A Perfect Example of Asbury Park’s Vibrant Arts Community

ASBURY PARK — An event last weekend at the Jersey Shore Arts Center was a perfect representation of the vibrant arts and culture community that so many of us have built here in Asbury Park.

This newspaper constantly is fighting off the bullshit objections that As-bury Park is no longer “cool.” But as we’ve said for almost 30 years, it you don’t like Asbury Park, go someplace else. Our city has more than enough people who appreciate it for staying ahead of the conformist curve. We know of no other small town in a suburban region like ours that has pulled this off.

Our latest proof? The 300 people who attended the screening of the final-ists in the AP’N3 Film Challenge. They filled the auditorium at the Jersey Shore Arts Center in Ocean Grove, just a few steps outside Asbury Park.

What a spectacular event on so many levels. The film challenge is spon-sored by the Asbury Park Arts Council (APAC), a non-profit arts advocacy group that’s having a huge impact boosting the arts in the city. You read about APAC constantly in these pages for such things as their sponsorship of major outdoor murals, film meetups and even the development of an Asbury Park Arts Plan that was adopted as part of the city’s Master Plan.

APAC is a major force that’s keeping Asbury Park real and unique, with key arts leaders on its board, such as Parlor Gallery owner Jenn Hampton. She is also the founder and curator of the acclaimed Wooden Walls public art project of murals on the boardwalk.

But back to the AP’N3 film challenge. It’s a creative competition where par-ticipants have three weeks to produce a three-minute film that includes a required theme that is revealed on Day One of the challenge. This is their fourth year. There are two categories: On Location, with filming in Asbury Park, and No Borders, with filming anywhere so long as you include Asbury Park in some way in the film. The finalist films that were screened were excellent. The enthusiastic crowd at the screening was really into it. And the beautiful old auditorium inside the Jersey Shore Arts Center — a preserved school built in 1898 — looked stunning being illuminated just by the light of the films as they were shown.

This newspaper knew a ton of the 300 people in attendance. They rep-resented the best and most committed of arts supporters, artists and creatives in Asbury Park and immediately surrounding areas. Some have been here for decades. Others more recent arrivals. Everyone was happy and enthusiastic. It really doesn’t get better than this. Anywhere.

All these people, and others like them in the city, is how Asbury Park has stayed as culturally and creatively vibrant as ever. The form the arts take here was to inevitably evolve, and that’s what’s happening. It’s great. We’re constantly surprised by it all.

The Asbury Park Arts Council is now a key part of all this, and they deserve to take a bow for the AP’N3 film challenge.

“I couldn’t be more proud of our ongoing efforts to support and elevate the art of filmmaking in our community. The AP’N3 brings our creatives and community together through a diversity of storytelling,” said Michael Soda-no, the President of the Board of Trustees of the Asbury Park Arts Council.
Sodano, and his wife, Nancy Sabino, were the founders and long-time owners of the ShowRoom Cinema art house movie theater on Cookman Avenue. Nancy Sabino is also the Executive Producer of AP’N3.

“After 4 years, we are still impressed with the inventiveness of the film-makers’ submissions,” she said. “The AP’N3 Film Challenge is growing in numbers of entries, cleverness of concepts and audience size. We can’t wait to see what next year will bring.”

And while this newspaper doesn’t usually cover local school news, there was a stu-dent film made by Asbury Park High School students that brought down the house. And that film showed the reach of APAC into our city by going into the schools to serve our city’s youth. It’s just another example of spreading the benefits through-out Asbury Park of our vibrant arts community.

For almost a year, APAC worked with Asbury Park High School Principal Perry Medi-na and art teacher Jill Rosker to introduce film to the students, according to Carrie Turner, APAC Executive Director. First was an afterschool program earlier this year, where Mike Sodano advised on curriculum and provided speakers from the net-work built through AP’N3 and APAC’s well-attended Filmmaker Meetups.

The afterschool program was popular enough that the high school then held a one month summer enrichment program in film, where again, Sodano assisted by finding course instructors from APAC’s network. The student film shown this past Sunday was made by the students in the Summer Enrichment program. It was a joy to watch, and funny as hell.

“We are so proud that we’ve forged this relationship with the school and that stu-dents have this opportunity to be exposed to the various aspects of filmmaking, the timing of which is perfect as the film industry is set to explode in New Jersey,” Turner said.
Asbury Park Councilwoman Eileen Chapman summed it all up in her remarks at the screening.

“These films are creating a legacy of who we are: Our hopes, our struggles, our history, and they ensure a path forward to a future rooted in creativity,” Chapman said. “These films will live on. All of you filmmakers here today are preserving his-tory. As our city continues to evolve and reshape itself, we will always have these creative and historic moments documented on film to look back upon.”

Here are the winners and finalists of the AP’N3 challenge:

• ON LOCATION Category (Filmed August 1-21)
  First Place:
  “A Taste of Asbury Park” — Jay Leibowitz.
  Second Place:
  “Salt & Sand” — Iris Ameera Lewis.
  Third Place:
  “Brain Food” — Kyle DeMilner
• NO BORDERS Category (Filmed June 1-21)
  First Place:
  “What We Take With Us” — Doug Donaldson & Alex Tichy
  Second Place:
  “Cats in the Cradle”— Anthony Joseph Apicella
  Third Place:
  “Darling Forgive Me” — Dave McGrath
  Audience Award
  “Alphabet Soup” — Greg Silagy