The monthly Schnitzer Cinema at the University of Oregon's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art will host the Black Maria Film and Video Festival at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 8.

The evening will include a live Skype conversation with festival director John Columbus. Cinema Pacific Film Festival co-sponsors the free event.

The Black Maria Film and Video Festival is an international juried competition with a mission to exhibit and reward cutting-edge works from independent film and video makers. The festival takes its name from the first motion picture studio built by Thomas Edison in 1893. The festival has existed for 32 years and this is the fourth time it has been highlighted at the Schnitzer Museum.

The festival features “a wonderfully diverse collection of the best short films being made today,” says Richard Herskowitz, artistic director of Cinema Pacific and Schnitzer Cinema curator.

This year, 13 short films will be featured, including “Bug People,” a whimsical film essay; “Pulling Teeth,” a documentary that follows the no-frills work of an equestrian dentist; and “Lionfish Delusion,” an imaginative, underwater neo-noir animated short.

“This year's program is a typically edgy and eclectic Black Maria mix of experimental, documentary and narrative works, with a special emphasis on animation,” Herskowitz says.

The full festival program is available online.

- from the UO's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art