Mission

The mission of the Thomas Edison Media Arts Consortium is to promote and advocate for innovation in the art of the moving image, and celebrate the unique value of short films to teach, inspire and entertain. The Consortium has an abiding commitment to the short film as its centerpiece and reason for being. The primary project of the Consortium is the Thomas Edison Film Festival (TEFF), formerly known as the Black Maria Film Festival. It was launched in 1981 and was named for Thomas Edison’s film studio in West Orange, NJ, dubbed the “Black Maria.” TEFF is known for its support of spirited, cutting edge films that provide insight into the human condition and the natural world. Not a conventional destination film festival, TEFF reaches out to diverse audiences across NJ and beyond. Its annual collection of international films is screened to audiences throughout the world either in-person or streaming-on-demand via the website. Recognition for TEFF’s artistic work is evidenced by decades of repeat programming at host venues including 20+ years of screenings at Ramapo College of NJ, the Hoboken Historical Museum, and the National Gallery of Art, DC; 10+ years at Princeton University, the Secaucus Library, Centenary University and The HUUB, Inc., in Orange; 40+ years at the Crandall Library, Glens Falls, NY; University of Delaware, and Towson University, MD. Comments from filmmakers are posted on our submissions platform, FilmFreeway. https://filmfreeway.com/ThomasEdisonFilmFestival. In September 2024, the Thomas Edison Film Festival received the honor of becoming an Academy Award® Qualifying Festival for animation and experimental shorts. The Festival is also a Canadian Screen Award Qualifying festival - the only film festival in the State of NJ to hold both prestigious designations. TEFF is more than just a traditional destination event. It is a socially conscious, traveling showcase that connects diverse audiences to the compelling works of independent filmmakers worldwide. By focusing on underrepresented voices, TEFF provides a platform for accomplished and emerging artists who may lack access to live public exhibitions. The festival emphasizes artistic excellence and promotes empathy and engagement through films that both teach and entertain. Prior to Covid-19, the majority of TEFF’s programs were shown in person, either by the Executive Director (ED), a filmmaker, or a host venue. 50-60 programs were presented at diverse locations from Jersey City, NJ to Fond du Lac, WI. In response to Covid, the Consortium launched the Thomas Edison Virtual Film Festival on April 6th, 2020 - showcasing films from current seasons and TEFF’s archives. It was decided to offer this opportunity to stream films for free, and the free-on-demand policy continues to this day. Since 2020, tens of thousands of views have been logged by individuals throughout NJ, the US, and around the world, as tracked by Google analytics. During Covid, TEFF was unable to present in-person film screenings or conduct in-person Q&A’s with audiences. A new way for audiences to learn about the films and filmmakers was created for our website called “Meet the Filmmakers.” The ED began hosting the talks and providing insight into the filmmakers’ process, body of work, and life. Filmmakers from NJ, NY, PA, CA, IL, UT, TN, Amsterdam, Australia, Austria, Canada, Costa Rico, Peru, Portugal, Taiwan, and Germany have been featured. These online offerings reach those who are in isolation, are unable to travel, or do not have the funds to participate in public art events. The programs are available to view on the Consortium’s website and promote filmmakers and community engagement across the world from its home base in NJ. TEFF is an international juried film competition. The work of diverse filmmakers from around the world are selected and exhibited, and represent under-served artists who may not have the opportunity for live public exhibition. TEFF accepts all genres including animation, documentary, experimental, narrative, and screen dance. An emphasis for TEFF is the selection of films about the environment, the LGBTQ+ community, social justice, and people with disabilities. TEFF’s Call for Entries opens every year in June and wraps in October. To review submissions, the Festival employs a robust pre-screening process. Every year, 20 pre-screeners are enlisted to review and evaluate each film. TEFF requires 3 individual evaluations for each film, to ensure a level playing field for all. Pre-screeners include filmmakers, media educators, curators, graduate students, and film scholars. TEFF pre-screeners include students and faculty from Princeton University; Ramapo College of NJ; University of Delaware; Towson University, MD; NJ City University; and CalArts, CA. To expand TEFF’s reach to filmmakers internationally, an effective marketing program was implemented through our submissions platform, FilmFreeway, and included social media promotion on MailChimp, Facebook, and Instagram. For the upcoming 2026 season, to date, over 700 submissions have been received from 6 of the 7 continents, 49 countries, and 34 states across the US. Films touring with TEFF are programmed multiple times at host venues across the country and online via our website. TEFF’s goal is to facilitate access to the work of filmmakers whose exposure to the public has been limited by the dominance of commercial media outlets and commercial streaming services. Filmmakers choosing to submit to TEFF benefit from wide exposure and have opportunities to meet audience members, filmmakers, and curators, gain recognition for their work, and in some cases improve their production grant prospects because of the prestige of being included in TEFF’s annual tour. Having one’s work selected by TEFF also benefits those in academia and contributes to tenure and retention for teaching filmmakers. Artistic decisions are made through a multi-layered process. Filmmakers enter work directly through FilmFreeway, and then TEFF’s pre-screeners evaluate each film. This process determines which films, typically between 75-100, will be sent to the jury for award selection. Pre-screeners and jurors employ a rubric including objective and subjective elements. Considerations include artistry; innovation; production value; technical mastery; research; sensitivity to subject; high level of social consciousness; and experimentation within the constraints of film production. Pre-screeners and jurors must view each film in its entirety prior to evaluation and regardless of length. TEFF’s jurors, Henry Baker and Margaret Parsons, are experts of the highest order. Baker began his career at the ground-breaking video arts facility: Synapse Video Center. His work as educator, curator and director helped launch video as an art form in America. He co-created the NYS Media Alliance. An Emmy-award winner, he produced projects with Saturday Night Live, Celeste Holm, HBO, SONY, and Panasonic. His work is in the permanent collection of the NY Public Library and Everson Museum of Art. He has served as a juror for the National Endowment for the Arts, WNET-TV Lab, Corporation for Public Broadcasting and TEFF. Margaret Parsons, Curator Emerita, founded the film program at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, where she served as curator of film for decades. She curated exhibitions at organizations including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, American University, the National Archives, the Smithsonian Museum of American History, and Smithsonian Museum of American Art. She served on the board of the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar and the Environmental Film Festival in DC, and on the editorial boards for The Moving Image and the Getty Trust’s experimental “Art on Film” in association with the MET, NY. In 2012 she founded Glimmerglass Film Days in Cooperstown, NY. Parsons has received awards from the governments of France, Georgia, Italy, and the Czech Republic, and in the U.S. has been the recipient of life achievement awards from TEFF, DC Independent Festival, and Women in Film and Video. The Consortium’s programming model will continue to develop through online offerings such as its “Meet the Filmmaker” series, and its theme-based selections. In-person events are growing through its partnership with the Hoboken Historical Museum. A recent example is a “Pride Month Celebration” in June of 2025, including a documentary film produced by members of the TEFF Advisory Board and featuring renowned gay activist Randy Wicker who was present at the premiere to talk about his life and work. By working collaboratively TEFF provides its patrons with enriching and unique participatory experiences. Future programming for TEFF and NJYFF continues to grow throughout NJ. Theme-based programs, genre-based programs, and mixed-genre programs represent curations that the ED plans with host venues. Examples include TEFF programs celebrating Black History Month, Women’s HERStory Month, Earth Day, Pride Month, Asian-American Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and DEAI inspired films. TEFF presents many programs in Hudson County including Hoboken, Jersey City, and Secaucus. TEFF also travels to other counties in NJ including Bergen, Essex, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, and Warren. TEFF host venues often request theme-based programming. Discussions are held with audience members about program content and to plan for upcoming themed programs. This is true for TEFF’s partners at the Hoboken Historical Museum, Ramapo College of NJ, Princeton University, The HUUB, Inc., Orange, NJ, Centenary University, and others across the US. Often, host venue partners are directed to TEFF’s online collection where individual films may be viewed and requested for programming. The Consortium maintains current lists of audience members, TEFF filmmakers, donors, NJYFF participants, and teachers. Every event hosted by TEFF or NJYFF is promoted through MailChimp listings directly, and also by host venue partners through word of mouth, flyers, and weekly newsletters. Events are announced through press releases, MailChimp, Facebook and Instagram. The Consortium works collaboratively with host venues to assist in promotion by providing PR, film graphics, links to host venue websites, trailers, and copy for various social media platforms. Outcomes are determined by attendance statistics at events, feedback during Q&A’s, and direct email from attendees. An email recently sent to the ED from an audience member at the Hispanic Heritage Month program at the Hoboken Museum, 10-21-23, is copied here. “Inspired by the Hispanic Heritage Month Film Festival - Hi Jane… I wanted to express my heartfelt appreciation for this year's Hispanic Heritage Month Film Festival at the Hoboken Historical Museum. The experience was truly captivating, with each narrative artfully woven, leaving a lasting impression on me. The group debrief that brought the evening to a close added a wonderful touch, making the event even more memorable. Thank you for putting on such a lovely event and sharing these beautiful stories with the world. Aside from the works of art we got to enjoy, I was particularly inspired by The Thomas A. Edison Media Arts Consortium, its mission, and some of the details you shared about the organization's process to see that mission through… I look forward to attending more Thomas Edison Film Festivals and appreciating the magic that's already been cultivated. Thank you once again for the wonderful experience, Dawn Winsor.” (Oct. 31, 2023) The Consortium promotes programming effectively through its unique character, artistic excellence, and travelling structure. Host venue development is also accomplished by distribution of the Festival’s annual program booklet at in-person events. On the Consortium’s website, an archive of the Festival’s booklets provides access to all TEFF films presented since 2014. A long-range project has been started to scan all festival program booklets since the Festival’s inception in 1981, and include them in the Consortium’s online archive. Filmmakers are important advocates as they have direct experience as audience members and participants. Many filmmakers familiar with TEFF are associated with film coops, arts organizations, and academic institutions. Reaching out to filmmakers to forge relationships is an effective means of growing the Festival audience and measuring outcomes through valuable input. TEFF’s goals are met through repeat programming, growth in attendance, direct feedback from audiences at in-person events and Q&A’s, emails, letters from patrons, and through personal donations from attendees and filmmakers. It is deeply believed that the Consortium’s strength lies in its respect for diversity among the broad range of filmmakers represented and the audiences engaged. Diversity and inclusion are seen as drivers of artistic excellence. These core values are embraced by the Consortium’s staff and Board, reflecting its mission to shine a light on issues of global concern, diversity, and inclusion. The Consortium is committed to making the arts accessible and engaging for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. The Consortium is committed to bringing in-person film programs to the historically underserved and under-represented, including senior citizens, communities of color, and people with disabilities. Examples include annual programming at the Fair Lawn Senior Center; seniors at the Secaucus Public Library; students at A. Harry Moore School for Children with Disabilities, Jersey City; and communities of color at The HUUB, Inc., Orange, NJ. Ongoing efforts to decrease barriers to the Consortium’s programming were initially launched in 2020 in response to Covid-19, with the design and implementation of TEFF’s free on-demand streaming platform. This allowed for thousands more to access its films and archived materials. Especially significant is the free online access to TEFF’s annual program booklet. The booklet includes detailed information about each film in the collection as well as essays by filmmakers, curators, and film historians. For those with visual impairment, font sizes may be enlarged for full appreciation of the booklet content. TEFF is proud to provide captioned versions of every film programmed for an in-person event. For those with hearing challenges the program booklet provides written work descriptions for every film in the collection and archive. The Consortium continues to be committed to increasing access to the film viewing experience by advocating for filmmakers to provide closed captioning. Therefore, the Consortium is researching possibilities to add closed captioning to films in its collection. The Consortium seeks to facilitate procurement of assisted listening devices and other resources when contacted at least two weeks prior to a scheduled program. The Consortium works with host venues to ensure ADA compliance and provides print programs for host venues in 16pt. font, unless a larger font is requested. The Consortium’s “ADA: Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion Plan” is published on the Consortium’s website. The Consortium evaluates effectiveness by administering a survey and requiring a rider to assess ADA Compliance with new and repeat host venues. The Consortium has a policy that addresses issues of DEAI, developed by the ED with the Board President. The Board also established a committee to address not only ADA policies and procedures, but also DEAI concerns, such as growing its board membership to address DEAI and LGBTQ+ participation. The policy was presented to the Board and approved in 2021. To support the Consortium’s efforts to reach underserved communities, it has successfully applied to the Puffin Foundation to facilitate programming to the underserved. The Consortium has received 3 grant awards from Puffin allowing for expansion of its programs to senior citizens and communities of color.