The Cliffhanger Film Festivals are an annual series of spring and fall film festivals, celebrating Fort Lee’s role as birthplace of the motion picture industry. These popular festivals have included:

• A tribute to the Barrymore family, for the films they made in Fort Lee and their role as residents of the Coytesville section of the borough;
• Early film star Pearl White, the symbol of the Fort Lee Film Commission, for her early “cliffhanger” movie serials shot on the New Jersey Palisades;
• A salute to Universal Studios, which was born in Fort Lee in 1912 through the union of such Fort Lee studios as Champion and IMP. (The Champion/IMP studio building built in Coytesville in 1909 still stands on Fifth Street.)
• A celebration of Black History Month by honoring pioneer African-American filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. Micheaux made many of his silent and “talkie” films in Fort Lee, including the first African-American talking picture, The Exile (1931), shot at Metropolitan Studios in Fort Lee;
• A tribute to “Women in Film”, honoring the many women who played important roles in the formation of the studio system. One example is Alice Guy Blache, who built Solax Studios in Fort Lee in 1912 and was the first woman to direct motion pictures.

Guests at Cliffhanger Film Festivals have included Chris Costello, daughter of Universal Studio comedian Lou Costello; Oscar Micheaux scholar Pearl Bowser; film historian and radio personality Joe Franklin; comedian and entertainer “Uncle Floyd” Vivino; and New York TV horror host “Zacherle”.

2007 MOVIES & MUSIC UNDER THE STARS
Runs each Wednesday (except Fourth of July) from June 6 through August 29th at 7pm at the outdoor stage/ green of the Fort Lee Community Center at 1355 Inwood Terrace. Music runs from 7-8:30pm and films start at sunset. Please bring blankets or lawn chairs. The programs are open to all. In case of rain the programs will take place inside the Fort Lee Community Center.

Applications are available for the 2007 Jersey Filmmakers of Tomorrow Student Film Festival - visit www.jerseyfilmmakersoftomorrow.org to download a 2007 application. Entry deadline is June 29, 2007 and film submission deadline is September 15, 2007. Screenings of the films of selected finalists will occur in October 2007 throughout Bergen County. Law & Order SVU director and Fort Lee High School graduate Peter Leto will kickoff the 2007 festival entry period with a press conference at Fort Lee High School on March 1 at 10am. Please call (201) 592-3663 for details.

The Fort Lee Film Commission actively raises funds to preserve films made in Fort Lee, and works with filmmakers who support promotion of Fort Lee’s role as birthplace of the American film industry. In 2001, the Commission raised funds to send to the UCLA film archives in Los Angeles to restore the recently-found 1910 IMP film The Time-Lock Safe, which starred Florence Lawrence (the silver screen’s first star) and King Baggot. Sally Dumaux, King Baggot biographer, assisted the UCLA film archive in obtaining funds for the restoration of this film. The Commission raised the funds for this project through a donation by Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. Paramount also shot a portion of a recent film starring Lisa Kudrow in Fort Lee and donated funds to the FLFC, which then earmarked this donation for the UCLA restoration project.

Another arena of the Commission’s work is the restoration of still photos. Recently, Gloria Limone, owner of the historic Rambo’s Hotel & Saloon (a private residence today, her grandfather Gus Becker ran the saloon when it was used as a movie location), loaned the FLFC her entire collection of photos of Rambo’s, dating back to the Civil War. Commission Chair Louis Azzollini has been scanning the photos, restoring them, and placing them in a digital database. The FLFC is also currently in receipt of scrapbooks of silent film star Gail Kane, which were loaned to the Commission by Kane’s grandson in order to digitize the images and preserve the books. Gail Kane both made films in Fort Lee and operated her own production company.

The Commission has worked with the Fort Lee Public Library and its director and film scholar Rita Altamora to digitize the library’s collection of over 1000 stills of Fort Lee-related film/studio history. These stills will eventually be made available to the public through web sites and the Library database.

The FLFC, a non-profit organization, raises money for its restoration efforts through direct donations and through the sale of t-shirts and historic reproductions, at such venues as the annual Feast of St. Rocco in August and the Movies & Music Under the Stars summer film series. Funds are also used to obtain historic artifacts that are on display at the Fort Lee Museum, home of the Fort Lee Historical Society, a key supporter of the work of the FLFC. Items on display include an original Pathé silent film crank camera which is fully operational (a similar camera sold at the same time is displayed in the lobby of MGM Studios in Hollywood); original glass slides; movie posters; and photos.

The Commission also produces a quarterly newsletter, Metropolis. This newsletter is distributed throughout Fort Lee and to film industry/studio officials throughout the United States. Universal Studios’ archive in Universal City maintains Metropolis on file to commemorate its connection to Fort Lee as the location of its first studio, as well as the location of its first film (Hiawatha, shot on location in Coytesville in 1909, was IMP’s first film production, and IMP founder Carl Laemmle later consolidated IMP with other studios to form Universal in 1912). Universal Studios sponsored the Cliffhanger 2001 Fall Film Festival held in October at the Fort Lee Historic Park auditorium. Fort Lee Film Commission liaison Tom Meyers has been invited to the Universal archive in Los Angeles to view their archive of historic photos and research additional information on Fort Lee’s role in the history of the oldest and largest studio in operation today.