Rowan filmmakers to premiere ‘The Open Window’ at film festival

June 05, 2008

"The Open Window," a film by Rowan University filmmakers based on a short story by Saki, has been chosen for inclusion in the New Jersey International Film Festival at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

Directed by Joseph Bierman of Mantua, chair of Rowan's Radio/Television/Film (RTF) department, "The Open Window" is a classic tale of a ghost story told to a visiting stranger.

Sean O'Leary of Haddonfield, an instructor and film production coordinator for the RTF department at Rowan, served as the director of photography on the project. Alumni of the University's Advanced Filmmaking course served on the cast and crew.

The film will make its premiere on Sunday, June 8, at 7 p.m. in the theater at Scott Hall, 43 College Ave., on the Rutgers campus. This year, the New Jersey International Film Festival (www.njfilmfest.com) will screen 33 films from across the country and around the world. The festival has an acceptance rate of just under 10 percent this year, according to Bierman.

Works by Bierman, who teaches film production, screenwriting and film history at Rowan, have appeared in more than 40 film festivals. He has won CINE awards for his film adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart and James Joyce's Araby.

O'Leary's previous film credits include the award-winning shorts "Exit: The Last New Jersey Drive-In" and "Flesh Wounds." He's currently in post-production on a short narrative film, "Fragment of a Diary Found on Ellesmere Island." The film is based on a Brian McNaughton short story.