Still from The Itch
Now in its 37th year, the United States Super 8mm Film & Digital Video Festival is the largest and longest running juried festival of its kind in North America. The festival encourages any genre (including animation, documentary, personal, narrative, and experimental) made on Super 8mm/8mm film, Hi 8mm/8mm, or digital video. The Festival will be held Online and In-Person at Rutgers University on February 15+16, 2025.
Super 8mm film was introduced in 1965 by Eastman Kodak at the World’s Fair in New York to help the average person document their everyday lives. Super 8mm was most widely used for filming home movies between the mid 1960s till the early 1990s. Today amateur usage of Super 8mm has been replaced by digital video but the format is still regularly used by filmmakers, artists, and students. Some hope to imitate the look of old home movies. Others want to create alternative looks for flashback sequences and altered states of consciousness. Some just like the idea of creating images in the classic style of using actual film. Super 8mm is a relatively inexpensive film, making it popular among filmmakers working on a low budget who still want to achieve the look of real film. Super 8mm has become quite common in theatrical features. You could see Super 8mm images in James Mangold's A Complete Unknown (2024). J.J. Abrams 2011 film Super 8 pays homage to the little film format. Guy Maddin’s surreal 2006 film Brand Upon the Brain and Jim Jarmusch’s 1997 film Year of the Horse -- a documentary on Neil Young’s band Crazy Horse -- use it too.
I fell in love with Super 8mm when I started making films in 1982. I liked the fact that you were pretty much in control of every aspect of the filmmaking process. I could even develop the film myself. It was the DIY aspect of Super 8mm that first lured me in, but it was the grainy, oneiric (dreamlike) quality of the film stocks that sold me on this format. I have since made over 30 short (mostly experimental) films using Super 8mm. I started touring my work and showing it all over and then met two of the biggest Super 8mm film supporters in the USA. They are the husband and wife team of Bob Brodsky and Toni Treadway. They founded and ran the International Center for 8mm Film and Video in Massachusetts for over 30 years. Through their non-profit organization they subsidized many Super 8 filmmakers by sending them to film festivals in the USA, England, France, Venezuela, Brazil, Canada, and others. It was thanks to them that I got to visit so many wonderful festivals and countries. The largest United States-based Super 8mm Film Festival in the 1970s and 1980s was the one in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Bob and Toni sent me there to show a package of experimental films that I had curated in 1986 but by 1988 the people who ran this legendary festival decided they were going to cease operations. Bob and Toni suggested that I create one at Rutgers since I had set up the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Film Festival back in 1982. So, I did and called it the United States Super 8mm Film Festival. The first of these was a curated program where I invited Super 8 filmmakers that I admired to screen their work but the 36 that followed were juried festivals where a panel of judges picked the winners.
The Festival has changed over the last 3+ decades going from screening Super 8mm films exclusively to then including Hi 8mm videos and now digital videos. Also, for over the past two decades Pro 8mm based in Burbank has been a major sponsor of this Festival. They provide a wide variety of Super 8 services and film stocks for filmmakers. I thought it would be nice to ask some of the filmmakers who are Official Selections in the 2025 United States Super 8mm Film & Digital Video Festival to talk about Super 8 and the films they are showing at this year's program. The filmmakers that I spoke to are: Emma Hamel - The Itch (USA); Annabelle Vine - Fed up (United Kingdom); Zona Gilreath -garboface (USA); Broderick Rule - A Return to Eden (Canada) and Jeremiah Carter - Sometimes I Hear the Light Leak in Through the Corners of My Room (USA).
Nigrin: Tell us about your film that is a finalist in the 2025 United States Super 8mm Film & Digital Video Festival and why you decided to make it.
Carter: Sometimes I Hear the Light Leak in Through the Corners of My Room is a short film exploring the presence and propensity of our memories. They live with us every day. Within each one of us there is a serious capacity for our memories to hold up or push away the present. We can use our memories for resentment or recompense. Either way, they live with us. Memories are our only reality. Filmmakers work through inspiration. The decision to make a film comes from a spiritual necessity. The decision isn’t made by a filmmaker but by the film itself. All films for me start with an image or a sound: these are the instruments of inspiration. It’s how the film begins to unveil itself. Image and sound, rendered into qualitative questions, rather than quantitative answers, is what motion picture and recorded sound, working in tandem, does best. It creates a series of questions that can only be completed by the audience’s participation. Any personal explanations of where the film came from could hinder the experience for the audience and dilute the soul of the film. Like memories, films are living. They grow and wither with us. At any moment they can be relevant and real, or distorted and dispersed. If we are able to let the film speak for itself then the audience will be more willing to participate in its journey.
Rule: A Return to Eden is an experimental revenge thriller of sorts, told through the medium of the silent film. The concept for the film is one that has been with me for many years, and one that has gone through various iterations over that period of time. Ultimately, it was finally made, in the form in which it is, due to myself finally understanding what the film needed to be about after many years. Originally a much simpler 'chase through the woods' story, over the years that this idea was sitting in my head, many women in my life whom I hold dear would share with me circumstances in which they were susceptible to toxic masculinity, and the many dangerous ways that can manifest itself. Learning that this film needed to capture the looming threat of male violence, in addition to wanting to experiment with the silent film format, and shooting a project in Super 8mm film, A Return to Eden finally came together and is now seeing the light of day.
Hammel: I created The Itch during a creative slump. Whenever I wrote, I would write about wanting to write. This film is the realization that my relationship with the creative process is not always pure. The panic I felt in my creative slump revealed that I was creating to be seen and to be given praise. Tell me I exist by telling me that I’m good.
Vine: Fed Up is about Seymour, a gentleman of the road, who is hungry and fed up. He is overjoyed when a secret benefactor leaves him daily treats, the offerings grow ever more extravagant, but in the end we learn that maybe it is wise to look a gift horse in the mouth. This film was created as an entry for the international Straight 8 competition, an annual challenge that celebrates the raw artistry of filmmaking by requiring entries to be shot on Super 8 film with in-camera editing, no retakes, no post-production, no safety nets. I have to admit that I did cut this version at the end to build the tension more effectively. This darkly surreal tale starts with Seymour, a homeless man waking in a deserted train station, driven by hunger and a yearning for normalcy. A benefactor who provides increasingly lavish meals. Seymour's physical and emotional hunger gives the film a poignant center as he savors the fleeting joy of unexpected kindness. But his quest to uncover his benefactor takes a macabre turn, culminating in a shocking encounter with a giant, knife-wielding mouse. It is a bizarre and grotesque meditation on loneliness, survival, and the perverse twists of fate.
Gilreath: My film garboface is the result of a lot of blockage and frustration. I put off plans for developing a creative practice for many years, waiting until I figured out how to be somebody whose voice I recognized as my own. Eventually (thanks therapy, lol) I came to see that I wasn't going to wake up as such a person simply by choosing or confessing an identity for myself, and that creative practice might be as good a way as any to try to find that person. A major feature of dis-identifying with myself for most of my life has been a literal nausea response to seeing images of my face, so I decided to make a movie about what a face is, starring the one that gives me so much trouble.
Still from A Return to Eden
Nigrin: Why did you use Super 8mm for your film?
Carter: Of course there are the obvious benefits to using celluloid: the resolution and resilience, the natural colors and focus on set that the medium requires. But what is least acknowledged and less spoken about is its emotional benefits that can immerse the audience in a way that is unachievable with digital images. Whether it’s because of the random grain structure, which is closest to the vision of the human eye, or celluloid’s ability to capture color, there is an organic intimacy to film. Film is a living material you can’t control but have to collaborate with. Movies, sometimes fortunately, sometimes unfortunately, can be plagued by pragmatic needs. Super 8 happens to be the most affordable of the analog mediums left which is why it was originally chosen for this particular project. However, with Sometimes I Hear the Light Leak in Through the Corners of My Room, I feel thankful. Super 8 brought out the essence of Madeline’s interior self that the story required. Ultimately, the native aspect ratio and dense grain structure added an impressionistic quality that helped elicit the tension between familiarity and memory, underlining the inherent conflict of beauty in our everyday lives.
Rule: We wanted this film to be shot in Super 8mm because of the somber and eternal feel the film stock gives, making it a perfect match with the subject matter of the film and the tone we were aiming for. We weren't always sold on Super 8mm; however, at one point in the planning process, it was suggested that this film be shot on a DSLR, with a film grain filter being added in post. Before we committed to either idea, we shot a short test with a Super 8mm camera, and when we got the footage back, we were blown away by how the Super 8mm made the Pacific northwest forest feel. The combination of the film stock's hard grain against the tall, skinny trees, and the way the stock's contrast made the sunlight casting through the forest look, and more importantly feel, made us all agree that it would feel inauthentic to what we were trying to accomplish with this film if we chose any other format to shoot in.
Hammel: This was my final project for a college Super 8 class, which was the first time I picked up the camera.
Vine: The motivation behind making this piece was to embrace the constraints of the format, using them as a tool to amplify the story’s eerie, surreal tone. The grainy texture of Super 8, combined with the strict discipline of in-camera edits, lends an authentic, dreamlike quality to the film, perfectly mirroring its themes of isolation, mystery, and the absurd. It’s a love letter to analogue storytelling, where every frame demands where every frame demands intention and creativity.
Gilreath: Part of that same story of frustration and blockage has been what I assume is a common experience of being all to aware of the extreme shortcomings of the things I tried to make. With digital media you get an immediate feedback of the attempt you've just made, and when what you see is unrecognizable to what you meant, it's hard to have the courage to try again. It occurred to me that I might find a physical photographic medium liberating because after all the planning and setup, what was gonna happen would happen, and I would learn weeks later how it turned out. 'Maybe the thing I just shot was bad, but I don't know so might as well keep going.' Turned out to be true!
Still from garboface
Nigrin: Who do you use to get your Super 8mm materials?
Carter: Mono No Aware in Brooklyn, NY.
Rule: The film stock itself was purchased directly from KODAK and shipped up to Vancouver, British Columbia. Unfortunately, the city of Vancouver no longer has a lab that develops film stocks for motion pictures; in order to get our footage developed and scanned, we had to ship it away. We ended up using two labs: Spectra Film & Video in LA and Niagara Custom Lab in Toronto. It took us a while to track down the cameras that were ultimately used. We found that in Vancouver, Super 8mm cameras that are in working condition are hard to find, but not necessarily expensive. We scoured thrift stores and old camera shops, Facebook Marketplace, and friends and families basements. In the end, three different cameras were used to shoot this film.
Hammel: I used my school for the camera and the film, but I’ve since bought my own camera.
Vine: We borrowed the camera (a Cannon auto zoom 814) from BAFTA-winning director Tommy Gillard. We bought and developed the film stock (Kodak 50D) from Panavision.
Gilreath: I was lucky to get the use of a Canon 514XL camera along with a few cartridges for free from the Austin School of Film where I've taken some classes. I also ordered a couple more cartridges on eBay which were the cheapest ones I could find. I think those were expired, but they worked okay.
Still from Sometimes I Hear the Light Leak in Through the Corners of My Room
Nigrin: Are there any memorable stories while you made this film or any other info about your film you can relay to our readers?
Carter: Every movie is a miracle, a gift earned through friendship and sacrifice. Even for a 9 minute film there are a million stories worth telling. Catch us at the 2025 United States Super 8mm Film & DV Festival and ask us there.
Rule: We had a very memorable and teachable moment when it comes to Super 8mm photography in the making of our film. We essentially had to shoot A Return to Eden twice. The first Super 8mm camera we got for the film, when shooting, we didn't realize that the mechanism that catches the film stock in the camera wasn't catching each time we rolled. Even though the camera sounded like film was running through it, it only actually was about 40% of the time we were rolling. When we finally got our first round of footage back from the lab, and most of it was just not there, I will never forget the phone call I made to our producer, Mekelah. Never in my life. It took us a few months to regather the cast and crew for a second round of filming to recapture what was lost. This time, we had two separate Super 8mm cameras, an 'A' camera and a 'B' camera, rolling on each take, and we would meticulously mark the visible 8mm cell on the KODAK cartridge with an 'X'. In our own way of checking the gate, after each take we would carefully remove the cartridge and get visible confirmation that the film stock was properly running through the camera, based on if the 'X' we marked was still there or not. So, our lesson learned here, which we honestly should've already known and will keep with us forever, is that no matter how stressed the timeline of the day seems to be, always find a way to check the gate! With that being said, shooting on film gave a grander sense of importance to what we were shooting to both the cast and crew on the day. We knew we didn't have infinite takes and couldn't directly playback what we had just shot, so while the camera was rolling, everyone's performance mattered. And with the film being a finished product, the Super 8mm aesthetic is a defining aspect of our film, and regardless of technical issues we faced, we couldn't have done it any other way.
Hammel: I was limited to two rolls of film, which proved difficult because of how fast and crammed I wanted the film to feel. As a result, I developed the habit of only pressing the trigger for 1/8th of a second at a time. Moving on to digital projects after that, I noticed myself prioritizing brevity.
Vine: We had so much fun making this film. we built mechanical eyelashes to make the camera into an eye that could open and close... also I remember using a watermelon to make the stabbing at the end feel effective. I have attached a few stills.
Gilreath: There's a card referencing this at the end of the film, but one day when I was packing some things into the car to go get the football footage somebody stole my camera bag. This would be bad enough but the cartridge that was in the camera had the footage of the dancers, by far the hardest stuff to replace. Luckily, some neighbors helped me hunt down a FB marketplace listing for what was clearly my camera—it turned out it was my almost immediate next door neighbor! I'm not really one to call the cops so we made a deal with him to get it back. I have to pass this guy all the time outside my apartment, it's maddening! Also, I've helped out on a lot of film productions of various types and scales, but "garboface" is the first of my own I've ever made. Working on it has been huge for me personally and I'm honored to have it featured alongside the work of so many talented filmmakers. 
Still from Fed Up
The 2025 United States Super 8 Film & Digital Video Festival which is part of the New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place on Saturday, February 15 and Sunday, February 16, 2025.
The 4 film programs will be Online for 24 Hours on there show dates and there will be 2 In-Person screenings at 5PM or 7 PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ. Tickets are available for purchase here.
The 43rd Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will be taking place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 24-March 2, 2025. The Festival will be a hybrid one as it will be presented online as well as doing in-person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. VoD start times are at 12 Midnight Eastern USA. Each General Admission Ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings. Plus, acclaimed singer-songwriter Renee Maskin will be doing an audio-visual concert on Friday, February 21 at 7PM and there will be a special benefit in-person screening of the film Bucha on March 2 at 5PM! The in-person screenings and the Renee Maskin concert will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5PM or 7PM on their show date. General Admission Ticket=$15 Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$120; Bucha Benefit Screening=$20; In-Person Only Student Ticket=$10 Per Program.
For more info go here: https://newjerseyfilmfestivalspring2025.eventive.org/welcome
or region of New Jersey
click here for our advanced search.
