montclair film festival
staff and gave updates on plans for
the upcoming year. Then viewers
watched the film at home to simul-
taneously experience it, after which
Hall returned to moderate a post-
screening session, answering ques-
tions viewers submitted on Facebook
and Instagram. More of these special
screenings are planned for the future.
STORYSLAM (ONLINE)
Past participants of this fast-paced
story competition will recognize the
format, which features a host and
roughly a dozen storytellers who
deliver five-minute stories along
a theme (“Whoops” was a recent
one). Three judges determine a
winner, who in the past has gone
on to perform at the festival. While
future competitions will take place
on Zoom, voters may also be able
to weigh in on their favorite stories
on Facebook. “Potentially, we could
have more StorySLAMs than we did
before,” says Swanson.
IN-CONVERSATION,
NOW ONLINE
GETTING THE WORD OUT Montclair Film co-marketing directors Kelly Coogan Swanson and
Lisa Ingersoll publicize the festival’s many movies and events each year.
VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS
Some May and June filmmaking
classes that would ordinarily be held
in Montclair Film headquarters at
505 Bloomfield Ave. are now offered
remotely on the video conferencing
platform Zoom (a camera and micro-
phone are required). These include
new courses such as “TV Writing
Workshop: Creating Your Show,” a
workshop-based class for scriptwrit-
ers who want to write an original TV
pilot, taught by Montclair resident
and TV and film writer Wes Jones;
and “Writing through the Pandemic,”
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MAY 2020 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE
led by writer-performer Abby Sher.
Classes are being added on a
rolling basis. For more information,
go to montclairfilm.org/education/
online-classes.
SPECIAL EVENTS
On May 1 — which would have
been the 2020 festival’s opening
night — executive director Hall held
an online discussion and joint screen-
ing of Crip Camp, a documentary
focused on a summer camp for teens
with disabilities. He gave a virtual
introduction to the Montclair Film
The website now features three-
to-four-minute-long passages from
past festival conversations, including
one-on-ones with Ben Stiller, Mindy
Kaling, Nick Offerman, Jeff Daniels,
Ethan Hawke, John Turturro and
Montclair filmmaker Erin Lee Carter,
as well as panel discussions on top-
ics such as “Fake News” featuring
Montclair journalists Jim Axelrod and
Jonathan Alter. They can be found
at montclairfilm.org/events/
in-conversation and on youtube.
505 FILMS & FRIENDS
This program is an inclusive club
for young adults that has fully tran-
sitioned to Zoom. Now, participants
are emailed a link to Zoom so they
can hear an introduction from a psy-
chologist on the topic of the film they
will see independently. They then
return to their separate screens and,
while the film is fresh in their minds,
listen to the psychologist lead a post-
viewing conversation on Zoom. ■