WEST ORANGE, NJ — To celebrate the West Orange Arts Center’s third anniversary on Nov. 9, the West Orange Arts Council held a “Hollywood Night” fundraiser at the gallery on Valley Road, complete with door prizes, a red carpet and a walk of fame. The event was also a celebration of Ken Mandel, longtime West Orange resident and chairman of the West Orange Classic Film Festival, who decided to step down from his post earlier this year. Mandel founded the film festival and spent 13 years heading up the effort to bring classic films to the public every January and February.
“This is the third anniversary, and we decided we wanted to have an honoree this year,” Arts Council Chairwoman Patricia Mitrano told the West Orange Chronicle at the event. “With Ken stepping down, we had to have a Hollywood theme.”
Mandel is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning documentarian. His Emmy, which Mandel won in 1993 for the PBS documentary “George Marshall and the American Century,” was on display at the Arts Center and available for people to hold as they gave their own faux acceptance speech.
In an interview with the Chronicle at the event, Mandel talked about his award-winning documentary.
“Most of the people I worked on that with are still friends of mine,” he said. “It was on PBS in 1993, so it was a time when a lot of people still knew who George Marshall was. I think it’s important to do certain things at the right time.”
George Marshall, an American statesman and member of the United States Army, served as chief of staff under Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman; and as secretary of state and secretary of defense under Truman.
Mandel described the beginning of the film festival, when Council President Susan McCartney and Assemblyman John McKeon, then the mayor of West Orange, asked him to think about starting a film event.
“In the back of my mind I was saying, ‘no, no, say no,’” Mandel joked. “But I didn’t. I think I paid my dues. It’s been about 150 events over that time. There’s a good team to carry it on, so I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere.”
He discussed how the festival evolved over the years, allowing him to reach many of the goals he had originally set for the festival. Throughout the years, events have been held at the West Orange Public Library, the Oskar Schindler Performing Arts Center, the AMC movie theater in Essex Green and other locations around town. Mandel was especially pleased to be able to add talks about the films being screened to the program.
“We came up with a formula and it became a film course for the price of a movie ticket,” Mandel said. “Scholars and critics and fans would talk. Eventually we would have 100 or more people staying after films. Then we added movies for kids and comedies.”
McKeon presented Mandel with a proclamation from the State Assembly in honor of his work, and thanked him for his years of dedication.
“To have an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and to see the pride and joy it brought to our community was special,” McKeon said. “The fact that it never stopped you from contributing to our community is something we can never repay you for. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”
Mandel told the Chronicle that 13 years was long enough for him to be the chairman of the festival.
“It’s been a lot of fun, but it’s also been a lot of work,” he said. “I’m handing it off to film lovers and they’ll keep it going. It was important to me to do something like this in West Orange, the town where so many contributions were made to movies with Edison, so it was in that spirit. It was a great way to keep our film heritage going.”
Photos by Amanda Valentovic and Courtesy of Amelia Panico
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