b'broughtin600to Join us in Celebration of the 800attendees.Each high holy days year, the team is look-ingtodevelopthe St. Patricks Day festival in a variety ofTuesday, March 17ways.Wevemade aconsciousdecision May your thirst for life totrytogrowevery never run dry year, says Hanna. SoIt takes many hands to get the festival ready, including the whether its in qualitiesrequisite decor and swag.Experience the best of Irelands Pub traditions of film, or its adding Family FriendlyGood Cheer daysornightstotheassociateshortfilmprogrammerfor RAW BAR festival, or providing year-round pro- the Tribeca Film Festival and Tribeca Fridays 47 p.m. gramming, I think its important thatEnterprises United In-flight Program, Check our website for upcoming events we try to maintain footing in both theshe has roughly 25 years of experience South Orange and Maplewood com- that includes worldwide film distribu-THE BEST IRISH COFFEE EVER! munities. tion, acquisitions, programming, and Great new happy hour To that end, the film festival servesbusiness development. She champions specials Mon-Fri 12 - 5 p.m. not only as a venue that screens im- the short film format. I made it a mis-Authentic Irish Cuisine, Irish Coffee,pressive films, but also boasts the well- siontomakesurethroughbusiness Fine Wines and Irish Whiskeyworthy of Celtic Kings curated Kids Program. In addition, thedevelopment and then through distri-festival has developed a strong partner- bution, that they [short films] should Join us fireside for lunch and dinner ship with student filmmakers at Setonbe treated and valued the same as high 167 Maplewood Avenue Hall University and provides opportu- quality full-length content.Maplewood Village 973-378-2222 nities for high school students to dis- Asco-founderandexecutivedi-play their work through their collabo- rectorofCinemaEd,SouthOrange rations with Cinema Ed. residentRichardStephenBelluses ST. JAMESS GATE APPAREL AND GIFT CARDS AVAILABLEwww.stjamesgatepublickhouse.com In order to offer such a broad rangeindependent film as a teaching tool to of films and programs, Smollon reliesprovide opportunities for young film-on a team of collaborators. Linda Beck,makers to develop their craft and ar-anartisticdevelopmentspecialist,tistic voice. He joined the festival team joined the festival during the secondand created what he called a festival season as a program director, headingwithin a festival for high school film-up the Kids Program. What I do inmaking students to show their work. television is to find visual developmentAs the festival has grown, so has the artists and propose candidates for newcloserelationwithBellsworkunder show ideas, she says. Her clients haveCinema Ed. This year hes working as a includedSesameWorkshop,Nickel- festival programmer. High school stu-odeon, and DreamWorks TV.dents are getting much more exposure Beckexplainsthatshetailorsthewith our festival, says Bell. Matt is a Kids Program to the local communi- verystrongadvocateandthefestival ty. As we progress through the years,has become a conduit for more young wevegottenbetteratgaugingwhatfilmmakers to get their story out. our audiences really dig, and then we can kind of push them a little bit, she says. We noticed early on that the kids can actually get through films that you might not have thought a kid could sit through. So we can challenge them alittlebitandputamoreabstract realm in rather than just a strictly nar-rative film with a really straightforward storyline.Maplewood resident Susan Greeley has been a program director with theRichard Stephen Bell is co-founder and festival since the beginning. Her focusexecutive director of Cinema Ed.is on short films and she estimates that thefestivalselectsonly5percentofHe [Richard] is such a hands-on the submissions that come through. Inteacherandsoempoweringtostu-addition to previous experience as thedent filmmakers, says Columbia High 30/ matters magazine / winter 2020'