Newton - Sussex County Community College will host the 25th annual Black Maria Film Festival Spring 2006 tour at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 11, .in the Sussex Bank Theater at the college. A custom-created program of short films, featuring “some of the nation’s most free spirited, fresh, and visionary independent films, will be shown,” according to event organizers. The event is open to the public. Admission is $3. Since 1981, the annual Black Maria Film and Video Festival, an international juried competition and award tour, has undertaken its mission to “advocate, exhibit and reward” cutting-edge works from independent film and video makers. The festival is known for its national public exhibition program, which features contemporary works drawn from the annual collection of 50 award-winning films and videos. The festival’s roots are in New Jersey, where just over 100 years ago Thomas Edison developed motion picture technology at his West Orange lab facilities. One of those laboratories was the Black Maria, the world’s first motion picture studio. It was a purpose-built structure that had a hinged roof and rotated on a circular wooden track, allowing the studio to follow the sun and illuminate the stage within. A technological marvel for its day, the Black Maria is an artifact from the dawn of moving pictures, a medium which revolutionized human expression. Acrobats, strong men, vaudeville performers, actors and dancers (such as Annabelle Whitford whose artful Serpentine and Butterfly dances challenged late Victorian mores) and a spectrum of characters from all walks of life (including the great cowgirl sharpshooter, Annie Oakley) were invited to the Black Maria to be filmed. Today the works exhibited by the Black Maria Film and Video Festival explore the human condition, as well as the creative potential of the medium. The festival tour exhibits the winning works in various thematic and artistic configurations tailored to diverse audiences. The Black Maria is recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an Academy Award qualifying festival for short films (documentary, animation, and live action) and was awarded the N.J. Governor’s Award for Excellence in 2002 and the N.J. State Council of the Arts Certificate of Excellence in 2003. For information on the festival, call 973-300-2120.