Community Bulletin Board
Teens to learn from professional filmmakers

Aspiring young film artists will learn how to make movies from professional filmmakers during Pixel Nation, a two-week summer video workshop set for July 1-15 (Session 1, for middle school students) and July 18-29 (Session 2, for high school students) at Highland Park High School, North Fifth Avenue. Classes will meet from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Mondays-Fridays. Some classes will also be held at the Institute for Arts and Humanities Education, New Brunswick.

The curriculum is designed for teens, ages 13 to 18, and includes analyzing experimental films, writing a screenplay, filming in the field and postproduction editing and mixing. Focus will be on nonrealistic and experimental video techniques. Students will screen and analyze experimental films and then create stylistic videos based on a common theme.

The faculty will include instructors from New York University (NYU), New York City, as well as New York and New Jersey filmmakers, directors and writers. Field trips will include visits to New York City’s Museum of Television and Radio or American Museum of the Moving Image and NYU’s video and film studios. The workshop will culminate in a film festival featuring all the students’ works. Each student will receive a completed shooting script, finished video on DVD and a reference letter reflecting their accomplishments.

An application and interview are required for admission. Tuition is $385 and includes application fee and video supplies. Scholarships are available. Class size is limited; admission is subject to availability.

For more information and an application, call the Institute for Arts and Humanities Education at (732) 220-1600.

Pixel Nation is a program of the Institute for Arts and Humanities Education, a nonprofit arts education organization dedicated to serving New Jersey’s families, schools and communities with innovative, interdisciplinary programming. The program is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Local nursing home raises funds to help college girl

St. Joseph’s Senior Home–Nursing Center, 3 St. Joseph’s Terrace, Woodbridge, invites the public to attend a fund-raiser flea market from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 25. Proceeds will benefit a 21-year-old female college student whose right hand was amputated. The young woman needs a prosthesis as well as treatment to offset an infection in her left hand. Call (732) 750-0077.

Death penalty discussion slated for end of month

Two members of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty will speak at 7 p.m. June 28 at St. James Catholic Church, Main Street and Amboy Avenue.

Kirk Bloodsworth was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in Maryland. DNA testing vindicated Bloodsworth’s name but not before he spent nine years in jail, two of them on death row. He was released in 1993. A DNA match was later made. That person pleaded guilty to murder on May 20, 2004.

Lorry Post lost his daughter Lisa Post Price when she was murdered. Post later found the organization hosting the evening.

A group discussion and refreshments follows the forum, which is free and open to the public. Though the speakers oppose executions, this program aims to foster dialogue on the issue of capital punishment among people with varying views on the topic.

Call Celeste Fitzgerald at (973) 635-6396 for more information.

Hopelawn Holy Rosary Seniors slates two trips

The Hopelawn Holy Rosary Seniors, Woodbridge, has planned a trip June 22 to the Cock and Bull Inn Mystery Dinner Theater at Peddler’s Village in Lahaska, Bucks County, Pa., featuring “Homicide on the Range” as the murder mystery. Cost per person is $62, which includes the show, dinner and transportation.

The group will also visit the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn July 13 to see “Ragtime.” Cost is $12, which includes lunch at Charlie Brown’s.

Call Mary or Don at (609) 409-8458.

Funeral home to offer free bereavement support

The Costello-Runyon Funeral Home, 568 Middlesex Ave., Metuchen, is offering a bereavement support group. Ongoing sessions will be held every Wednesday and Thursday morning from 10:30 a.m. to noon, as well as Wednesday evening from 7-8:30 p.m. The program, which is free of charge, will take place at the funeral home.

Carol Burner, a certified grief recovery specialist, will facilitate the program. A professional with a master’s degree in counseling from Seton Hall University, South Orange, she has spent the past eight years offering individual and group counseling to clients suffering from significant and tragic losses. For more information, call the funeral home at (732) 548-0149 or Carol Burner at (732) 562-8565.

PoetsWednesday to meet at Barron Arts Center

The longest running poetry series in New Jersey, PoetsWednesday, will feature poets David Heinlein and John McDermott at 8 p.m. on July 13 at the Barron Arts Center, 582 Rahway Ave., Woodbridge. Edie Eustice and Deborah LaVeglia co-direct the series. Call Edie at (732) 381-7691 for more information.

Area malls to offer free blood-pressure screenings

Menlo Park Mall, Edison, and Brunswick Square Mall, East Brunswick, are offering a free blood-pressure testing event for three days to employees and consumers who live in the Middlesex County area and are over 18 years of age. Sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., East Hanover, the screenings — which will be conducted by a team of health-care professionals — are being offered from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. June 24, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. June 25, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 26. Testing will take place in Brunswick Square Mall’s center court and at Menlo Park on the lower level of the Nordstrom wing. For more information, contact Kevin Ryan of Ryan & Ryan PR at (516) 293-5700.

Doctors Speakers Bureau slates ADHD workshops

Doctors Speakers Bureau continues to sponsor its free, interactive community workshop on attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity (ADHD) titled “Ritalin ... Is It Necessary?: A Drug-free Approach to Treating Learning Disorders (Attention Deficit Disorder and Hyperactivity).” The workshop will be offered at 7 p.m. on June 23, July 21 and Aug. 18 at the Woodbridge Main Library, George Frederick Plaza. Guest speaker will be Dr. David Wendel. Light refreshments will be served. Seating is limited, and reservations are required. To reserve a space, call (732) 750-0505.