Video: Spongebogged by Morristown Green film fest winner Eric Ruhalter

Eric Ruhalter, a prize winner in the last two MorristownGreen.com Film Festivals, gives new meaning to “elevator pitch” with this video touting his updated book,  The Kid Dictionary: Hilarious Words to Describe the Indescribable Things Kids Do.

Reprising the elevator theme from his award-winning film 9 Matches, the Morristown filmmaker and his young stars, Crosby, Jaxen and Maya Ruhalter, give viewers a vocabulary lesson that should make perfect sense to keepers of miniature humanoids.

Some dictionary examples:

MADDRESS
(mahd-DRESS) v :
To refer to a child by his first and middle name in a stern voice, denoting that he’s about to get in trouble.

FRIENDSOMNIA
(frend-SOHM-nee-uh) n :
The lack of sleep that occurs at a kids’ “Sleepover.”

POODINI
(poo-DEE-nee) n :
A baby who has learned how to escape from their crib.

GARBOFLAGE
(GAHR-boh-flaj) v :
To hide a piece of your child’s artwork under other trash in the wastebasket so they don’t catch you throwing it away.

DOMESTIC VIOLATION
(doh-MESS-tik  VY-o-lay-shun) v :
The potentially lethal mistake of referring to a stay-at-home mom as someone who “does not work.”

SPONGEBOGGED
(SPUNJ-bahgd) adj :
The inability to record a movie because your DVR is filled with kids’ shows.

In his spare time, Eric is a senior writer and producer for AMC Television and agent for 10-year-old Crosby Ruhalter, who topped his dad with a second-place finish in the 2011 MG Film Fest.

MORE ABOUT ERIC RUHALTER

MORE ABOUT CROSBY RUHALTER

Video: ‘Domino Tracks,’ second prize in 2011 MG Film Fest

Video: ‘Nine Matches,’ third prize in 2011 MG Film Fest

Video: ‘Good for the Earth,’ winner of 2010 MG Film Fest

 

Video: For your holiday pleasure…the 2011 MorristownGreen.com Film Festival, with many thanks

It’s been a Thanksgiving tradition for as long as we can remember: Great family fare on TV, from The Wizard of Oz to The Sound of Music to Harry Potter.

While nothing tops those classics, we hope you will kick back and enjoy some wonderful home-grown short films (below) from our Fourth Annual MorristownGreen.com Film & Music Festival.

Tropical Storm Irene tried her best to dampen the whole thing, but we eventually prevailed on Sept. 17.  Included above is a highlight reel from that day of music and movies. The soundtrack is from the winning films, as voted by the audience.

Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who made the Festival and its Green Off the Green environmental expo so much fun. Paul Miller of Sustainable Morristown was a tireless partner. The generosity of sponsors BASF and Covanta Energy, and of our program advertisers and prize donors, made the day possible. The good folks at Headquarters Plaza were gracious hosts, and Marty Epstein and his Gran Fondo team were true friends. An enthusiastic audience braved chilly weather to cheer for its favorite films.

Of course, none of this could have happened without the dedicated volunteers of our MG family, and the talented local filmmakers and musicians who make us feel so lucky to live in Morristown.

Who knows… the next holiday classic could come from one of these budding cinéastes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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***FROM THE 2011 MORRISTOWNGREEN.COM FILM FESTIVAL***

You can link to all the films, or watch them individually below.

This year’s THEME: Sustainability.

The MOVIES (in the order they were screened at the Festival):

1. Jim and I,  Bill Ivie. The inspiring story of a blind bicyclist underscores how “nonprofits such as the Seeing Eye are vital to healthy, sustainable communities.”

2. Unity Charter Recycles Smarter, Amy Maturin & Savannah Byrne. First- and second-graders learn that sustainable means “doing our part to make sure that all the natural wonders of the world stay the way they are.”

3. Sustainability, The 5 Shahs Way,  Nikky Shah. A Morristown family tests itself, and its notions of sustainability, on Mount Kilimanjaro.

4. Domino Tracks, Crosby Ruhalter. A nine-year-old from Morris Plains proves you don’t need energy-hungry video games to have fun, in this display of sustained momentum. Crosby on sustainability: “Something that keeps on repeating over and over again.” WINNER, SECOND PLACE.

5. The Classics Academy, Ben Donnellon. Sustainable communities study the past to chart the future, according to a Morristown High grad documenting a bold new program that immerses students in Antiquity.

6. Ben Hur Revisited, Kevin Coughlin. A sustainable education should be fun–and use recycled junk from the garage.  (Not eligible for prizes.)

7. An Introduction to Special Effects, Tracey Landau.  While this comedic short celebrates the wonders of animation, it also explores how we are inextricably interwoven with our environment. Even animated humans must live sustainably!

8. West Palm Beach, Elliott Ruga. Smart planning turned around a Florida city by addressing its environmental, social and economic needs. Could the same “Context Sensitive Design” make the historic Morristown Green an even greater civic resource than it is today?

9. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Joey Gatto. Sustainability sometimes gets a bad rap. But not in this catchy production by Morristown High’s incoming senior class president.  WINNER, FIRST PLACE

10. Homeless Solutions, Jason Koontz. Affordable housing can be good for the environment, as well as for people.

11. The Bells of St. Peter’s, Kevin Coughlin & Leslie Raff. Sustainable communities honor their sacred traditions.   (Not eligible for prizes.)

12. ARTS! By The People, Gustav Gauntlett & James French. Sustaining the arts enriches the life of a community; Morristown’s youngest and oldest citizens are the focus of one grassroots movement.

13. Nine Matches, Eric Ruhalter. A dark comedy from our 2010 winner about one couple’s efforts to sustain life, civility and sanity while trapped in desolate circumstances.  WINNER, TIED FOR THIRD PLACE.

14. Sustainable Sam, Joey Viola & Danny Sobol. Sustainable Sam uses salesmanship to spread the gospel of sustainability in this short comedy, directed by “The People’s Reporter” of Morristown High’s Colonial Corner.

15. The Last Ride of Sustainable Man, Zaji Zabalerio, director. The Morristown Green is under siege; where is Sustainable Man? From the producer of Morristown High’s Colonial Corner. WINNER, TIED FOR THIRD PLACE.

READ MORE ABOUT THE 2011 MG FILM & MUSIC FEST

 

Photo show by MG Film Fest contestant shows hard but happy life in Malawi

Elliott Ruga’s entry in last month’s MorristownGreen.com Film Festival was a thought-provoking documentary about urban planning in West Palm Beach.

So when Elliott invited us to check out his latest project, about life in one of the world’s poorest countries, Malawi, we were intrigued.

His photo exhibition is called Why Ain’t There No Tea in Malawi? and it runs through October at the J.B. Kline Gallery, at 25 Bridge St. in Lambertville.

Please click icon below for captions.

Over the summer Elliott spent 16 days in Malawi, Africa’s most densely populated nation, shooting a documentary about a demo project that distributed mobile phones to health workers. The idea was to streamline delivery of medicine and emergency services, explained the Harding resident, who also works as a policy analyst for the New Jersey Highlands Coalition.

Previously, Malawians might bicycle for miles to a hospital for a pickup, only to discover that a shipment of medicine had not arrived. The phones have enabled text messaging about these shipments. Ambulances also can be dispatched swiftly now, he said.

According to Elliott, Malawi has the world’s 12th highest infant mortality rate. Per capita income is $800 and life expectancy is just 52 years.  Eleven percent of citizens are infected with HIV/ AIDS.   In the video clip here, recorded by Elliott, the Nkhotakota District Hospital Office Band sings about the importance of contraception; songs are a vital way to spread information in a society with low literacy.

Yet for all the challenges faced by the people of Malawi, Elliott found them to be remarkably upbeat. His photos reflect that–and the exhibition’s title is meant to ask why Americans are so glum.

“Any American who claims to be a member of the Tea Party movement lives a life that is infinitely safer, healthier, more secure and more comfortable than 99.9 percent of the rest of humanity,” he said. “But all they can do is complain about how awful things are. Maybe we have to give up our Hummers. These people (in Malawi) have nothing.”

Somehow, he said, Malawaians “are happy, they get along, they laugh. They are a lot more content than people here who have everything.”

 

 

Video: Best bets for Oct. 8: Loretta Hagen at Zebu in Morristown

One of the highlights of last month’s Fourth Annual MorristownGreen.com Film & Music Festival was the Loretta Hagen Band.  Here’s video of the band performing No Until the Next Time.

Loretta has spent some time in Nashville, and it shows in her polished songwriting and smooth vocals. Add some tasty guitar licks from her husband Gary, and you have the recipe for musical magic.  Which is what you can expect this Saturday, Oct. 8, at Zebu Forno at 9 South St. in Morristown.

Loretta and Gary are scheduled to perform at 7 p.m. Admission is free, so treat yourself to some food and fun. We’ll see you there!

READ MORE ABOUT LORETTA HAGEN

 

MG Kids gives two thumbs up to MorristownGreen.com Film Festival

By Carl Hausman, MG Kids correspondent

On Sept. 17, I went to my second annual MorristownGreen.com
Film Festival. There were 15 movies. My favorites were: 9 Matches,
Introduction to Special Effects and Domino Tracks. The theme was
Sustainability.

Now, I can describe some of the best movies.

Ben Hur Revisited: Bang! The starting gun was off. At this
school, they study Greek the old way: By chariot racing! Team Golden
wanted to be the first women to win and looked invincible in the first parts.
In the final, it was them against another group, and they lost.

9 Matches: Ding! The elevator goes and two people, husband
and wife, get in. It starts to run and –bam! Lights go off, and it stops
running. It turns into a whole thing of how they make it all the way through to the next day using, in that time, nine matches.

Domino Tracks: Crosby likes to build domino tracks, and so
he had an entire movie of making them and then crashing them. It was a whole
lineup. One falls, it pushed the next one over, which pushed the next one over.
He had this one where he was trying to make it hit a ball on a string that
would knock into a tower of dominoes. The ball only shifted a little and,
smash, down goes the tower.

Introduction to Special Effects: In this fun movie,
there’s a puppet who is used as the demonstration model for several special effects. It has a life of its own, and then effects happen to it. Every time they say something like, “OK,” it acts like it thinks everything is over and it starts cheering. And then they’ll say something like, “Now, let’s add …” and the puppet hangs its head in disappointment.

Then we voted. I counted four ballot boxes. The one that won was Reduce, Reuse Recycle. It’s a sort of a rap song. It was okay, but I voted for 9 Matches.

So, you can see why I thought this film festival was fun.

Carl Hausman, 11, is a regular correspondent for MorristownGreen’s MG Kids. We welcome junior reporters for our staff. We also encourage kids of all ages to submit artwork, poetry and fiction for publication on our site. Click here for more information.

The Steevan Mars Band at the MorristownGreen.com Film & Music Festival

We were privileged on Saturday to experience the maiden voyage of the Steevan Mars Band, our headliner at the Fourth Annual MorristownGreen.com Film & Music Festival.

Steevan always puts on a great show as a solo performer, so we knew his band would be first-rate. And so it was.

Joining Steevan on stage were bass player Matt Hessinger, his wife Diana Hessinger on electric cello, and Joanna Quick on backup vocals.

Diana said she knew Steevan (who went by Stephen Mauriello in those days) in the fifth grade; they reconnected recently via Facebook.

Check out Steevan’s debut CD, If Not Now…When? and his new EP, That Was Then This is Now Again, at CD Baby.

Photographer Marco Catini captured images that would look really sharp on the next album cover. What do you think, Steevan?

Please click icon below for captions.

MORE ABOUT STEEVAN MARS

MORE ABOUT THE 2011 MORRISTOWNGREEN.COM FILM & MUSIC FESTIVAL

Green off the Green, and the MorristownGreen.com Film & Music Festival, through the lens of Bill Lescohier

Bill Lescohier captured these shots from the Green off the Green expo and the MorristownGreen.com Film & Music Festival, at Pioneer Park at Headquarters Plaza on Sept. 17.

We are grateful to our sponsors, BASF and Covanta Energy for making the day possible. And we also thank all the companies and organizations who made the expo both informative and enjoyable.

Please click icon below for captions.

MORE ABOUT THE 2011 MORRISTOWNGREEN.COM FILM & MUSIC FESTIVAL and GREEN OFF THE GREEN

Scenes from the Fourth Annual MorristownGreen.com Film & Music Festival

We’re still putting together some multimedia goodies for a proper thank you. In the meantime, please enjoy a series of slide shows from Saturday’s Fourth Annual MorristownGreen.com Film & Music Festival, and Green off the Green.

Please click icon below for captions.

 

READ MORE ABOUT THE 2011 MORRISTOWNGREEN.COM FILM & MUSIC FESTIVAL

Morristown students net three of four prizes at 2011 Film Festival

By Sharon Sheridan

Steven Spielberg, watch out. Morristown’s youth have moved into filmmaking with flair, capturing three of four awards at the Fourth Annual Morristown Green Film (and Music) Festival.

About 100 people braved the suddenly cold weather to view 15 featured films and vote for their favorites. The race was close. Six votes separated first from third place, which saw its first-ever tie, and several films fell only a few votes short of the winners’ circle.

Morristown High School Senior Class President Joey Gatto took top honors with his rap about sustainability — this year’s festival theme — “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.”

“I’m so happy and so proud of him,” said his mother, Barbara. “I won’t sleep all night!”

“I was almost about to cry,” Joey told her.

On stage, he described a quick film-production schedule, with inspiration hitting at one day and filming finishing the next. His plans for the first-place trophy? “Take a picture of it and send it to the colleges I apply to.”

Second prize went to “Domino Tracks” featuring 9-year-old Crosby Ruhalter, a student at the Alexander Hamilton School in Morristown. His video showed dominos toppling on multiple complex tracks he erected. “He was make them all winter,” said his dad, Eric.

As Morristown Green editor and festival emcee Kevin Coughlin noted, it’s a sustainable hobby, repeatedly reusing the dominoes plus “it’s not using any electricity.”

Showing sustainability of another sort, Eric Ruhalter maintained his videographic prowess from last year, when he won best picture for “Good for the Earth.” This year, he tied for third place with his film “Nine Matches,” featuring a couple stuck in an elevator.

The other third-place winner was another Morristown High School student, Zaji Zabalerio, who directed “The Last Ride of Sustainable Man.” In an Oscar ceremony-worthy speech, he sent a shout-out to his cheering section of fellow students: “I would like to thank my good friends, who support me with everything.”

Here are a few photos of the festival. Check back at MorristownGreen.com in the days ahead for more.

 

 

 

 

It’s Showtime! Come to the MorristownGreen.com Film & Music Festival, noon to 10 pm!

Tropical Storm Irene tried to stop us, but we’re back!

Today, Saturday, Sept. 17, is the do-over for Fourth Annual MorristownGreen.com Film & Music Festival.

Note our NEW LOCATION:

PIONEER PARK at HEADQUARTERS PLAZA

Please join us for a day and evening of music and movies by great local artists!

ADMISSION: FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BANDS START AT NOON…FILM COMPETITION AT SUNDOWN

And while you’re here, check out the Green off the Green environmental expo, from Sustainable Morristown!

We challenged Greater Morristown to define “Sustainability.”  Their five-minute videos will surprise you. At the end of the evening, you vote for Best Picture!

And to get everyone in the proper mood, we have eight excellent local musical acts:

12:00    Jon Zlock
12:30    Joey Gatto & Friends
1:15      Loretta Hagen Band
2:20      Art of Play
3:05      Lucid Funk Dream
4:15      Captain Lung
5:00      Danny Dones & Friends

and featuring…

6:15      The Steevan Mars Band

READ STORIES ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS AND MUSICIANS

MAP, DIRECTIONS TO PIONEER PARK at HEADQUARTERS PLAZA

PARKING: There are parking garages beneath Headquarters Plaza, and nearby on Cattano Avenue and DeHart Street.

WHAT TO BRING: Lawn chair, sweater for evening

Co-hosted by MorristownGreen.com and Sustainable Morristown. Sponsored by BASF and Covanta Energy.

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