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Since 1981, the annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival, an international juried competition and award tour, has been fulfilling its mission to advocate, exhibit and reward cutting edge works from independent film and videomakers. The festival is known for its national public exhibition program, which features a variety of bold contemporary works drawn from the annual collection of 50 award winning films and videos. The Black Maria Film Studio was the world’s first purpose built motion picture studio. It was erected in 1893 by Thomas Edison to facilitate the production of the earliest moving images known to the public. Edison’s motion picture technology allowed previously unimagined expressive possibilities and freed creative individuals to interpret and represent, and audiences to experience the world as never before. It is the pioneering and adventuresome spirit of innovation and the pursuit of fresh, bold, insightful, passionate, and diverse independent filmmaking that drives the Festival’s work.
Black Maria Film and Video Festival was hosted at The Bama Theatre, Tuscaloosa, AL on April 19th, 2010.