Legacy, and who gets to tell what stories, is a question that has long been asked by historians, anthropologists, and most importantly, artists. Three artists address this question head-on through their various films screening at the Fall 2024 New Jersey Film Festival: Rough Blazing Star (by Christopher Wiersema), Joey Skaggs: Stop BioPEEP (by Judy Drosd & Joey Skaggs), and WHAT IS HAPPENING? ART IN THE LIFE OF GERTIE FROELICH (by Marieli Frohlich).

Joey Skaggs: Stop BioPEEP is the tenth installment of the oral history series Joey Skaggs Satire and Art Activism, 1960s to the Present and Beyond, a film episodic that the New Jersey Film Festival has shown every episode of. Giuseppe Scaggoli, or as he is better known, Joey Skaggs has used artistic mediums and prank behavior to push pivotal societal issues into questioning. Through news clips, old prank footage, and modern interview excerpts conducted by Joey Skaggs and Judy Drosd, each episodic endeavor is thoroughly documented and hilariously explained. Skaggs’ work, though often gaining controversy at first, seems to always later reach critical acclaim due to retrospect and perhaps his own air of anthropological foresight. In this latest episode, Skaggs targets the still-topical issues of genetic mutation and government intervention, except this time, his audience goes global. Unfolding in 1998 when Joseph Howard (Joey Skaggs) plays the role of a corporate whistleblower, he foils BioPEEP’s 1997 corporate project to genetically alter and addict humans to chosen products, thus creating “consumer junkies” and targeted “gene-ocide”. When the information is leaked to the press via Skaggs, protests against BioPEEP occur in both the U.S. and Australia. Even more unexpected, was the mass alarm that the whole affair caused in Slovenia. Whether international conspiracy or guerilla artwork, audiences will be shocked by the inner workings and affairs of the piece, including the reach one story can take, and the media’s lust to grab any sensational story rather than the hard-hitting truth.

Christopher Wiersema’s experimental documentary film Rough Blazing Star approaches small-town history and local importance with a respectful, powerful, and poetic lens. Situated in Barre, Vermont at the Old Labor Hall, this spot was once the epicenter for the community of Italian anarchists and socialists in the early 1900s. By interviewing stone carver Guiliano Cecchinelli, and the 105-year-old Alba Rossi - both Italians and longtime residents of Barre, the piece is embedded with a gliding sense of remembrance, anarchism, floral fondness, and Emma Goldman’s writing. These elements add a sense of humanity to the film that is the key reason for its shining quality, with the humanity acting as a beating heart pumping blood through the veins of the film. While on the surface, the film is about a quaint setting in Vermont with a lively past, the inner soul of Rough Blazing Star delves into the cornerstones of life. It acts less like a film, and more like a collage, working to carefully craft an atmosphere that is wistful and poignant. The freeform of the film, rather than a narrative passageway, allows each audience member to take something specific to them from the film, fostering an experience that is truly unique.

WHAT IS HAPPENING? ART IN THE LIFE OF GERTIE FRÖHLICH is directed by Gertie’s own daughter, Marieli Fröhlich. Marieli began the project of documenting her mother’s life and artistic impact in 2018, but sadly Covid and the passing of Gertie brought the filming to a stop in 2020. Yet Marieli continued on, making sure that her mother’s work, which had often been overshadowed and kept obscured by the male-dominated art world and sexist system in general, would be carefully and lovingly chronicled. Via interview segments of Fröhlich’s compatriots in the Vienna (and global) art scene and thanks to the dedication of her daughter, Fröhlich’s achievements, advocacy, and own artwork can now be not only seen, but respected for their importance. Playing a key role in supporting other artists, curating the Galerie Sankt Stephan, and being a staunch example of the strength of female creativity (often in a world that does not respect it), there is little doubt of Fröhlich’s significance. The legacy of Gertie Fröhlich comes to light and lives on thanks to the work of Marieli Fröhlich, who also co-curated the first retrospective of Gertie Fröhlich’s artwork that showed at the Museum of the Applied Arts in Vienna, during 2023. Viewers will be transfixed by the charm of Fröhlich, and leave amazed at how her achievements went unknown for so long.

Each of these films come at their subjects from various perspectives and places around the world, yet their similarities speak to their artistic power. All films use archival footage and interviews as a way to honor the past, but beyond that, cement it into the framework of modern day. It shows to the audience how these legacies and memories are still immensely relevant, especially as we continue into the future. The interviews also allow a humanistic snapshot of the key players in each of the films, adding personality and compassion to the shorts. Whether it be Joey Skaggs, Gertie Froelich, Guiliano Cecchinelli, or Alba Rossi, all of them are revolutionaries in their own right - pranksters, feminists, anarchists - they are all movers and shakers in their own communities and beyond.

Rough Blazing Star screens at the Fall 2024 New Jersey Film Festival on Sunday, September 8 at 5 PM. Rough Blazing Star Director Christopher Wiersema will be present at the in-person screening to do a Q+A with the audience after the screening.  Joey Skaggs: Stop BioPEEP and WHAT IS HAPPENING? ART IN THE LIFE OF GERTIE FROELICH screen at the Fall 2024 New Jersey Film Festival on Friday, September 20 at 7 PM. WHAT IS HAPPENING? Director Marieli Fröhlich will be present at the in-person screening to do a Q+A with the audience after the screening.  All films will be available Online for 24 Hours on their show dates and In-Person at Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ. Tickets are available for purchase here.