Film's roots lie closer to the Atlantic than the Pacific. In the 1890s in New Jersey, Thomas Edison patented the motion-picture camera. With the help of George Eastman, who invented a film that could capture movements, Edison built the first movie studio, called "Black Maria," in West Orange, and made the first film: a re-creation of a sneeze. Even MGM and Paramount studios were once based out of Fort Lee.

And from April 25-28 in Hoboken and Jersey City, The Hudson Waterfront Film Society will present The Back East Picture Show - returning movies to where they began.

The first annual Back East Picture Show is the brainchild of independent filmmaker Anthony Costanza and entrepreneur Maria Perfetto. Spanning four days, the festival will screen over 30 independent films - including documentaries, features, and shorts. In addition to screenings, the festival will also feature filmmaking workshops, awards, dinners, and panels.

Costanza has been a fan of movies ever since childhood. Growing up in Whippany, NJ, he was more interested in the end product rather than the filmmaking process, and watched movies whenever he could. "I just wanted to say that I saw every single movie," he says.

Costanza attended NYU, majoring in Psychology and Economics. He'd thought to make movies, you "had to be part of an elite group." Looking back on it, he admits, "It would have been fun." His floor-mates his freshman year included Adam Sandler and eventual writers for Saturday Night Live, whom he still keeps in touch with.

Movies influenced Costanza's career plans. After seeing the film Wall Street, he became infatuated and worked for Smith Barney, Dean Witter, Fleet, and Citibank. During that time, he began to explore filmmaking; he attended NYU at night from 1994 to 1996, to "learn how." There, he worked on short films, videos, and wrote a script for his feature film, Welcome to the Family, a mob comedy.

On the eve of his 32nd birthday ("I was in it for the dramaticism,"), he quit Citibank to make movies. He rewrote Welcome to the Family in 1998 and directed, produced, cast, catered, shot, and edited it in 1999. Currently bartending and driving a cab infrequently to "pay the bills," he is currently "tweaking" his film and will show it at the festival.

He was inspired to create the Back East Picture Show when he sent his film to various festivals, and lamented their "political" nature, which motivated him to think, "why not start my own?" This area, he adds, has no independent film festival.

Movies are what brought the two founders of the Hudson Film Society together. Maria Perfetto's background is in hotel sales and marketing. She and Costanza met when she was an extra in his film. She left her job working for Ian Schrager hotels to start the festival with Costanza.

Perfetto serves as the business leader. "I'm doing what I'm best at," she laughs, "Which is not filmmaking." She likes that she can utilize her hospitality background, commenting that hotels and film both resemble "a three-ring circus."

"I love movies," she adds, and stresses that this is her "way of becoming part of the industry."

Perfetto's responsibilities include sponsorships (current sponsors include Viacom Outdoor Advertising, Doubletree Hotels, Hertz, Bacardi, and Tiger Schulmann's Karate); booking film professionals (Paul Borghese, President of the Guild of Italian American Actors and Emmy-Award winning filmmaker Michael Sergio are among those already on the roster); and securing support in the community. The organization is largely composed of volunteers, and Perfetto says hundreds of people have already offered their services. She has received numerous calls and emails thanking them for putting this together. She stresses that she feels like they are doing "something good" and says she's "never had this much fun doing this much work."

Ideally, both founders would like to get "wide distribution" of a film shown at the festival. As for the Hudson Waterfront Film Society as a whole, they plan to build an excellent, professional organization that helps develop and serve the filmmaking community.

he Back East Picture Show will be held April 25-28. Films will be shown at the Hudson Street Cinema at Hudson and First Streets in Hoboken. Workshops and panels will be held at the Doubletree Hotel in Jersey City. Also planned is an Awards Dinner at the new Liberty House, where a Grand Prize Winner will take home 5,000 feet of 35mm motion picture film, donated by Fuji.

Film submissions are being accepted until March 31st, and the festival has already received 80 films. Submission forms and more information can be accessed at the festival's web site: www.backeastpictureshow.org. A panel of five judges from diverse backgrounds is evaluating each film and they stress that "fresh" films with a "good story" which "pull you in" are critical.

"It's so difficult to have a great film," admits Perfetto.

Please send all comments, questions and corrections to features@hobokeni.com and we'll be glad to forward them.