New Jersey Documentary Film Festival

Festival Schedule:

11:30am: Unconventional Artistry

OPEN STREETS

Open streets is a film that sheds light on graffiti and street art. The documentary showcases artists and writers from Canada, United States, Chili, France, Germany and The Netherlands. Shot over a period of 10 years, the film crew traveled and met people from around the globe with different backgrounds, stories, approaches and points of view. The film promotes the work of painters who express themselves with passion and creativity to redefine our urban landscape. Open streets raises questions on those artists' self-definition and motivations and explores the risks related to their practices.

RESURGENCE

Documentary that provides a more personal look at record stores in Los Angeles with the goal of discovering who the owners are, why they love selling records, and the reason they think has caused the recent resurgence in vinyl.

COMMUTERS

With dreams of making it big, thousands of 8th graders audition each year for a chance to attend New York City’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts. The only thing harder than getting in… is getting there.

TEA IS SO FUNNY & TOUGH

The harshest lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Tea is So Funny, and Tough" reflects upon a true story of these tragic moments and the glimmers of hope brought to the community by an innovative tea shop.

1:30PM: Finding Freedom

STUCK IN GREECE: AN LGBT REFUGEE CRISIS

When brought to Athens, Greece in 2016 for a screening of his film DADDY, filmmaker Gerald McCullouch unexpectedly meets a group of LGBT refugees fleeing persecution from their communities, their governments and their own families who now find themselves trapped in Greece. Confounded by their circumstances, he is compelled to document his education of a crisis facing countless members of his community who came to Greece under desperately different circumstances.

AFTERSHOCK OF A TRAUMA

After watching her country fall to the Taliban only days after her arrival in the US, Zohal, an Afghan Fulbright Scholar documents the story of three Afghan students studying in the US and struggling with uncertainty and statelessness. At the same time, Zohal struggles with her own trauma, loss and resilience, as she searches for answers that may not come.

4:30PM: Road To Gold

THE CARNIVAL: 125 YEARS OF THE PENN RELAYS

From Award-Winning Director Justin Jarrett and Emmy Award Winner “JB” James Brown (CBS/Showtime), comes The Carnival: 125 Years of the Penn Relays. For more than a century, The Penn Relays have defied the odds on their way to becoming one of the longest running sporting events in history. From breaking world records to breaking down barriers, they have helped revolutionize the sport of track and field while playing host to everyone from World Champions to Olympic icons and creating a legacy that will last forever.

12 PARTS PER MILLION

Doping in athletics is nothing new. Cases regularly make headlines calling attention to issues of fair play and how to keep sport clean.
In 1972, the International Olympic Committee attempted to level the playing field for competitors by introducing drug testing at the Games.
That same year, Rick DeMont, a US swimming phenom from Southern California, won the 400-meter freestyle event at the Munich Olympics. Less than 48 hours later, legendary sportscaster Howard Cosell announced the shocking news that Olympic officials had stripped DeMont of his gold medal and excluded him from further competition after a post-race doping test revealed trace amounts - 12 parts per million - of ephedrine, a banned substance, and the main ingredient in an asthma prescription Rick had properly disclosed weeks earlier on his Olympic medical intake form. He and his family unsuccessfully appealed the International Olympic Committee’s decision and Rick went home heartbroken.

Nearly 25 years later, two experts on the topic of performance enhancing drugs — author and sport psychologist, Dr. Steven Ungerleider, and attorney, David Ulich — examine Rick’s case and uncover serious procedural shortcomings on behalf of the USOC doctors and their processing of the athletes leading up to the Games, raising the question of who was ultimately responsible for protecting the young swimmer.

7:00 PM: Love, Lox & Laughter

EVERYTHING’S KOSHER

Adam, a divorced, Jewish father, from Chicago, embarks on a journey to fulfill a promise to his only daughter never to abandon her. Living in a small, German town steeped in the shadows of antisemitism and Nazi history, Adam attempts to open a Jewish deli, to establish a link to his upbringing and try to find comfort and connection in his town.

As Adam struggles with his new life, a painful rift with his estranged father, a man who abandoned Adam and his family decades ago, grinds at his soul. Driven to break the abandonment issues and heal the wounds of his past, Adam embarks on a mission to reconcile with his family.
His quest takes him around the globe from Germany to the doorstep of his father in the US, a man he has not been close to for forty years. In this life-changing journey, Adam grapples with the ghosts of his past, searching for the strength to forgive and move forward, in order to be the best father he can be, to his little girl. Against the odds, the deli takes shape as Adam discovers the resilience of the human spirit and the power of forgiveness to heal even the deepest wounds. Peace, Love, & Pastrami.

COMEDY ON RYE: KATZ’S FIRST COMEDY SHOW

Two 24-year-old Manhattanites and childhood best friends embark on a unique quest: to host the first comedy show in New York’s iconic Katz’s Delicatessen. But when the duo only has one hour to transform the space and seat nearly 300 people, chaos ensues to throw a show as worthy as Katz's pastrami.

HAKAN- A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT CHOCOLATE, CREATIVITY AND PASSION

HÅKAN – is an intimate portrait of the legendary chocolatier Håkan Mårtensson, based in Beacon, New York, and his passion for chocolate, creativity, and the importance of family. Håkan opens up about his experiences from starting a new chapter of his career. Building HÅKAN Chocolatier during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and how the love for his family and the passion for his craft are the cornerstones of his successful business.

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