Four years ago, Columbia Journalism Review did a magazine feature on Jersey Journal reporter Joe Albright’s 88th birthday, proclaiming “Saint Joseph” to be the longest-serving Statehouse reporter in the nation.
Inspired by the article, free-lance videographer Tim Stollery launched into a documentary film project on Albright, interviewing former governors, reporters and residents of the Trenton neighborhood where Albright has been blessing and feeding birds and animals when he is not researching or writing his next column for the Jersey Journal.
Stollery’s project was interrupted by the Covid-19 lockdowns, but he is now back at work, with the Corporation for New Jersey Local Media signing on as the non-profit sponsor to seek grant funding to complete the project.
“Joe is 92, and I’d like to get the film out there,” said Stollery, an Emmy Award-winning videographer during the two decades he spent at New Jersey Network. “I’m on the final edits, and I appreciate the Corporation for New Jersey Local Media’s willingness to take this on as a project.”
CNJLM board members who reviewed Stollery’s rough cut were enthusiastic about the film, feeling that it was a good fit with the non-profit’s emphasis on promoting the importance of professional journalism.
Albright, who has been covering Statehouse politics from a Hudson County angle since the Hughes Administration in the 1960s, brings an encyclopedic knowledge of New Jersey political history to the job, making him a “go to” source for Statehouse reporters like NJ Spotlight’s John Reitmeyer, who shared an office with Albright before the Statehouse renovations. Read more about Joe Albright’s career in this Columbia Journalism Review profile.
Stollery is planning to finish final shooting and editing by the end of the year. Click here or on the button below to donate in support of this project.
Joe Albright was known to Trentonians in his neighborhood as “bird man” or “the cat guy,” because of his daily ritual of feeding pigeons, squirrels and stray cats he encountered as he made his way to work at the New Jersey State House as a reporter and columnist for the Hudson County “Jersey Journal.” He was known to reporters, statehouse staffers, governors and senators as ‘Saint Joseph” or “Jersey Joe” for the same reasons—feeding the animals — but add to that the fact that after he fed the creatures, he blessed them with the sign of the cross. Some called Joe “The Saint Frances of the statehouse,” referring to Saint Francis of Assisi, a revered icon of the Catholic Church who was known as the patron saint of pets animals and was Joe Albright’s favorite saint. Albright began his legendary career freelancing as a sportswriter at the Trentonian, The Star-Ledger, and The Newark Evening News, among others, when he was still in high school! After a four-year stint in the Navy during the Korean War, he had several jobs around the country before settling in at the Hudson County Jersey Journal in 1964 as a statehouse reporter and columnist, the job he held until May 5, 2022, the day he died at age 93.
Saint Joseph is a project of the Corporation for New Jersey Local Media. Saint Joseph will premiere Saturday, March 25 in a block of six short films starting at 2:45 at the Berkeley Continental ballroom at the Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel, Asbury Park. For more information on screening times and locations, visit https://www.gsff.org/.
Joe Albright stories with NJ Spotlight News reporter John Reitmeyer. From the documentary “Saint Joseph” an Official Selection to The 2023 Garden State Film Festival. Premiere 3/25/23 2:45PM Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel, Asbury Park.
Joe Albright stories withJim McQeeny. From the documentary “Saint Joseph” an Official Selection to The 2023 Garden State Film Festival. Premiere 3/25/23 2:45PM Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel, Asbury Park.
