Poetic Film Exposed to Each Other screens at the 2023 New Jersey Film Festival on Saturday, January 28!

by Claire Apel - published 2023-01-20
Exposed to Each Other is a film by Mersolis Schone and comes to us from Vienna, Austria. This short film is based on a poetic text collage by Marion Steinfellner that brings together a multicultural and multilingual collection of Indian, Japanese, German and Austrian texts by Yuko Kaseki, Savita Rani, Mersolis Schone and Marion Steinfellner. Presented as a kind of film poem, the common thread of these texts is touch and touching which are presented as journeys and how interpersonal, intercultural encounters connect us to each other across the world. This is the fundamental question at the heart of Exposed to Each Other - How are we connected to each other? - and each scene propels us further on a multi-faceted journey exploring this idea.

Two River Theater Aims at Racism, High Art in "Living & Breathing"

by Jesse North & Dave Tavani, JerseyArts.com - published 2023-01-19
What happens when life imitates art too literally? Lots of drama. Two River Theater is presenting the world debut of “Living & Breathing,” a world premiere play by Mando Alvarado. This new play examines the world of high art, racial identity, and a friend group that’s ready to buckle. Jersey Arts goes to rehearsal in Red Bank to learn more from the team behind this new show.

Rock On! This Week's Sound Bites...1/19/23

by Danny Coleman - published 2023-01-19
What do you get when you cross a group of men from Italy, Punk Rock and Hard Rock with a love of Celtic music? The answer is Uncle Bard & the Dirty Bastards; a hard driving, hard rocking, fast-paced unit with a take no prisoners approach.

Claudia Miatello’s charming animated film Buon Ferragosto screens at the 2023 New Jersey Film Festival on January 27!

by Al Nigrin - published 2023-01-19
Here is my interview with with Buon Ferragosto filmmaker Claudia Miatello: Nigrin: Your short animated experimental film Buon Ferragosto takes viewers on a fun ride through Florence, Italy with a 7-year-old-boy and his newly adopted cat. Tell us what motivated you to make this film.

New Jersey Stage: Daily Edition 01-19-23

Here is the morning update from New Jersey's arts newswire. We regularly publish between 8-15 new articles and news reports each day. Nobody covers the Arts throughout the Garden State like New Jersey Stage!

Eric Boadella Terrific Neo-Noir City of Love Premieres At The Spring 2023 New Jersey Film Festival On Saturday, January 28!

by Natalie Tango - published 2023-01-18
City of Love, directed by Eric Boadella, is a film that shows how difficult readjustment to real life can be for individuals in prison for an extended period. We are shown a man who has been in prison since 2001, and he decides to join a driving service after watching videos of its CEO discussing the company. While he begins to work, he is also met with old friends who have moved on from the past. Similar to the film Taxi Driver, he is battling his demons behind the wheel of his car. He begins to fall in love with a customer, a beautiful woman named Molly, who is writing a play. After going on an unsuccessful date, he begins to stalk her while Molly starts to distance herself even further from the creepy taxi driver. Spencer’s life begins to fall down the drain when he begins to fight with an old friend, and he is shown having flashbacks with his mother, which is mainly a painful subject for him; his reason for going to prison is that he killed his mother’s abuser. Viewers see Spencer’s inevitable descent into madness, which climaxes when pretending to be robbing his sex doll and other inanimate objects in his bedroom. He begins to pick up riders from the Wise Choice Insurance company, where his mother has been denied care, resulting in her untimely death. He enters the office by force, stabs an employee, and begins to collect phones and cause damage, which eerily emulates his fake robbery at home. He learns that Molly does not exist in the insurance companies database, and he forces them to upgrade to the premium insurance policy. He claims that his mother would still be alive had he done this sooner and drives his car away. This crime ultimately leads those with life-threatening illnesses to be treated with premium insurance policies.

New Jersey Stage: Daily Edition 01-18-23

Here is the morning update from New Jersey's arts newswire. We regularly publish between 8-15 new articles and news reports each day. Nobody covers the Arts throughout the Garden State like New Jersey Stage!

"Just Epic!" Daniil Trifonov and the NJSO LIVE! at MPAC

by Spotlight Central - published 2023-01-17
It’s a brisk Sunday, January 8, 2023 afternoon as music lovers make their way inside Morristown, NJ’s MPAC for a concert by classical piano virtuoso Daniil Trifonov and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor Xian Zhang.

Giorgio Litt's Powerful Documentary Vagrant screens at the Spring 2023 New Jersey Film Festival

by Eva Iskhakova - published 2023-01-17
Vagante (Vagrant), an Italian short film directed by Giorgio Litt, opens the eyes of viewers to the harsh realities of the state of stray dogs in Italy. Following the story of one man named Stefano as he attempts to save as many dogs as possible, this short film dives into the true horrors of abandonment and abuse that these animals experience in rural Sicily.