51st Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival.
Mar. 19-24. The oldest and one of the most prestigious film festivals in North America features 6 days of film screenings, panel discussions, and parties that culminate in screenings of the award-winning films on Mar. 24. The competition showcases new experimental and independent 16-mm, 35-mm, and digital films and videos in a wide range of genres and of generally high quality. Past contributors have included Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Brian De Palma.
Mar. 19: Opening Night. The festival kicks off tonight with screenings of independent short films, including animation, documentary, narrative, and experimental films, as well as the North American premiere of Da Vinci, Yuri Ancarani’s film, set in an operating room, that depicts a surgical procedure performed by robots controlled by a physician. Preceded from 6-8 p.m. by a gala reception ($35; members, students, & seniors, $25; screening only, $9) with music spun by DJ Jeremy Wheeler. Also, open bar & appetizers from local restaurants. Also, a “Backstage Fundraiser Dinner” from 6-8 p.m. ($150). 8-10 p.m.
Mar. 20: Polish animation shorts curated by festival judge Marcin Gizycki. FREE, noon. “Films in Competition ” (4:30 p.m.), including The Poor Stockinger, the Luddite Cropper and the Deluded Followers of Joanna Southcott, Luke Fowler’s film that combines archive footage and new material in a meditation on the Marxist critic, historian, and activist E.P. Thompson who taught literature and social history to adults in the industrial towns of northern England. The program begins with Nathaniel Dorsky’s elegiac short August and After “Psychedelic Visions and Expanded Consciousness: Los Angeles in the 60s and 70s” (7 p.m.), hyperkinetic experimental films and animation from the late 1960s and early 1970s. “Films in Competition 1” (7:15 p.m.), including Bill Brown’s Memorial Land--about homemade 9/11 memorials--and other experimental, documentary, and animated films. “People’s Park & Ernst Karel” (9:15 p.m.). Karel, a sound artist and composer who made the soundtrack for People’s Park, performs before a screening of Libbie Cohn and J.P. Sniadecki’s single-shot documentary that winds its way through a famous urban park in Chengdu, China. “Out Night: History, Glamor, Magic” (9:30 p.m.), includes films in competition that are inspired by the mythologies and artifice of Hollywood and revolve around queer/trans issues. Films are followed by an after party at the autBar (11 p.m.-2 a.m.), with fire pits in the courtyard and free appetizers.
Mar. 21: Films chosen by festival judge
Laida Lertxundi, including her short 2012 experimental soundscape
The Room Called Heaven, as well as films by Hollis Frampton, Bruce Baillie, and Morgan Fisher. FREE, noon.
“Critical Means #1,” a panel discussion on the current state of film criticism and writing. FREE, 2:30 p.m. Talk by legendary documentarian
Ken Burns. FREE, 5:10 p.m.
“Films in Competition 3” (7 p.m.), including recent animation, experimental, and documentary films.
Leviathan (7:15 p.m.), Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s experimental, impressionistic documentary about commercial fishing. With an appearance by soundtrack creator Ernst Karel.
“Suzan Pitt Retrospective Program One” “Films in Competition 2” (9:30 p.m.), including the North American premieres of Takashi Makino’s epic abstract film
2012 and Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt’s
Some Part of Us Will Have Become, a sci-fi film from the perspective of a robot who’s witnessing a massive man made disaster. Also,
Passage, Madison Brookshire’s double 16mm film that operates as a meditation on color and sound, with music by composer Tashi Wada. Other shorts TBA. Films are followed by an
after party at the Ravens Club (11:30 p.m.-2 a.m.).
Mar. 22: Films by critically acclaimed Virginia based artist (and festival judge) Kevin Jerome Everson, including the world premiere of Rhinoceros. FREE, noon. “Critical Means #2,” a continuation of the panel discussion on Mar. 21 (see above). FREE, noon. “Polish Avant Garde Animation Films” (5 p.m.), including Jan Lenica’s 1963 stop-motion masterpiece Labyrinth, Zbigniew Rybczynski’s 1975 short New Book, and Tango, Rybczynski’s Oscar-winning 1980 short that operates as a collage of people performing repeated patterns. Feature-length film TBA (7 p.m.). “Films in Competition 4” (7:30 p.m.): Kathryn Ramey’s WEST: What I know about her, an experimental documentary about her ancestor Elizabeth Crandall Perry, an adventurer and midwife. I Remember: A Film about Joe Brainard, Matt Wolf’s documentary about the late artist Brainard and his memoir poem “I Remember.” The Mutability of All Things and the Possibility of Changing Some, Anna Marziano’s film that explores human adaptability in the face of catastrophe. Hope Tucker’s Handful of Dust. “Films by Pat O’Neill” (9:30 p.m.). Acclaimed avant-garde filmmaker O’Neill is in attendance for this screening of several of his shorts from the late 1960s to the present. He is known for his innovative optical techniques. “Animated Films in Competition” (9:45 p.m.). Recent animated shorts by Emily Hubley, Maureen Selwood, Maya Erdelyi, Meejin Hong, Shin Hashimoto, Kevin Eskew, and others. The films are followed by an after party at the Bar at 327 Braun Ct. (11 p.m.-2 a.m.), with a live audiovisual performance by the Brooklyn duo Synthhumpers.
Mar. 23: Your Day Is My Night (11 a.m.), Lynne Sachs’ documentary, part of the AAFF competition, in which residents of New York City’s Chinatown tell their stories of personal and political upheaval.
Central Park Five (noon), Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon’s documentary that tells the story of 5 black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were arrested in 1989 and later wrongfully convicted of raping a white woman in Central Park. Followed by a discussion with
Ken Burns, Raymond Santana (one of the “Five”), and Northwestern Center on Wrongful Convictions director Steve Drizin.
“Films in Competition 5” (1 p.m.), including new films by Ana Vaz and Ben Rivers, the North American premiere of Stephen Connolly’s
Zabriskie Point (Redacted)--an impressionistic documentary that combines images of the eponymous location of Antonioni’s 1970 film
Zabriskie Point with contemporary research on the location and the film--and Bette Gordon and James Benning’s 1975 conceptual bicentennial masterpiece
The United States of America. Water and Power (4 p.m.), an award-winning 1990 film that combines visually and aurally dense tableaux with advanced motional control, optical printing, and animation techniques to depict the complex battle for natural resources waged between L.A. and the Owens Valley. Director Pat O’Neill is in attendance.
“Films in Competition 6” (3:30 p.m.), including animated, experimental, and narrative films by Jesse McClean, Lori Felker, and James Lowne, as well as
Circle in the Sand, Michael Robinson’s 2012 film, set in the near future during a 2nd American civil war, that follows a band of exiled political prisoners and their supervising soldiers who live in the ruins of a seaside military fort.
“Suzan Pitt Retrospective Program Two” (7 p.m.). Second of two screenings of films by celebrated animator Pitt, who is in attendance. The program is highlighted by the world premiere of her latest film,
Pinball “Films in Competition 7” (7:15 p.m.), including animated, experimental, documentary, and narrative films TBA.
Suitcase of Love and Shame (9:15 p.m.). World premiere of this film that reconstructs a mesmerizing and erotic love story based on 60 hours of reel-to-reel 1960s audiotape (discovered in a suitcase) that chronicles the details of an adulterous affair between a Midwestern woman and her lover. Director Jane Gillooly is in attendance.
“Films in Competition 8” (9:30 p.m.), including animated, experimental, documentary, and narrative films TBA. The films are followed by a FREE
after party at the Last Word (301 W. Huron) from 11 p.m.-2 a.m.
Mar. 24: “Films in Competition 9,” including animated and experimental films appropriate for kids ages 6 and up. $5, 11 a.m.
“Regional Films in Competition,” including narrative, experimental, and documentary films made in Michigan. $5, 11 a.m.
“Music Video in Competition.” FREE, UMMA Auditorium (525 S. State), noon.
“Films in Competition 10” (1 p.m.), including new documentary and experimental films by Dani Leventhal, Mike Hoolboom, and others, as well as
Spend It All, Les Blank’s 1971 portrait of Cajun culture.
The Radiant (1:30 p.m.), the Otolith Group’s film, part of the AAFF competition, that explores the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake that triggered a tsunami and contributed to the partial meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the east coast of Japan.
Our Nixon (3:30 p.m.), H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, and Dwight Chapin’s documentary, part of the AAFF competition, that compiles previously unseen archival footage of Nixon’s presidency, filmed by White House aides on Super 8 home movie cameras and subsequently seized by the FBI during the Watergate investigation.
“Award Program 1” (6 p.m.).
“Award Program 2” (8 p.m.). Followed by an
after party (10 p.m.-1 a.m.) at Arbor Brewing Company.
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Michigan Theater (unless otherwise noted). Tickets: $95 (members, students, & seniors, $80) for the entire festival & $55 (members, students, & seniors, $45) for weekend passes in advance at aafilmfest.org, and $9 (students, seniors, & members, $7; midnight movies, $6) per evening show at the door. 995-5356. [
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