10 NJ stories and stars you can't miss at the Garden State Film Festival

The Garden State Film Festival returns this weekend, putting New Jersey on the big screen for the world to see.

The festival, celebrating its 21st anniversary, runs Thursday, March 23, through Sunday, March 26, at venues throughout Asbury Park. Select events also take place in the Ocean Grove area of Neptune, as well as in Cranford and Ocean Township.

Between Thursday's Meet the Filmmakers kick-off event at 7 p.m. at Asbury Lanes, 209 Fourth Ave., and the closing awards banquet at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at the English Manor, 1107 Logan Road in Ocean Township, there will be film screenings, panel discussions with industry professionals, and plenty of opportunities for networking and mingling.

Here are 10 films that were created by New Jersey talent, filmed locally and/or tell Garden State stories, listed in the order of their Garden State Film Festival screenings.

We’ll see you at the movies!

'A Holocaust Journey: Lessons We Learned'

Lisa Reznik, also the director of the Film Society of Summit in Union County, directed “A Holocaust Journey: Lessons We Learned,” a documentary short following a group of students from Saint Elizabeth University in Morris County touring Germany and Poland to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust.

The film plays as part of a block of films that begin at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the Cranford Theater, 25 North Ave. West, Cranford.

For more information, visit aholocaustjourneyfilm.com.

'The Empty Saddle: Remembering Samuel Johnson'

Director Andrew Sherwood’s documentary short chronicles the work of the New Jersey Social Justice Remembrance Coalition in conjunction with the Equal Justice Institute to bring a historical marker to the Eatontown site of the 1886 lynching of Samuel “Mingo Jack” Johnson. Johnson’s killing is the only documented lynching in New Jersey history.

The film plays at 12:15 p.m. Saturday at the ShowRoom Cinema, 707 Cookman Ave., Asbury Park.

For more information on the coalition and their efforts, visit njremembrance.org.

‘Marijuana Minutes’

How’s this for high concept? A stoner’s life is turned upside down thanks to the discovery of a time-traveling vape in “Marijuana Minutes.”

The work of Red Bank-based writer/director Ryan D. Moore, the film plays at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Kingsley Ballroom of the Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel, 1401 Ocean Ave. in Asbury Park.

‘The Undesirables’

Jason Mewes, known to generations for his work as Jay in Kevin Smith’s View Askew cinematic universe, stars in “The Undesirables,” a television pilot from Manalapan filmmaker Joseph Pepitone.

A comedy set in the Great Beyond, “The Undesirables” screens at 6 p.m. Saturday in Asbury Hall.

For more information, stay tuned to instagram.com/theundesirablestvseries.

‘If We Run’

Part long-form music video, part horror movie, the Jackson-set “If We Run” concerns a group of friends on their way to a party who find themselves fighting for their lives.

Directed by Anthony Yebra and featuring “The Many Saints of Newark” star Michael Gandolfini, the film is a showcase for Asbury Park-based musician Joe P.

“If We Run” plays at 6 p.m. Saturday at Asbury Lanes.

‘Terrifier 2’

The sleeper horror hit of last year, “Terrifier 2” is bringing the scares to the shore.

Shot in Newark and Manalapan, the buzzworthy shocker sequel about the ever-menacing Art the Clown plays at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Asbury Lanes.

For more information, visit terrifier2themovie.com.

‘Loved’

Howell native actor and Garden State Film Festival board of directors member Joe Sernio comes home for his latest film, “Loved.”

Written and directed by David Joseph Higgins, “Loved” stars Sernio as a plumber who finds his wife in bed with another man.

The film, executive-produced by Sernio, screens at 8:30 p.m Saturday at the Jersey Shore Arts Center, 66 S. Main St. in the Ocean Grove section of Neptune.

For more information, visit watchloved.com.

‘TRAP’

Neptune native filmmaker Anthony Curry is bringing "TRAP" home.

Set in a blighted, hopeless swath of the Jersey Shore (the title stands for “The Real Asbury Park”), it’s a hazy cavalcade of guns, drugs and death, united by a bone-deep nihilism from cradle to inevitable grave.

Curry wrote, directed, shot, edited and produced “TRAP,” which he also acts in. In its semi-surrealist deconstruction of gritty genre fare, “TRAP” is akin to Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” (1960), Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider” (1969) or David Lynch’s “Lost Highway” (1997).

The film plays at 8:45 p.m. Saturday at the Continental Ballroom at the Berkeley.

'The Jersey Storm: Sandy in Monmouth County'

The Monmouth County Clerk’s Office produced this look at the devastation and aftermath of 2012’s Superstorm Sandy. Directed by Adam Worth, the film will serve as a vital historical record, as it will be preserved as part of the county’s archives.

“The Jersey Storm” will screen at 12:15 p.m. Sunday in the Asbury Hall of The Asbury hotel, 210 Fifth Ave.

‘Strength Through Visibility: Twenty Years of Pride in Jersey City’

Commemorating the 20th anniversary of Jersey City’s LGBTQ Pride celebration, director Christopher Englese’s “Pride Through Visibility” looks at the past, present and possible future of the Hudson County institution.

The film plays at 2:45 p.m. Sunday at Asbury Lanes.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Garden State Film Festival: 10 NJ stories and stars you can't miss