Last week I went to a showing of the Black Maria film festival at the Anthology Film Archives. It was my first time going to this theater, and it was a really fun experience. I took one of my friends with me that is not a film major, and I was a little worried he would not have a good time. He is not one to particularly enjoy experimental films, but I think I was able to change his mind after bringing him with me.

The tiny theater was completely filled, and many people there knew each other. The woman who was orchestrating and introducing the festival seemed to know almost everyone there by name. There were about 6 films in total, and all of the filmmakers were present in the theater, which I thought was really cool. The whole festival was about an hour and a half long, followed by a short Q & A.

I thought it was really interesting to see a variety of films in the festival. There was some animation, some documentary, some narrative. All of the pieces brought something different to the screen, and I found that really interesting. One of the animation pieces was about a young boy rescued form living with wolves, but soon realized he wasn’t made for the human world. It was very beautifully made and it was almost mesmerizing to watch. Another one of my favorites was almost a stop motion piece made out of paper and magazines, about a man suffering from PT SD after going off to the war. A lot of the other narrative pieces were so well done and fascinating, my friend and I were so glad to get the chance to experience all of them.

After the viewing was over, a couple of the filmmakers went to the front of the theater and took questions from the audience. Again. it was really interesting to see how close this group of people was, because even the filmmakers knew a lot of the audience members by name. A lot of people asked one of the directors about her piece that incorporated nature and the brain, and she went on to talk about how she makes films like these mostly because she wants to try and understand exactly how the brain works, and how she wants to make it understandable to other people too. It was really cool because there was someone in the audience from the medical field, and he said that he has never seen a film that can bridge the gap between scientists and artists, and that he would love to introduce his coworkers to her pieces.

It was a lot of fun to sit in on this pretty intimate conversation between really creative people. My friend and I thought we might be out of the loop because of the pieces or people some of them were talking about, but for the most part there wasn’t a lot of name dropping, and we were both really happy to be able to be a part of the conversation. My friend and I had a really fun time seeing all of these different pieces and get such an intimate viewing session with the filmmakers. We’re excited to make another trip soon.