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The latest grassroots effort to bring independent and non-commercial film to Hudson County kicks off tomorrow night when Fete Films hosts its first-ever screening.

The series is the brainchild of Jersey City resident (and JCI contributor) Dylan Schenker and former Jersey City resident Stephanie Gokhman, who recently decamped to Seattle. They say they were inspired earlier this summer after reading a piece by filmmaker John Bradburn likening today’s film exhibition and film-making scene to the ’80s indie and punk DIY heyday.

“In the 1980s, smaller bands were able to develop nationwide networks of friends that allowed them to bring their music across the country affordably, albeit meagerly. Whereas starting a band and putting on house shows has always been available in this fashion due to this affordability, film has always been seen as an extremely expensive art form,” Gokhman and Schenker say in a jointly written email. “However, with the advent of so much digital technology today, it has made both exhibition and filmmaking much cheaper.”

Sensing the start of a “total shift in how films get made, exhibited and distributed on a grassroots level,” with social networking and crowd-funding playing key roles, they felt there was a way to embrace that feeling with the series.

“With Fete Films, we wish to nurture a community that is less about the bottom line and more about the people involved whether they be artists or audiences,” they says. “We want to demystify the illusion of filmmaking as something out of reach and expensive to most people.”

The initial screening, which is at Hoboken’s Paul Vincent Studios, will feature work from a number of filmmakers and artists, including Dan McNamara, Pat Byrne, Nick Koenig, Steven Dressler, Kevin Huelbig, Kristina Centore, Biz Lynch, Amanda Thackray and Jessica Lipman. Many of the artists are local to Jersey City and the region, and Gokhman and Schenker say they hope to give the “very talented and creative people who don’t have many opportunities to display their work on this side of the Hudson” a new chance to do so. But they are also open to expanding beyond the local borders as the series grows.

“We have a lot of friends and friends of friends creating film and video art with minimal opportunities to screen informally in front of a familiar audience,” they say. “Our network right now is hyperlocal, not necessarily by design, but because the artists aren’t strangers to either of us.”

Both organizers say the series wouldn’t have been possible without Paul Vincent Gallery, which is providing the space, and Tara Thurber and Virginia Kamenitzer of Spitfyre Productions, who have helped put it all together.

The series aims to collapse prior distinctions between video art and more straightforward films, with all genres and styles welcomed. After tomorrow’s kickoff screening of short works, for example, Fete will be back in late October with a screening of Mike Ramsdell’s feature-length documentary Anatomy of Hate; mark your calendars for October 21.

“There has been a strong divide between the two worlds of video art and ‘straightforward’ film, but we wish to bridge the gap between them within these screenings,” Gokhman and Schenker say. “We’re looking to appeal to a diverse audience of both those who regard art with a capital ‘A’ and those who simply like watching films.”

THE DETAILS
Fete Films #1: Independent Film Shorts; Wednesday, September 22 at 7 pm; Paul Vincent Studios, 49 Harrison St., Hoboken. To keep up with Fete’s future plans, follow them on Facebook or Twitter.