Press Release

For Immediate Release	Contact: Caryl Lucas
June 21, 2006	Phone: 609-292-4302

TRENTON, NJ – Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells will host the 2006 Academy Award-winning film Crash on Thursday, June 29 to launch the 32nd Newark Black Film Festival at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton.

“The Newark Black Film Festival showcases the breadth and depth of talent, inventiveness and creativity in the African-American artistic community,” said Secretary Wells said. “We are delighted to join the New Jersey State Museum in presenting the Festival in Trenton and salute The Newark Museum, Bank of America and the Friends of the New Jersey State Museum for making this year’s event possible.”

The 32nd Newark Black Film Festival, which is free to the public and produced by The Newark Museum, is made possible by a grant from Bank of America. It is the country’s longest running Black film festival. The Festival expanded to Trenton in 2003. As part of the independent film series, free screenings for adults will be held at the Auditorium of the New Jersey State Museum, a division of the New Jersey Department of State, for six consecutive Thursdays through August 3, 2006. Youth Cinema programs begin on Thursday, July 6 and continue through August 3, as well. A full schedule of films and their screening times can be found at www.newjerseystatemuseum.org

Since its introduction in 1974 by the Newark Museum, the Festival has provided a forum for hundreds of emerging writers, directors, producers, performers, and film patrons who enjoy black cinema. The goal of the Festival is to present programs that reflect the full diversity of the black experience both past and present, encompassing a wide range of forums and formulas, from documentary to the avant-garde. In the past 31 years, the Newark Black Film Festival has screened 614 films to an audience of nearly 134,000 adults and children.

“The Festival began at a time when the lives, culture and history of black people in film were still very much of a contested terrain,” said Dr. Clement A. Price, professor of history at Rutgers University-Newark and a member of the Newark Black Film Festival Selection Committee. “It is still, but the contested terrain is now more brightly illuminated by the work of filmmakers on a global scale.”

All screenings are free and open to the public. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Once the theater is filled to capacity, additional seating cannot be provided. Tickets for the Adult Cinema programs will be distributed beginning at 5 pm on the night of the screening in front of the Museum’s Auditorium. Theater doors will open at 6:30 pm, and the programs begin at 7 pm.

Youth Cinema programs are offered at 1 pm beginning on July 6. Group reservations are permitted for these shows by calling 609-292-6347, weekdays from 7 am to 3 pm. Walk-ins are also permitted for the Youth programs.

The New Jersey State Museum is located at 205 West State Street in Trenton, New Jersey. The main Museum building is currently closed for renovations. The Galleries at 225 West State Street in Trenton are open Monday through Friday, 9 am to 4:45 pm and Saturday, 9 am to 4 pm. The Museum is closed Sundays and State Holidays. Admission is free. For more information, please call (609) 292-6464.