32 / matters magazine / fall 2026 A ngela Matusik has lived in Maplewood since 2011, but she still remembers the first movie she saw in town. “They were showing Star Wars in the park,” Matusik, a co-founder of the Maple wood Film Society, says over Zoom, recalling the impact Princess Leia Organa had on her daughter. “Our kid was like 2 and a half, and I remember afterwards she said that she liked the lady with the big ears, which is what she called hair.” For Matusik, her personal and professional en deavors tie back to the film industry and its rela tionship with her town and state. This coincides with New Jersey’s growing involvement in film and television productions, earning the nickname “Hollywood East” during a moment of great un certainty for the industry’s future. Connecting these threads is her ongoing mission to preserve the Maplewood Theater, an icon of the area, on the eve of its 100th anniversary. A journalist and former head of corporate brand for HP, Matusik has always been drawn to the world of cinema. In her early career, she worked for pop culture and fashion outlets such as InStyle and People, keeping an independent blog on the side to cover breaking media developments. Even after leaving HP to start her consulting busi ness, A.M. Stories, the entertainment industry remained a big part of Matusik’s clientele. But when her family moved from New York City to Maplewood, a big selling point wasn’t just the easy commute. Their house happened to be walking distance from the historic Maplewood Theater. For generations of residents, the theater has been a signature of the downtown Maplewood Village. Designed by New Jersey architect Wil liam E. Lehman in 1927, it remained active for 92 years before closing amid COVID-19. After ward, theater owner Vinnie Loffredo – whose family also runs the next-door pizzeria Roman Gourmet – initially considered selling the place, and a redevelopment plan was announced. This news caught the attention of Matusik who, along with her friend Lisa Cohen, identified a need to preserve the theater. “We heard about this redevelopment plan, and we knew that a lot of people like us just weren’t paying close attention to local politics and all the legislation that was being passed,” she says. This led Matusik and Cohen to create the Maplewood Film Society, a nonprofit dedicated to “creating one-of-kind cinematic experiences” by hosting film screenings across the South Orange/Maple wood (SOMA) area, with the long-term goal of converting the Maplewood Theater into an inde pendent cinema. These screenings occur periodically, due to the lack of a consistent venue. Each event provides the opportunity for conversations about the film indus try that coincide with new releases or the loss of key industry figures. A 2025 screening of Wild at Heart at The Woodland took place shortly after director David Lynch’s death, featuring a Q&A with Lynch’s cinematographer Frederick Elmes. Princeton Afri can American studies professor and South Orange resident Khalil Gibran Muhammad was invited to talk about Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. A month later, the movie took home four Oscar wins. Most recently, the Maplewood Film Society hosted an exclusive SOPAC screening of Summer Preserving New Jersey’s Film Legacy and the Maplewood Theater Film Society co-founder starts new magazine documenting the filmmaking boom BY BEN WASSERMAN Angela Matusik and Lisa Cohen created the Maplewood Film Society, a nonprofit whose long-term goal is to convert the Maplewood Theater into an independent cinema.
View this content as a flipbook by clicking here.