NJ Film Festival: Fall 2011 Preview

Summer has ended and students welcome the new school year and the changes of fall in a variety of ways. Some scramble to get the best deals on used books as they prepare for class, others rush to the beaches to squeeze in some last few tanning sessions, while many more rejoice in meeting their friends again and looking forward to all the experiences that a new academic year has to offer. If all this wasn't enough, The New Jersey International Film Festival graces autumn's dossier with a collection of enthralling features, documentaries, shorts and foreign films.

The festival will be running from September 9th to October 27th  and will screen an assembly of engaging pictures, like the gritty British crime film, Jack Falls. In a Sin City fashion, this movie blends edgy black-and-white with hints of color. Jack Adleth, an undercover cop, returns to London after recovering from an attempt on his life. He must implement all his skills in order to keep his past double life from coming back to haunt him. This film is a must-see, visceral adventure.

Those fascinated by the bizarre and surreal should surely check out Dreams That Money Can Buy, a thought-provoking piece in which seven people's dreams are brought to life by a mind-reading psychiatrist. The dreams are depicted in a visually stimulating style. Other films include Ashley/Amber, a black comedy in which a girl named Ashley develops a second identity, Amber, who through a series of bad decisions and events, gains unwanted viral internet fame, and Bad Actress, a cheeky comedy about a faded actress who downgraded to starring in commercials for her husband's business. Hilarity ensues after her husband decides to give away his wealth – something she can't allow. This film is by Robert Lee King, the director of the cult classic Psycho Beach Party.

For viewers who love foreign films, the festival offers Bull-Under My Skin, an odd music video from Norway in which a man performs a very saucy stripping routine in order to discover his inner demons, as well as Hamesima X - Or Yashar and Yuval Ovadia, an Israeli film that is a marriage of sci-fi and detective fiction. It tells the story of an alien is sent to Earth on a mission to infiltrate the Mossad's secret facility, but is instead captured. The festival also offers Inuk. The film was made in Paris, and tells of a young boy named Inuk who travels to a small island in the Arctic Sea and befriends Ikuma, one of the last remaining great polar bear hunters.

Of course, what would a festival be without a fine assortment of documentaries? New York Says Thank You is a poignant piece that follows various 9/11 survivors and firefighters and their journey around the country to help rebuild communities. There is also In God We Teach, a controversial documentary about religious freedom and free speech. Matthew LaClair, a student in a N. J. public school records his teacher saying, "Jesus did everything in his power to make sure that you could go to heaven… and he's saying, ‘Please, accept me, believe. ' If you reject that, you belong in hell. " Lastly there is the delightful film Enter the Beard, where hundreds of men compete in Anchorage Alaska to see whose beards and moustaches reign supreme.

School is in commission, and the warm weather is slowly but surely departing. Why not start the fall semester with The New Jersey International Film Festival?