NJ Film Festival offers these films on demand for 24 hours starting at midnight with an in-person screening at Rutgers at 5:00pm.
Night Ride From LA – Martin Gerick (Krefeld, Germany). Night Ride from LA is based on a real car ride at night from downtown LA to the desert near Palm Springs a few years ago. The footage was taken from the car by continually shooting single long exposure photos to document the ride of about two hours without any break. This technique condensed the whole trip to a flickering twirl of time-stretched movements and night light graffiti causing a kind of psychedelic trance. A love letter to the energy and vibe of the Californian way of life. 2023; 5 min.
Method – Trevor Hemblin (New York, New York). A director and actor go head-to-head when the actor wants to use a real bullet for the Russian roulette scene that they're filming. 2023; 12 min.
San Miguel – Katherine Myers (Los Angeles, California). Three L.A. influencers are forced to hail an airport taxi in Mexico when their ride falls through. They start to notice strange behavior from their driver, and when the car takes a wrong turn into the middle of nowhere, the influencers begin fearing for their lives... 2023; 13 min.
Animal – Lauren Adams (Los Angeles, California). Bitty and Minnie pilot their Post Haste Shipping Company vessel, delivering supplies for the ongoing and ambiguous rebuild of a collapsed America. For these pilots, their world is almost entirely contained to the inside of their ship - a self-driving behemoth with no windows onto the landscape that corporate assures them is haunted by dangerous Animals. Minnie has a vicious scar that seems to back up this warning. 2023; 15 min.
The Sacred Bees – Kay Qiao (Los Angeles, California). A caring man is finally forced to go out of his way to hunt down his love of life after her unbearable attitude switch and silent treatment. 2023; 16 min.
This is the Rill Speaking – Gabriel Rodriguez-Fuller. A lonely warehouse worker is besieged by visions. 2023; 23 min.