The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts will present the first half of a two-part showing of the Black Maria Film and Video Festival on Wednesday.
The premiere, which will take place at the Schnitzer Museum, will feature documentary and experimental short films, while the second program, held at the DIVA Center screening room on Feb. 17, will feature animation and narrative pieces.
John Columbus started the Black Maria Film and Video Festival in 1981. The festival isn’t a conventional one.
Instead of a stationary location, the festival travels around the country to more than 70 different locations. After conferring with local film professionals, a panel of jurors select a number of films, effectively suturing the program to locals’ tastes and familiarities.
University instructor of film studies and arts administration Richard Herskowitz, curator of the event and worked with Columbus before as the director of the Virginia Film Festival. He believes tailoring the festival to feature not only national and international talent, but also local talent, is key.
“I crafted a different program here than I would have in Virginia partly because of the interest in animation (in Oregon),” Herskowitz said.
Herskowitz selected the films at the Schnitzer to have a greater focus on “art and artists” in what he calls some of the “edgiest and most experimental films.”
Eric Ostlind, program director of DIVA and also a curator of the event, sees the festival as an opportunity to expand the program outside the campus area and make it a presence downtown.
“They’ve been around for a while,” Ostlind said of the festival. “They are known for doing high-quality, interesting films.”
Content ranges from documentaries on polar bears and their exploited habitats in the arctic to Joanna Priestley’s “Missed Aches,” an animated film where the artist plays with miscued language and props. These are countered by the experimental and edgy films like “Fuzzy Insides” by New Hampshire-based artist Michael A. Olsen. The five-minute short is a figure animation that exposes the secret nightlife culture within suburbs.
Herskowitz said the Black Maria festival differs from indie counterparts like Sundance, Cannes and Tribeca.
“The Black Maria is very receptive to visual artists working in film and people who are really pushing the limits of the medium.”
Herskowitz said the festival exposes local talent, which enables it to be an opportunity for education and for fostering communal pride.
“Each venue is different. Some venues, like when we go to Millennium (Film Workshop) in New York City are really tailored to the avant-garde, experimental audience,” said Louis Libitz, assistant director and program coordinator for the Black Maria. “If there’s a particular emphasis in one place, say on animation, we’ll show that.”
The origins of the Black Maria are heavily rooted in the indie genre, though the festival has opened up to a greater diversity of genres as the years have progressed.
The Black Maria Film and Video Festival, in Ostlind’s words, “brings something cool to Eugene.”
“It’s never before been premiered here and is an event that features some tantalizing creativity from artists from all over the world, as well as an emphasis on Oregon’s talent,” he said.
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