By Rafal Rogoza —
Roll out the red carpet! The 30th annual New Jersey City University (NJCU) “Media Arts Department Showcase” of film, video and digital media will be held at the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre on Thursday, May 17th to showcase the work of student filmmakers.
“Visitors can expect to see work produced by students in the Media Arts Department over this academic year 2011 – 2012, including digital animation, video and film,” said Jane Steuerwald, professor of Media Arts.
The showcase will begin with the introduction of the nominees and winner(s) of the Dr. Joseph Drew Award for Excellence in Media Production — an award bestowed to students that have shown exceptional academic standing, film production and service to the Media Arts Department. President of NJCU, Dr. Carlos Hernandez, will also be honored, according to Steuerwald.
“Typically, anywhere from 60 to 75 works are featured. The entire program will run about two hours with an intermission in between,” said Steuerwald. “ Longer works — anything ten minutes or longer are usually excerpted, so the audience is really seeing highlights from everything that was produced.”
The Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre will host the showcase for the twelfth consecutive year. Built in 1929, the Journal Square “Movie Palace” was considered to be “the most lavish temple of entertainment in New Jersey,” according to loewsjersery.org.
“As they enter the theater they will be awed by the splendor of the lobby, and the smell of popcorn,” remarked Steuerwald. “Entering the theater, which in its prime seated about 1000 people, one is transported back over a hundred years ago when theater was the main entertainment of the public.”
The annual showcase began in 1982 when the Media Arts Center building was located on Westside Avenue. Enjoying barbecued food, movie lovers would sit back to a marathon screening of produced work shown outside the building.
“Some years we had bands playing in one of our TV studios, audio productions running in our sound studio, and films and slide shows running continuously in our large screening room/classroom on the main floor,” said Steuerwald.
After the department moved to the main NJCU campus, Dr. Robert Albrecht – Media Arts associate professor — approached the Loew’s theater to host the event, according to Steuerwald.
The 30th Annual Media Arts Showcase will be this Thursday at 7 p.m. Admission is a suggested donation of $3. Parking is available in the Square Ramp Garage behind the Loew’s Theater. For more information call the Media Arts Department at (201) – 200 – 3494.
Following the showcase, an after party will be held at the Sanai’s Restaurant and Lounge located at 510 Summit Avenue in Jersey City. The restaurant is one block away from the Loews Theater, free parking is available.
For directions to the Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theater click HERE
