BLACK MARIA FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL RETURNS TO MADISON

WHEN: Friday, February 18, 8 PM WHERE: Madison Public Library Chase Room, 39 Keep Street, Madison TICKETS: $10 and are available at the door. There are no advance sales. The evening is sponsored by the Madison Arts and Culture Alliance, with generous support from Rose City Framemakers. The evening will feature a number of short films and videos from 50 winning films selected from over 700 entries. Since 1981, the annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival, an international juried competition and award tour, has been fulfilling its mission to advocate, exhibit and reward cutting edge works from independent film and videomakers. Named by MovieMaker Magazine as one of the "25 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee," the festival is known for its national public exhibition program, which features a variety of bold contemporary works drawn from the annual collection. Every program presentation in the tour is custom curated to specific audiences and virtually every program is presented by the Festival Director John Columbus. The festival is named after The Black Maria, Thomas Edison's film studio, the first such film studio in history. The festival website can be found at www.blackmariafilmfestival.org "The Black Maria tour is an exciting evening of film and video. It's not often that we can see innovative and well-constructed short films in a community setting. The shows are balanced and excellently curated. John Columbus presents a compelling and knowledgeable narrative that places the films in context and helps us to gain an insight into the more challenging work," said John Pietrowski of the Madison Arts and Culture Alliance. The program is part of the continuing efforts of the Madison Arts and Culture Alliance to promote and present quality arts and cultural offerings to Madison and the surrounding communities. A calendar of events and additional information on MACA can be found on their website at www.madisonartsnj.org.