Arts & Entertainment

Maplewood Auteur Debuts Film at NJ Film Festival June 10

Rebecca Rojer graduated from Columbia High in 2005. Look at her now!

It's hard to believe that Rebecca Rojer graduated from Columbia High School just six years ago.

Six Junes after accepting that diploma, Rojer will be debuting her acclaimed short film "Ashley/Amber" tonight at the New Jersey International Film Festival in Hoboken.

"Ashley/Amber" is a dark comedy about an antiwar activist who becomes an internet celebrity after being outed as the one-time star of porn video. It premiered in February at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival. The film is writer/director/producer Rebecca Rojer's undergraduate thesis (Rojer is a recent graduate of Harvard College).

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Hoboken, NJ resident Diane Guerrero stars as Ashley.

Rojer produced her first short films and animations as a student at Columbia High School. In 2004 — while still at CHS — she participated in the William H. Cosby Future Filmmakers Workshop at NYU and the Innerspark-CSSSA Animation Program at CalArts.

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Rojer graduated in 2010 with high honors from the Visual and Environmental Studies department at Harvard College. Her last film, "Beauty Machine," received an Award of Merit in the Accolade Film Competition and was selected to screen at Anthology Film Archives in New York as part of the NewFilmmakers Program.

Most recently, Rojer has worked as assistant to the filmmaker Whit Stillman on the film "Violet Wister's Damsels In Distress." She currently lives in Brooklyn.

"Ashley/Amber" will screen as part of a program of four films directed by women: "Martha and Dee Visit the Fifth Dimension," "Oh Mother," "Ashley/Amber" and "Four Belly." Rojer will be in person to answer questions after the screening.

The program will begin at 7 p.m. in Voorhees Hall #105 on the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus. Admission is $10 for general admission, $9 for students and seniors, and $8 for Rutgers Film Co-op/NJMAC Friends. Tickets are available on a first-come-first-served" basis and can be purchased at the door beginning at 6:30 p.m.


Screening of /Ashley/Amber/ @ The New Jersey Film Festival
Friday June 10 @ 7 pm
Voorhees Hall #105
71 Hamilton St/College Avenue Campus
(Near the Corner of George Street and Hamilton St)
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

tix: $10 general admission; $9 students/seniors; $8 Rutgers Film Coop/NJMAC members


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