihoods and lives
the expansion caused in its wake.
Other select short films from the
festival will be screened with
Nussbaum’s film.
The final event of the series tak-
ing place on Thursday, Decem-
ber 12th will give the audience
an opportunity to explore history
through multiple artforms con-
nected to Edison’s legacy -- the
motion picture camera and the
phonograph. “Once and Again,”
an award-winning documentary
from the mind of Isabel Dunn,
introduces us to three collectors
of antique phonographs, includ-
ing the only remaining phono-
graph disc jockey in Austin, TX.
The evening and series concludes
with screenings of “Mr. Sand,” an
animated film about the origins
2019 FALL PREVIEW
of film projection; “Theatricum
Magicum,” a cinematic homage to
animator and filmmaker George
Melies; and a tribute to one of the
remaining fully functioning drive-
in theaters in upstate New York
titled “The Last Projectionist.”
Clearly filmmaking has come a
long way since the days of Edison
and Dickson physically revolv-
ing that tar-paper shack studio
around on a track so their team
could follow the sun through-
out the day as they created film
shorts. And thankfully techno-
logical advancements have made
such physical labor unnecessary
to tell a compelling story that
leaves audiences moved far more
than the buildings themselves.
In the process, filmmakers of all
backgrounds continue to prove
that short films are as central to
cinematic storytelling as any fea-
ture-length film aspires to.
w
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