Highlights from the 20th Black Maria Film & Video FestivalTaking its name and inspiration from the world's first motion picture studioEdison's Black Maria workshop, which produced inventive "primitive" films like The Sneezethe annual Black Maria Film & Video Festival features poetic, expressive, and insightful visions of independent film and video makers. Somewhere, I Was Born (Tony Gault): A riveting autobiographical study of religion and evolution. (8 mins, Color, 16mm)Final Exit (Joe Gibbons): This outrageously funny performance piece by the insanely inventive Gibbons features a heart-to-heart talk with his aging dog. (5 mins, B&W, Video)Backsteps (Leighton Pierce): Exquisite painterly portrait of the videomaker's children at play. (5 mins, Color, Video)King of the Jews (Jay Rosenblatt): This deeply moving, poetic compilation film-within-a-film explores the director's epiphanal right of passage as he comes to terms with his profound conflict over Christianity's treatment of Jews. (18 mins, Color/B&W, 16mm)Haunt #451 (Susana Donovan): Vibrantly inventive compilation film about fathers, the solar system, women and gays, and Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451, all with metaphorical implications. (18 mins, Color, 16mm)The Moschops (Jim Trainor): Wacky, poignant intentionally primitive animation from the point of view of a member of a dinosaur herd. (13 mins, B&W, 16mm)Ghost Trip (Bill Morrison): A mystical road trip in which the American landscape is traversed in a Cadillac hearse. (23 mins, B&W, 35mm)Spawn of the Pagan (George Kuchar): The master eccentric of the American avant-garde visits Mr. V. Vale and Ms. Marian Wallace in this idiosyncratic tribute to their Research Books series. (Color, 20 mins, Video)With thanks to John Columbus, Festival Director. Notes adapted from the Festival catalog.