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Posted on December 05th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Executive Director Opportunity

Posted on May 20th, 2013

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Executive Director Opportunity

The Ann Arbor Film Festival has an exciting opportunity for a dynamic, effective and experienced full-time Executive Director to lead the festival into its 52nd year of presenting independent and experimental film.

Are you looking to become part of an internationally renowned organization that has a true passion for excellence? Do you have strong organization, fundraising, and leadership abilities? Do you love experimental film?

If you answered yes to these questions, you may be just the person we are looking for.

The selected candidate will be responsible for:

Having an understanding of and passion for AAFF’s mission/values and its commitment to the arts community, and for leading the implementation and continuation of this mission.
Providing vibrant leadership with a clear vision for the organization, and providing day to day leadership of the AAFF team.
All aspects of fundraising including major gift work, grant writing, sponsorships, and annual membership.
Ensuring the highest level of artistic content and presentation at the film festival and other events.
Directing staff in programs and development management
Fostering positive, productive relationships and teamwork among staff, board and volunteers.
Ensuring sound financial planning and fiscal management.
Creating and implementing annual marketing initiatives to target markets and identifies strategies for membership and ticket sales.

The successful candidate will have superb energy, enthusiasm and the passion needed to be an effective ED, and will bring to the AAFF the following experiences/qualifications:

3+ years in a leadership role in a non-profit, preferably in the arts.
A knowledge and interest in the fields of film, new media, and/or contemporary art.
Familiarity with the Ann Arbor arts and business communities. An established network of local colleagues is preferred.
Strong organizational leadership to maximize existing strategies and develop new directions when needed.
Development experience in the form of donor cultivation, working on prospect lists, and organizing fundraising events.
Experience with financial management in a small to medium sized non-profit organization.
Excellent written and oral communication skills, including public speaking.
Ability to work with a governing board.
Ability to lead and motivate staff and volunteers.

Candidates interested in the opportunity to be a part of and lead a dynamic, internationally renowned film festival should submit resume, introductory letter, three or more professional reference letters, salary history, and any other additional information to AAFF via email at julieecrichton@gmail.com. The AAFF is an equal opportunity employer.

The Ann Arbor film festival is the longest running independent and experimental film festival in North America, established in 1963. Internationally recognized as a premiere forum for independent filmmakers and artists, each year’s festival engages audiences with remarkable cinematic experiences. The AAFF is steeped in a rich tradition of ground-breaking cinema, and is committed to its mission of supporting bold, visionary filmmakers; advance the art form of film and new media, and to engage communities with remarkable cinematic experiences.

Posted on May 06th, 2013

Ann Arbor Film Fest

51st AAFF Awards Announcement

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is proud to announce the award recipients for the 51st AAFF as chosen by our esteemed jury Kevin Jerome Everson, Laida Lertxundi and Marcin Gizycki.

Ken Burns Award for Best of the Festival
Our Nixon (Penny Lane)

The Stan Brakhage Film at Wit’s End Award
I Am Micro (Shai Heredia, Shumona Goel)

Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film
Bite of the Tail (Song E Kim)

Michael Moore Award for Best Documentary Film
Skinningrove (Michael Almereyda)

Award for Best International Film
2012 (Takashi Makino)

Peter Wilde Award for Most Technically Innovative Film
Da Vinci (Yuri Ancarani)

\aut\FILM Award for Best LGBT Film
Encounters I May or May Not Have Had with Peter Berlin (Mariah Garnett)

Leon Speakers Award for Best Sound Design
Life is an Opinion, Fire a Fact (Karen Yasinsky)

FotoKem/Colorlab Award for Best Cinematography
Despedida (farewell) (Alexandra Cuesta)
People’s Park (Libbie D. Cohn, J.P. Sniadecki)

The No Violence Award
I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard (Matt Wolf)

Gus Van Sant Award for Best Experimental Film
Postface (Frédéric Moffet)

Chris Frayne Award for Best Animated Film
Burning Star (Joshua Gen Solondz)

The Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for Emerging Experimental Video Artist
Pareidolia (Maya Erdelyi)

Prix DeVarti for Funniest Film
Liberaceón (Chris Vargas)

Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker
Split Ends, I Feel Wonderful (Akosua Adoma Owusu)

George Manupelli Founder’s Spirit Award
Flower (Naoko Tasaka)

Art & Science Award
Dear Pluto (Joanna Priestley)

The Eileen Maitland Award
Lie Back and Enjoy It: A Film About JoAnn Elam (Jessica Bardsley)

Award for Best Music Video
Reagan by Killer Mike (Daniel Garcia, Harry Teitelman)

Jury Awards
Handful of Dust (Hope Tucker)
Solar Sight II (Lawrence Jordan)
Coversong (Eric Dyer)
More Is Always on the Way (Bryan Boyce)
Releasing Human Energies (Mark Toscano)
Circle in the Sand (Michael Robinson)
Phantom of a Libertine (Ben Rivers)
Dad’s Stick (John Smith)

Posted on March 26th, 2013

Ann Arbor Film Fest

51st AAFF Full Schedule

March 19th, 2013, 6pm
Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI
Admission: $9 & $7

The full program and schedule for the 51st Ann Arbor Film Festival is now available! Visit the events calendar for more details or to purchase tickets and passes.

Posted on March 01st, 2013

Ann Arbor Film Fest

51st AAFF Passes On Sale Now!

Festival Passes are a simple cost-effective way to experience the entire 51st Ann Arbor Film Festival!

Maximize your Ann Arbor Film Festival experience and avoid waiting in long ticket lines with a six-day Festival Pass. This pass includes access to the Opening Night Reception & Screening (a $50 value) as well as 30 ticketed programs presented throughout the week at the Michigan Theater. The Festival Pass includes admission to midnight movies at the State Theatre and free or discounted admission to all festival afterparties.

51st Festival Passes

Not able to make the whole festival? The Weekend Pass mght be just for you! This pass grants access to all screenings from Friday, March 22nd through Sunday, March 24th, including midnight movies and the awards programs.

51st Weekend Passes

Posted on February 15th, 2013

Ann Arbor Film Fest

50th AAFF Tour Materials

Posted on January 29th, 2013

Ann Arbor Film Fest

We’ve Moved!

Update your address book, we've moved from our office on S. State Street to 217 N. First Street Ann Arbor MI 48104. For mailing please use our P.O. Box 8232, Ann Arbor, MI 48107 (exceptions: FedEx, UPS and DHL deliveries).

Posted on January 21st, 2013

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Announcing the 51st AAFF Jury

Laida Lertxundi is a filmmaker, programmer and lecturer at University of California San Diego. Her films made with non-professional actors evoke intimate spaces both external and internal. Filled with intricate arrangements of actions and sounds, her work explores how filmic moments can be imbued with emotional resonance. Her cinema questions how viewers’ desires and expectations are shaped by cinematic forms of storytelling. She searches for alternative ways of linking sound and music with found locales, constructed situations, and quotidian environments. Shot in and around Los Angeles, her films map a geography transformed by affective and subjective states.

Her films have been shown internationally in museums, festivals and venues such as MoMA; Tate Modern (London); Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Viennale (Austria); the New York Film Festival Views from the Avant Garde; the International Film Festival Rotterdam; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid); Anthology Film Archives and many more. She was recently featured in the 2012 Whitney Biennial.

Lertxundi received the Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker at the 48th Ann Arbor Film Festival. She was included in Best of the Decade reviews in CinemaScope Magazine and 25 Filmmakers for the 21st Century in The Film Comment Avant-Garde Poll. She has programmed film and video at venues in the U.S. and Spain, and has published various articles on film, most recently in the anthology La Risa Oblicua and Bostezo magazine.

Marcin Gizycki is an art and film historian, critic, photographer, filmmaker and senior lecturer at Rhode Island School of Design. He is an expert at the Polish Film Institute as well as the founder and Artistic Director of the Animator International Animated Film Festival in Poznan, Poland. His work includes documentary, experimental, and animated films. Gizycki has curated numerous film programs for international venues including the Museum of Modern Art (NY), the Museum of Cinematography (Torino), and the Centre Pompidou (Paris).

Gizycki has published over 300 essays, papers, and articles on art and film; his books include: Avant-Garde and Cinema: Film in Polish Avant-Garde Circles Between the Wars (1996), Disney Was Not the Only One (2000), The End and What Next? Essays on Postmodernism, Contemporary Art, and the End of the Century (2001), Dictionary of Movements and Key Notions of Art of the 2nd Half of the 20th Century (2002), and Wenders Go Home! (2006).

Kevin Jerome Everson is currently an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. With a sense of place and historical research, Everson’s films combine scripted and documentary moments with rich elements of formalism. They focus on gestures or tasks caused by certain conditions in the lives of working class African Americans and other people of African descent.

He has completed five feature films and more than 70 short films in addition to paintings, sculpture, site-specific installations and photographs. Everson was featured in the 2008 and 2012 Whitney Biennials as well as a major retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum in 2011. Everson has received fellowships from the Guggenheim, NEA, NEH, Ohio Arts Council and the Virginia Museum, an American Academy Rome Prize, grants from Creative Capital and the Mid-Atlantic, residencies at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Yaddo and MacDowell Colony, and numerous university fellowships. Everson was named an Alpert Award recipient in 2012.

His artwork and films have been exhibited internationally at museums and art institutions including the Centre Pompidou, Museum of Modern Art (NY); REDCAT (Los Angeles); Cleveland Museum of Art; the Studio Museum in Harlem (New York); Armand Hammer Museum (Los Angeles); The Wexner Center of the Arts (Columbus, Ohio); and the Whitechapel Gallery (London); among others.

Everson’s films have screened at many international film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, AFI Film Festival, (Los Angeles), Athens International Film Festival (Ohio), Courtisane Festival (Belgium), CPH:DOX (Copenhagen), and the Media City Film Festival (Windsor, Ontario) among many others.

Everson has had several films shown over the past 15 years at the Ann Arbor Film Festival including the film Eleven Eighty-Two (1997) which won the Peter Wilde Award for Technical Innovation.

Photo credit: Laida Lertxundi - Harold Abramowitz
Marcin Gizycki - Arkadiusz Ścichocki / AG

Posted on December 11th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

51st AAFF Acceptance Materials

Posted on December 05th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Special Programs in Poland

The Ann Arbor Film Festival has curated two programs of recent films and videos that will be presented at the 19th International Film Festival Etiuda & Anima; a festival in Kraków, Poland featuring short films and animation and the longest running festival in Poland focusing on these forms. The AAFF programs include twenty-one 35mm films and videos selected from the past few editions of the AAFF with works by Duke & Battersby, Phil Solomon, Daïchi Saïto, Inger lise Hansen, Scott Stark, Michael Robinson, Laura Heit, Semiconductor, Chema García Ibarra, Tomonari Nishikawa, Minna Parkkinen, James Sansing, Rebecca Baron and Doug Goodwin, among others.

The 19th International Film Festival Etiuda & Anima takes place November 23-29th.

Image: ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (2008) by Michael Robinson

Posted on November 16th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

51st AAFF Passes On Sale Now

A Festival Pass provides you access to all screenings during the 51st festival, including the Opening Night Reception & Screening on Tuesday, March 19th. Plus, you avoid ticket lines and secure a seat before any program sells out!

Can't make it for the whole festival? The Weekend Pass might be just for you. This pass grants access to all screenings & events from Friday through Sunday.

Festival Pass: $95

Weekend Pass: $55

Get your passes and don’t forget to check out the rest of our fancy merchandise at the AAFF Store. Our DVD Collections, Postcards, T-Shirts, Keychains, Mug and make terrific holiday gifts!

Posted on November 16th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

50th AAFF Tour at Shadow Art Fair

July 21st, 2012 10:00pm
Corner Brewery, Ypsilanti, MI
Admission: $0.02

Catch a selection of short films from the upcoming 50th AAFF Traveling Tour programs this Saturday, July 21st during the Shadow Art Fair at Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti.

We are very pleased to again be working with the awesome folks at SAF. The day long event brings together a curated array of local art vendors and musicians yearly in July. The brewery environment makes it easy for guests and vendors to hang out, have conversations, and to spend a leisurely time there. So what better than an outdoor screening of films to wind down the event!?

Come have a beer, check out the vendors and bands, then take in some films!

Films to be screened at the 2012 Shadow Art Fair:

Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke

The Deep Dark

Moxie

Posted on July 16th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Ann Arbor Film Festival Michael Moore Award Winners at Traverse City Film Festival

August 02nd, 2012 3:00pm
Old Town Playhouse, Traverse City, MI
Tickets on sale 7/21/12

In honor of the 50th AAFF the Traverse City Film Festival presents three recent winners of the Ann Arbor Film Festival’s Michael Moore Award for Best Documentary Film: a city symphony on the crazed pace of modern China’s urbanization, a view onto a remote island off the Peruvian coast where workers harvest the droppings of thousands of birds once every 11 years, and a portrait of life in a region of northern Russia that is still contending with the debris from hydrogen bomb testing.

Disorder (Xianshi Shi Guoqu De Weilai) Weikai Huang | 2009 | China | 58 min.

Guañape Sur János Richter | 2010 | Italy, Peru | 24 min.

On the Third Planet from the Sun Pavel Medvedev | 2006 | Russia | 32 min.

Tickets on sale July 21, 2012

Posted on July 15th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

50th Tour Programs

Posted on July 02nd, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

51st AAFF Call for Entries

** Our Late Deadline is extended to November 15th due to the Withoutabox data loss. **

The Call for Entries is now CLOSED for the 51st Ann Arbor Film Festival!

The 51st AAFF provides at least $20,000 in cash and film stock/services to more than 20 filmmakers, serves as a qualifying festival for Academy Award® nomination in the short film category and provides touring opportunities for select filmmakers.

The 51st Festival will take place March 19 – 24, 2013 in downtown Ann Arbor, MI.

Each film should only be submitted with one option (either on withoutabox.com, with a paper form or an electronic form). For example, you do not need to fill out a paper entry form if you are submitting via withoutabox.com.

We are currently accepting submissions in the following formats: DVD, Blu-ray, Internet Link (URL) and 16mm.

If you would like to submit your work via an Internet Link (URL), choose from one of the three submission options above, then send an email to submissions@aafilmfest.org with the films URL, director's name, title of entry, withoutabox.com tracking number (if applicable) and password information (if applicable).

DEADLINES (POSTMARKED)

Early Deadline: August 20, 2012 - $30 Shorts / $40 Features

Official Deadline: October 8, 2012 - $40 Shorts / $50 Features

Late Deadline: November 8, 2012 - $50 Shorts / $60 Features

Packages must be postmarked on or before each deadline and can be mailed to:

Ann Arbor Film Festival
PO Box 8232
Ann Arbor, MI 48107

SELECTED FILMS

All submitting filmmakers will be notified regarding acceptance by approximately February 22, 2013 by the email address provided at the time of submission (please add mail@aafilmfest.org) to your email address book to ensure receipt of notification).

If you have questions regarding your submission or the submission process, please contact Maria Feldman at submissions@aafilmfest.org.

Posted on July 02nd, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

51st AAFF Submission Form

Posted on June 25th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Michael Sicinski Reviews the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival

This week MUBI Notebook features an eloquent review of the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival written by film critic Michael Sicinski.

This year marked the 50th anniversary of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, which would be a milestone for any cinema-related event in the U.S. But for a festival that has carved out a niche in the area of experimental and avant-garde film and video, AAFF's achievement is especially noteworthy. Even within the rarefied realm of cinephilia, the avant-garde tends to be something on the margins, or even in the best of circumstances (e.g., the Rotterdam, New York, or Toronto film festivals) one part of a much larger whole. So the fact that Ann Arbor and its intrepid citizens have continued to support this strange little festival, and all the bizarre films the festival has thrown their way over the years, speaks very highly of both the town and the festival founders and organizers.

Read the ful article on MUBI.

Sicinski emphasises what a rare opportunity it was to screen contemporary works alongside archival and historical works from the festival's five decades of exhibition. He specifically points to the two Japanese Avant Garde programs presented and co-curated by AAFF Program Director David Dinnell and filmmaker Tomonari Nishikawa.

Download the program notes for the two Japanese Programs SPACE/TIME and IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS.

image: SPACY by Takashi Ito

Posted on May 08th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

50th AAFF Jury Awards

The 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival is proud to announce this year's award-winning films as chosen by our esteemed jury: Michael Robinson, Kathy Geritz and Peter Rose. The Vimeo Audience Award was determined through balloting in competiton screenings at the 50th AAFF. This year the AAFF awarded over $22,000 in cash and film stock/processing.

Ken Burns Award for Best of the Festival $3,000
Lack of Evidence (Manque de Preuves) (Hayoun KWON)

The Stan Brakhage Film at Wit’s End Award $1,000
Voluptuous Sleep (Betzy Bromberg)

Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative Film $1,000
Palaces of Pity (Daniel Schmidt, Gabriel Abrantes)

Michael Moore Award for Best Documentary Film $1,000
Guañape Sur (János Richter)

Gus Van Sant Award for Best Experimental Film $1,000
Sounding Glass (Sylvia Schedelbauer)

Chris Frayne Award for Best Animated Film $1,000 ($500 each)
It’s such a beautiful day (Don Hertzfeldt)
Traces (Scott Stark)

The Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for Emerging Experimental Video Artist $1,000
Ceibas: The Epilogue – The Well of Representation (Evan Meaney)

Prix DeVarti for Funniest Film $1,000 ($333 each)
Walt Disney’s “Taxi Driver” (Bryan Boyce)
Shadow Cuts (Martin Arnold)
Pluto Declaration (Travis Wilkerson)

Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker $1,000
The Strawberry Tree (Simone Rapisarda Casanova)

Kodak/Colorlab Award for Best Cinematography $3,000 [$1,500 of film plus $1,500 processing]
Undergrowth (Robert Todd)
Within (Robert Todd)

Art & Science Award $750
20Hz (Semiconductor)

Award for Best International Film $500
Untitled (Neil Beloufa)

Peter Wilde Award for Most Technically Innovative Film $500
Vexed (Telcosystems)

\aut\FILM Award for Best LGBT Film $500
The Evil Eyes (Bobby Abate)

The Ghostly Award for Best Sound Design $500
Remote (Jesse McLean)

The No Violence Award $512
If the War Continues (Jonathan Schwartz)

George Manupelli Founder’s Spirit Award $500
By Foot-Candle Light (Mary Helena Clark)

The Eileen Maitland Award $500
Irma (Charles Fairbanks)

Award for Best Music Video $500
Go Outside (Isaiah Seret)

JURY AWARDS - $2,250 ($250 each)
As Above, So Below (Sarah J. Christman)
Tin Pressed (Dani Leventhal)
Curious Light (Charlotte Pryce)
Landfill 16 (Jennifer Reeves)
August Song (Jodie Mack, Emily Kuehn)
A Lax Riddle Unit (Laida Lertxundi)
Quest (Cautare) (Ionuţ Piturescu)
The House (Das Haus) (David Buob)
Envelop (Cam Archer)

Vimeo Audience Award $1,000 ($500 each)
Moxie (Stephen Irwin)
Verses (James Sansing)

Posted on April 03rd, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Premieres at the 50th

The Ann Arbor Film Festival takes place Tuesday, March 27th through Sunday, April 1st with over 250 films, videos, installations and live performances and more than 30 U.S., North American or world premieres.

The Films in Competition 2 program on Wednesday 3/28 at 9:15pm, features the world premieres of TRACES by Scott Stark, IF THE WAR CONTINUES by Jonathan Schwartz and VERSES by James Sansing, the North American premiere of HEAVY EYES, by Siegfried A. Fruhauf and the U.S. premiere of PILGRIMAGE (Pèlerinage) by Marc Pelletier.

On Thursday 3/29 at 9:30pm, the Films in Competition 3 program includes the North American premieres of VEXED by Telcosystems and EMBLEM by Japanese filmmaker Rei Hayama who will be in attendance for the program screening and Q&A.

San Francisco-based filmmaker Paul Clipson presents his super 8mm films on Friday 3/30 at 11:30pm with live musical accompaniment from Matthew De Gennaro and Scott Tuma. The program features the world premiere of ANOTHER VOID, a vertiginous study of movement, color and darkness, that continues an exploration of the process of filmmaking and its close relation to music.

[images VERSES by James Sansing, ANOTHER VOID by Paul Clipson]

Posted on March 25th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

50th Ann Arbor Film Festival

March 27th, 2012 6:10pm
Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI
Admission: $10

The full program and schedule for the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival is now available. Visit the events calendar for more details or to purchase tickets and passes.

Posted on March 01st, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

WCBN + AAFF at Encore Records

March 09th, 2012 7:00pm
Encore Records, 417 E. Liberty Ann Arbor, MI
Admission: FREE

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is entering its 50th season as 88.3FM WCBN enters its 40th anniversary. To celebrate this occasion the AAFF and WCBN are throwing a show and film screening at Encore Records with Known Moons and Sam Haddix performing. Throughout the show the AAFF will screen select works from this year's upcoming 50th Festival.

Also screening Friday: Installation artist C. Jacqueline Wood presents the opening of her newest installation as part of the AAFF's 50 Screens project: I Will Always Love You (2012) - A multi-channel video work dedicated to Whitney, with love. The installation will be up through the festival in Encore's front window.

Happy Anniversary, WCBN! We are very happy to have you and your music programs in our lives.

[Still: I Will Always Love You (2012) - C. Jacqueline Wood]

Posted on February 26th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Video Tech

Posted on February 23rd, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

50th AAFF Opening Night Celebration

Opening Night for the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival will be a memorable celebration, with a grand reception in the Michigan Theater featuring a host of local DJs, honored guests of the AAFF and a dynamic screening of new and archival films.

The reception will feature heavy hors d'oeuvres from local favorites Café Zola, eat catering, Sava’s Restaurant, Silvio’s Organic Pizza, and The Raven’s Club, coffee by Roos Roast, Arbor Teas, vitaminwater and desserts by Big City Small World Bakery and The Cupcake Station.

L. Mawby Vineyards will provide sparkling wine, including a special 50th AAFF select label and Arbor Brewing Company will unveil a special 50th AAFF beer on tap.

New this year to the Opening Night Reception is The Raven’s Nest, the AAFF’s own bar with signature cocktails created by The Raven’s Club’s, your source for independent and experimental mixology. They’ll be serving fantastic cocktails with Makers Mark, Effen Vodka and many of their handcrafted mixers (*TRC). Drinks on the menu will include the George Manupelli and the Michigan Theater Manhattan. More cocktail names and recipes can be found below:

Anita Ekberg
Effen Vodka - St. Germain - Soda water - *TRC Blackberry citrus syrup - *TRC Grapefruit hop bitters (Served on ice with mint garnish)

Michigan Theater Manhattan
Makers Mark - Punt e Mes - *TRC Aromatic Bitters - (Served stirred and up with *TRC bourbon soaked cherry)

George Manupelli
Makers Mark - Torres (orange liquor) - *TRC Aromatic Bitters- (Served shaken and up with lemon and orange)

Tiny Bubbles
Effen Vodka - *TRC Chamomile Simple Syrup - Fresh lemon – L. Mawby Sparkling wine - (Served up with a lemon twist)

Ravens Club Punch
Flor de Cana white rum - Torres - *TRC grenadine - *TRC spiced syrup - fresh lemon and lime - water (Served on ice with lime wedge)

*TRC – The Raven’s Club – they make their own goods!

Creative black tie attire is encouraged for the Opening Night Reception. Buy your tickets ahead of time to ensure you’ll be a part of our anniversary celebration.

Posted on February 16th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Attending the 50th Festival

Posted on February 13th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

50th AAFF Mobile Shorts Contest hydrated by vitaminwater

The Ann Arbor Film Festival Mobile Shorts Contest hydrated by has announced its top 5 finalists (see below), as voted by you the viewer. The winner gets selected by the AAFF, announced 3/27 and screened at the Festival. The winning filmmaker will also earn a full festival pass, an AAFF swag bag and a new Kodak PlaySport Zx5 HD Waterproof Pocket Video Camera.

Participants were required to follow our Trailer Guidelines:
• Between 30 - 45 seconds in length
• Create with a mobile device - smart phone, pocket-size camera, or even an iPad
• Editing allowed on any software with no limit to effects, graphics or titles
• Creatively capture the independent and experimental spirit of the Ann Arbor Film Festival
• Include the following text: "The 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival" & "March 27 - April 1, 2012"

The top 5 finalists, based on total number of "likes" via Vimeo:

The 50th AAFF Mobile Shorts Contest is hydrated by

Posted on February 13th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Testimonials and Stories

Posted on February 13th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Archival Programs at the 50th AAFF

The 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival will present rare opportunities to look back at five decades of ground-breaking cinema, with programs featuring Bruce Baillie, Barbara Hammer, Tomonari Nishikawa and Irina Leimbacher.

Academy Film Archivist, Mark Toscano, will present a program of films by Robert Nelson (1930-2012) including his rarely seen 1998 film HAULING TOTO BIG which was awarded Best Film at the 36th AAFF. The 50th AAFF will honor avant-garde filmmaker Bruce Baillie, who will make a rare appearance to present three programs of his work from over the past 50 years. Read more about Baillie's programs here. Another trailblazer of avant-garde cinema, Barbara Hammer, will present several of her short works as part of the AAFF's OUT NIGHT on Wednesday, March 28th.

[image: Robert Nelson]

The 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival will present two programs of Japanese avant-garde film from the 70's through the 2000's with special guest curator and 48th Festival jury member, Tomonari Nishikawa. Another 48th AAFF jury member and reknowned scholar, Irina Leimbacher, returns for the 50th to curate two programs of films and videos from the Middle East; one program of recent work from Palestine, Lebanon and Morocco and a program of films by the great Syrian documentary filmmaker Omar Amiralay (1944-2011).

[image: SPACY (1981,16mm) by Takashi Ito]

These programs and all other archival films/programs screened during the 50th Festival are supported by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Posted on February 12th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Volunteer Information Needed

Posted on February 07th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Announcing the Awards Jury for the 50th AAFF

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is happy to announce the awards jury for the 50th season. This year’s group of esteemed jurors are avant-garde filmmaking legend Peter Rose, Whitney Biennial artist Michael Robinson and renowned curator and scholar Kathy Geritz.

Peter Rose has made over thirty films, tapes, performances and installations since 1968, many of which have screened at the Ann Arbor Film Festival over the past four decades. His works raise questions about the nature of time, space, light, perception and language. Rose has been widely exhibited, both nationally and internationally, having been included in shows at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Biennial, the Centre Pompidou, the Rotterdam International Film Festival and many more. As part of his free juror screening (all juror screenings are free to the public) Rose will show new work in addition to earlier works including SECONDARY CURRENTS, which played in 1983 at the 21st AAFF.

As the winner of the Most Promising Filmmaker award at the 45th AAFF, Michael Robinson has garnered critical acclaim for his work and most recently he’s been chosen as one of this year’s Whitney Biennial artists. Robinson’s work strives to cultivate new resonances between seemingly disparate elements, harnessing the surface connotations of specific landscapes, television shows, texts, songs and sounds as psychological triggers, ripe for reconfiguration. His work has been discussed in publications such as Cinema Scope, Artforum, and Art Papers, and he was listed as one of the top ten avant-garde filmmakers of the 2000's by Film Comment magazine.

Kathy Geritz is a film curator at Pacific Film Archive, where she has worked since 1981. She is co-editor of the recent book, Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945-2000, and co-curated the accompanying film tour. Her film related activities have included curating the Flaherty Film Seminar in 2002, co-curating an annual program of avant-garde cinema for the San Francisco International Film Festival, and serving as an ongoing pre-selector for the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival. She has served as a juror on numerous grant and film festival panels. She teaches an annual film curating internship at UC Berkeley. She will present a juror program of historic and influential films that have screened at the AAFF over the past 50 years.

Please join each of the jurors for their individual juror screenings at the Michigan Theater Wednesday, March 28th through Friday, March 30th. Refer to the official program (announced February 29th) for specific times, locations and films programed.

Posted on February 02nd, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Resources for Press

Posted on February 01st, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Opening Night Event Tickets

Whether you come for the Backstage Fundraiser Dinner, Opening Night Reception or simply attend the screening, March 27, 2012 will certainly be a night to remember. Get your tickets now!

Backstage Fundraiser Dinner - $125
Enjoy a strolling dinner with open bar while experiencing the AAFF backstage lounge and supporting the future of the AAFF. Backstage Dinner guests are welcome and encouraged to join the main party in the Michigan Theater lobby. Dinner will be provided by "eat catering" with bottomless spirits and L. Mawby Sparkling wine. Tickets include reserved seating for Opening Night Screening as well as festival memorabilia.

Tickets available here.

Opening Night Reception and Screening - $50
The 50th Festival opens with a grand reception featuring open bar with L. Mawby Sparkling wine, signature cocktails served in the The Raven's Club, Raven's Nest bar and a special batch 50th AAFF Arbor Brewing Company beer, appetizers from local favorites The Raven's Club, Sava's, Silvio's, eat catering, Cafe Zola and more.

Tickets available here.

Opening Night Screening - $10
A selection of short films, featuring innovative new works in animation, documentary, experimental and independent cinema.

Tickets available here.

Check out AAFF membership options for special deals and benefits throughout the year.

Posted on February 01st, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Hotel Information for the 50th AAFF

Attend the whole 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival with a full festival pass and these exclusive festival hotel rates.

The AAFF’s official hotel provider Weber’s Inn is offering a $92 per night rate to anyone mentioning the rate code AAF2012TH. Call 800-443-3050 or book online at www.webersinn.com

If being downtown is a must Campus Inn is offering rooms at $169 per night for a single or $192 per night for a double and includes room upgrade, wine card and appetizer in the hotel’s Victors Bar. To secure your room mention rate code #6559 when you call 800-666-8693 or 734-769-2200 to book.

The best deal close to downtown is Lamp Post Inn at $52 per night for one bed or $57 per night for two beds. Mention the rate code AAFF50 when calling 877-971-8001 or book online at www.lamppostinn.com.

All rates are per room, per night subject to availability, plus applicable taxes.

Posted on February 01st, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Festival Passes Now On Sale

FESTIVAL PASSES FOR THE 50TH AAFF

Experience the entire 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival with a Festival Pass!

Festival Passes are a simple cost-effective way to maximize your Ann Arbor Film Festival experience and avoid waiting in long ticket lines with a six-day Festival Pass. This pass includes access to the Opening Night Reception & Screening (a $50 value) as well as 30 ticketed programs presented throughout the week at the Michigan Theater. The Festival Pass includes admission to midnight movies at the State Theatre and free or discounted admission to all festival afterparties.

Festival Pass:
$95 | $80 AAFF Members/Students/Seniors

Not able to make the whole festival? The Weekend Pass might be just for you! This pass grants access to all screenings from Friday, March 30th through Sunday, April 1st, including midnight movies and the awards programs.

Weekend Pass:
$55 | $40 AAFF Members/Students/Seniors

Posted on February 01st, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Studies and Observation no. 6: LOST BOOK FOUND

February 19th, 2012 12:00pm
327 Braun Ct., Ann Arbor, MI
Admission: Pay What You Can

Studies and Observation group is proud to present two films by filmmaker Jem Cohen as the sixth installment of our monthly screening series.

LOST BOOK FOUND (1996, 37 min)

The result of over five years of Super-8 and 16mm filming on New York City streets, LOST BOOK FOUND melds documentary and narrative into a complex meditation on city life. The piece revolves around a mysterious notebook filled with obsessive listings of places, objects, and incidents. These listings serve as the key to a hidden city: a city of unconsidered geographies and layered artifacts—the relics of low-level capitalism and the debris of countless forgotten narratives.

The project stems from the filmmaker's first job in New York—working as a pushcart vendor on Canal Street. As usual, Cohen shot in hundreds of locations using unobtrusive equipment and generally without any crew. Influenced by the work of Walter Benjamin, Cohen created "an archive of undirected shots and sounds, then set out to explore the boundary" between genres. During the process, Cohen said, "I found connections between the street vendor, Benjamin's 'flaneur', and my own work as an observer and collector of ephemeral street life."

"Its beauty is quite ineffable. It's the sort of visual experience that transforms everything seen by the viewer for several hours afterward. . . What it actually does is capture the subconscious of the city itself, the dream state of the whole past existing in simultaneous disarray." —Luc Sante

preceded by
THIS IS A HISTORY OF NEW YORK (1988, 23 min)
Jem Cohen constructs a history of New York City from Prehistoric times through the Space Age, composed entirely from documentary street footage.

Organized by the Studies and Observation Group, co-presented by the Ann Arbor Film Festival.

Studies and Obersvation Group is happy to have Tita Letty's popping up in the space providing delcious locally sourced vegetarian Filipino lumpia.

Posted on January 25th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Bruce Baillie at the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival 

The AAFF is proud to announce a special appearance by renowned avant-garde filmmaker Bruce Baillie at the 50th festival.   

Baillie will be an honored guest presenting three programs of his work during the 50th anniversary running March 27th through April 1st, 2012.   

In 1963, during the first AAFF a full program was devoted to Bruce Baillie's short films. Baillie and his work continued to be a strong and consistent presence through the first decade of the Festival.  

Programs at the 50th AAFF will include such major works of Baillie's as QUIXOTE, QUICK BILLY, CASTRO STREET among others. A pioneer of the American avant-garde film movement, Baillie will discuss his work and his influence on film culture with the AAFF audience. The Festival is very honored to have Baillie here as he rarely travels for in person screenings.   

The 82 year-old Baillie, originally from Aberdeen, South Dakota, began making work in 1960 with his first film ON SUNDAYS. CASTRO STREET, Baillie’s 1966 film was selected for preservation in 1992 by the United States National Film Registry. His filmography includes nearly 30 films that have screened all over the world.

  In addition to his film work, Baillie founded Canyon Cinema, which today is the largest American distributor of experimental and avant-garde cinema. In 1961 Baillie began a screening series in his back yard together with Chick Strand and others. The series became the San Francisco Cinematheque, an acclaimed exhibitor of experimental film, digital media, and performance cinema that continues to this day. Baillie currently resides off the coast of Washington with his wife and two children. 

Posted on January 25th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

50th AAFF Mobile Shorts Contest Hydrated by vitaminwater

Posted on January 23rd, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

50 Years Of The Ann Arbor Film Festival: AAFF Archive @ AADL Launch

February 03rd, 2012 7:00pm
Downtown Library: Multi Purpose Room, Ann Arbor, MI
Admission: Free

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is celebrating its 50th year and the Ann Arbor District Library is excited to unveil its new digital archive, chronicling the Festival's history. Join Donald Harrison, AAFF Executive Director, and other voices from the Festival's past as they share behind-the-scenes stories from the longest-running independent and experimental film festival in North America!

This event features the premiere of AADL's digital archive of the Festival, which will provide online access to posters and program guides from the Festival's half century of film exhibition history. The evening will conclude with light refreshments and the opportunity to mingle with Film Fest fans.

THE ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL ARCHIVE @ AADL This website will document the history of the Ann Arbor Film Fest and its 50 years of experimental cinema. Festival programs, photographs, promotional materials, and behind-the-scenes documents from the Festival's half-century history will be featured.
Original interviews with festival organizers and participants from over the years and media coverage of the event including articles from the Ann Arbor News and Ann Arbor Sun will paint a portrait of the longest-running independent and experimental film festival in North America.

Join us for a look in the past and an introduction to this valuable online collection!

Posted on January 11th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Studies and Observation no. 5: STRANDED IN CANTON

January 21st, 2012 3:00pm
327 Braun Court, Ann Arbor, MI
Admission: Pay What You Can

Studies and Observation no.5
STRANDED IN CANTON by William Eggleston

Organized by THE STUDIES AND OBSERVATION GROUP
Co-presented by The Ann Arbor Film Festival

In 1973, America's greatest living photographer William Eggleston shot 30 hours of video in and around Memphis. Recorded in ghostly black & white video in the city’s bars and streets, Stranded in Canton (1973-2005, 77 min) is an extraordinary and deeply personal vision of the Memphis demimonde.

Preceded by Danish artist Eva Marie Rødbro’s video Fuck You Kiss Me (2008, 6 min), a portrait of youth in the isolated towns of Greenland.

_{[Image from Fuck You Kiss Me by Eva Marie Rødbro]}

Contribute Membership

Posted on January 11th, 2012

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening #4

January 25th, 2012 7:30pm
Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor, MI
Tickets: $5 - $10

Portraits, the fourth Retrospective Screening, curated by Toronto filmmaker, critic and author Mike Hoolboom, features three past AAFF award winners. Films programmed include: Asparagus; Suzan Pitt's celebrated cult animation, a moving meditation on art and the cost of reproduction, Meditations on Revolution Part One: Lonely Planet; Robert Fenz's stunning silent poetic vision of Cuba and Al Neil: A Portrait; David Rimmer's exquisite depiction of jazz iconoclast Al Neil- poet, recluse and shaman.

Asparagus by Suzan Pitt
19 minutes | 35mm | 1979
screened and awarded at the 17th Ann Arbor Film Festival

This candy colored nightmare rocked audiences upon its release and catapulted maker Suzan Pitt to the front ranks of indie animation after showing with David Lynch’s Eraserhead for two years on the midnight movies circuit. Stunning cel animation propels its blank-faced protagonist into the world of the phallus, rendered here as a field of asparagus, which she deep throats, excretes and flushes away. The film’s stunning set piece occurs before a claymation audience who gape as the artist opens her Medusa’s box to release rare wonders. A moving meditation on art and the cost of reproduction, Asparagus remains, 25 years after its release, a benchmark of single frame intensity.

"The animation constitutes one of the most important works of imagination seen in some time, filled with every possible animation technique, all exquisitely rendered, all calculated to produce incredible wonder in the heart of the viewer. It is a children's fairy tale for adults." - B. Ruby Rich

Meditations on Revolution Part One: Lonely Planet by Robert Fenz
12 minutes | 16mm, silent | 1997
screened and awarded at the 37th Ann Arbor Film Festival

A ravishing cine poem of rare intimacy, Fenz delivers a Havana which has never seemed so close. Alternately playful and rhapsodic, Meditations evinces a quietly powerful sense of observation. The filmer concentrates throughout on the ritual gestures of the public sphere – there are no parades in evidence here, no speeches or polemics (the film is notably silent). Instead, forty years after Che turned the impossible into the inevitable, Fenz returns to find the revolution steeped in the faces of those who gather round his camera, playing with him, and us, as they insist that live is lived forward, but understood backward. This is the first of his five part Meditations cycle (1997-2003).

Al Neil: A Portrait by David Rimmer
40 minutes | 16mm | 1979
screened and awarded at the 18th Ann Arbor Film Festival

David Rimmer had already proven himself to be a master of materials, he could look into the smallest corner of the room and find a universe in it. But imagine our surprise when he laid down this bombshell of a movie, featuring jazz iconoclast Al Neil, poet, recluse, shaman. How to get all of those wordless tonalities onto emulsion, how to oversee the conversion of music into film? Unlike today’s digital docs, that often see dozens of recording hours stuffed into hard drives, David shot barely more material than he used in the final film. And like his jazz mentor/subject, the recording is also part of the present moment that is forever slipping by, and this duet of camera and piano legend slips right along with it. “You sure making me work hard, man.” Shot as if inside the body, from the inside/out, passages of Neil’s piano soliloquies are punctuated by the artist’s totemic assemblages and smoke-infused recollections. While Neil is presented as a singular and solitary figure, living in a remote house in the woods, he riffs on influences and movements, all of them digested and thrown away or else spun into something new and unforeseen, lived through the fingers as they reach for the next chord, the music of the next moment. The graveyard cough, the pauses, and then at the end, a final stunning surprise, too fine to be released here. How did the philosophers from Boston put it? More than a feeling.

-program notes by Mike Hoolboom

Advance tickets are recommended. All screenings take place at the Michigan Theater in downtown Ann Arbor. All screenings begin at 7:30pm and tickets are $10 general; $7 students/seniors/Michigan Theater members; $5 Ann Arbor Film Festival members. The series is supported by the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan and presented in partnership with the Michigan Theater.

About the Curator:

Mike Hoolboom is a Canadian artist working in film and video. He has made over fifty films and videos. His work has appeared in over four hundred festivals, garnering thirty awards. His work has enjoyed retrospectives at numerous international festivals including Visions du Reel (Switzerland), Vila do Conde Festival (Portugal), the Buenos Aires International Festival (Argentina), among many others. He is a founding member of the Pleasure Dome screening collective and has worked as the artistic director of the Images Festival and as the experimental film co-ordinator at Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre.

Mike Hoolboom’s films have been included in thirteen editions of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, beginning in 1988. He was a juror for the 37^th Ann Arbor Film Festival.

Mike Hoolboom has published a pair of interview books with Canadian media artists, Practical Dreamers: Conversations with Media Artists (Coach House Press, 2008) and Inside the Pleasure Dome: Fringe Film in Canada (Coach House Press, 2001). In 1998 he authored Plague Years (YYZ Books) a tongue-in-chic autobiography. His first novel The Steve Machine was published by Coach House Press in the fall of 2008. He has published more than one hundred articles on fringe media which have appeared in magazines and catalogues around the world.

Since 2004 he has been working on Fringe Online (www.fringeonline.ca ), a web project which makes available the archives of 40 Canadian media artists. This ongoing project currently consists of hundreds of pages of transcripts, reviews, interviews and scripts, and remains the largest publishing project in the Canadian fringe media sector.

Posted on December 12th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening #5

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Studies and Observation no. 4: Journal and Remarks by David Gatten

David Gatten will present a program of his 16mm films. Program includes:

HARDWOOD PROCESS (1996)

SHRIMP BOAT LOG (2006/2010)

JOURNAL AND REMARKS (2009)

FILM FOR INVISIBLE INK, CASE NO.142: ABBREVIATION FOR DEAD WINTER
[DIMINISHED BY 1,794] (2008)

HOW TO CONDUCT A LOVE AFFAIR (2007)

SO SURE OF NOWHERE BUYING TIMES TO COME (2010)

Over the last fifteen years Gatten's work has explored the intersection of the printed word and the moving image, while investigating the shifting vocabularies of experience and representation within intimate spaces and historical documents. Through traditional research methods (reading old books) and non-traditional film processes (boiling old books), the films trace the contours of both private lives and public histories, combining elements of philosophy, biography and poetry with experiments in cinematic forms and narrative structures.

David Gatten was born in Ann Arbor, lives in the Rocky Mountains near Boulder, CO and is currently Visiting Professor and Distinguished Filmmaker in Residence in the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image at Duke University.

Gatten’s films have been exhibited internationally, he is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and his works are in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Gatten's work is the subject of a fourteen film retrospective entitled "Texts of Light" that recently opened at the Wexner Center for the Arts and is travelling to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Harvard Film Archive in Cambridge, MA, as well as other venues.

On November 30th, David Gatten will present a program of historic films at the Michigan Theater as part of the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival Retrospective Screening Series.

Posted on November 28th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Store

Posted on November 10th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Membership

Posted on November 10th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Newsletter: November 2011

Fired Up for Fifty - 50FORWARD
50FORWARD Auction Launches
Final Deadline 11/3 - 50th AAFF Call for Entries
50th AAFF: Retrospective Screening #3 - David Gatten
Welcome 50th AAFF Sponsors

AAFF Launches 50FORWARD Campaign

The Ann Arbor Film Festival has championed independent, experimental filmmakers and advanced the art form of film for 50 years. Now we ask you to help us ensure a healthy future for the AAFF by participating in 50FORWARD.

What is 50FORWARD, you ask? It's a public giving campaign to sustain the AAFF into the future by generating more than $50,000 by the start of the 50th Festival. This includes an auction, taking place online and during the festival, with rare and remarkable memorabilia donated by filmmakers who care about the future of the AAFF. 50FORWARD is also a celebration of the AAFF through memorable stories, such as Barbara Hammer's video below.

Visit the 50FORWARD website to learn more and make a contribution to a strong and sustainable future for the AAFF.

50FORWARD Auction - Items from Hammer and Manupelli

Support the 50th AAFF and our 50FORWARD campaign by snapping up some rare and remarkable memorabilia through our online auction via eBay Giving Works. Our online auction offers items for bid from now through the 50th AAFF, at which point we will also present a return of the popular silent auction at the Michigan Theater.

To launch the 50FORWARD Auction, we are offering a beautiful, signed Nitrate Kisses poster from Barbara Hammer and an autographed copy of AAFF founder George Manupelli's Dr. Chicago film trilogy on DVD.

All purchases made at either auction directly support the AAFF and 50FORWARD. Check it out now !

Final 50th Call for Entries Deadline: November 3rd

The final deadline for the 50th AAFF Call for Entries is Thursday, November 3rd (postmarked). We are seeking recent independent and experimental works that advance the art form of film. All genres, lengths, styles and formats, including 16mm, 35mm, Super-8mm, video and HD video are considered.

Artwork: George Manupelli

For more information on submissions, please visit our website.

AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening #3 - David Gatten

Please join us as filmmaker David Gatten (Boulder, CO) selects and introduces influential films from AAFF’s exhibition history. Gatten’s been attending AAFF for more than two decades as a filmmaker, visiting professor and 2007 festival juror.

When: November 30th @ 7:30pm
Where: Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor
Tickets: $10 general admission; $7 for students, seniors and Michigan Theater members; $5 AAFF members
Advanced tickets are recommended: aafilmfest.org.

still from "If You Stand with Your Back to the Slowing of the Speed of Light in Water"" (16mm, 1997) by Julie Murray.

Welcome 50th AAFF Sponsors

Thank you to the sponsors who have already signed on in support of the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival: The Institute for the Humanities at U of M, Ann Arbor Area Visitor & Convention Bureau, Zingerman's Community of Businesses and 37signals.

Our generous and delicious in-kind food sponsors: eat catering and chef services, Sava's State Street Cafe, Jerusalem Garden and Silvio's Organic Pizza. Our fantastic beverage providers: Roos Roast Coffee, Arbor Teas, L. Mawby Fine Sparkling Wines and Arbor Brewing Company. And our visual, creative partners: Elevated Works, Letterform and pot & box.

Thank you for all your support of our creative, community-focused efforts! Interested in sponsoring the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival? Contact us at sponsorship@aafilmfest.org.

Posted on November 01st, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

About the Ann Arbor Film Festival

Posted on October 25th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Submit a Film

Posted on October 24th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening #3

November 30th, 2011 7:30pm
Michigan Theater
Ann Arbor, MI
$10.00

Filmmaker David Gatten (Boulder, CO) selects and introduces influential films from AAFF’s exhibition history. Gatten’s been attending AAFF for more than two decades as a filmmaker, visiting professor and 2007 festival juror.

Still from "If You Stand with Your Back to the Slowing of the Speed of Light in Water"" (16mm, 1997) by Julie Murray.

Posted on October 24th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Shadowbox Cinema III

The Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) team up again to present SHADOWBOX CINEMA III. This lively program presents 10 short, dynamic independent films making their Michigan premieres and crossing all genres: experimental, animation, documentary and narrative films. The audience will vote to decide cash awards for their favorite films. Shadowbox Cinema III is co-curated by the AAFF's Donald Harrison and
MOCAD's Ben Hernandez. This is a free public screening.

Moving
Sean Curtis Patrick | Austin, TX | 5min
"Moving" is an experiment in Dela, Phasing, and color. Filmed in my new city of Austin, Texas, My process was simple. Filming a fluctuating landscape and visually delaying and multiplying the image with a phased permutation. –SCP

Jeannie
Olivia Jampol | Brooklyn, NY | 14 min
A young girl in a 1970s suburban town grapples with her own desires after a traumatizing first sexual encounter.

Voice on the Line
Kelly Sears | Houston, TX | 7 min
The era of nuclear anxiety, red scare paranoia and covert CIA plots forever changed how we engaged with the telephone.

Boys of Summer
Alee Peoples | Providence, RI | 13 min
Mischievous group male bonding and ice cream induced summer love are alive and well in this backwoods town, USA.

Filmpiece for Bartlett
Scott Nyerges | Brooklyn, NY | 6 min
A tribute to the late filmmaker Scott Barlett (”Off/On”, “Serpent”). A fountain in the Museum of Modern Art courtyard becomes a literal and figurative reflection upon Bartlett’s quote in film historian and critic Gene Youngblood’s 1970 book “Expanded Cinema”: ‘There is a pattern in my film work that could be the pattern of a hundred-thousand movies. It simply is: Repeat and purify; repeat and synthesize; abstract, abstract,
abstract.” –SN

A Time Shared Unlimited
Zachary Epcar | San Francisco, CA | 10 min
Near-future leisure time activity and anxiety acted out as a series of minor incidents in continual interruption, alternating between an overcrowded virtual space and a virtually abandoned city space. –ZE

The Blockbuster Tapes
Daniel Martinico | Los Angeles, CA | 5 min
Documents a three-year endeavor in which VHS tapes were rented, subtly modified, and returned to the store. –DM

Magic for Beginners
Jesse McLean | Chicago, IL | 20 min
"Magic for Beginners" examines the mythologies found in fan culture, from longing to obsession to psychic connections. The need for such connections (whether real or imaginary) as well as the need for an emotional release that only fantasy can deliver are explored. –JM

Possessed
Fred Worden | Silver Springs, MD | 9 min
Sequence with a passing train, passengers in motion and a woman standing still on the platform becomes a study of illusionary movements. This work incorporates clips with Joan Crawford from the classic 1931 Hollywood film "Possessed".

The Orange
Nick Fox-Gieg | Toronto, Canada | 3 min
Suddenly, a humble citrus fruit is granted absolute power over the universe.

Posted on October 21st, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Studies and Observation no. 3: AN INJURY TO ONE

AN INJURY TO ONE (16mm, 2003) by Travis Wilkerson

AN INJURY TO ONE reconstructs the unsolved murder of union organizer Frank Little in Butte, Montana, and provides a corrective - and absolutely compelling - glimpse of a particularly volatile moment in early 20th century American labor history.

Posted on October 21st, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Studies and Observation no. 2: Marcy Saude and Mark Toscano

Studies and Observation no. 2

Transubstantiation: Rituals, Transformations and Appropriations program curated by Marcy Saude and Mark Toscano (in person)

Using varied techniques including optical manipulation, observation and documentation, and appropriation of found footage and materials, the filmmakers in this program work with film as a transformative tool that's both mystical and mundane. Michael J. Fox is transformed into a totemic stand-in for a woman who survived three shipwrecks. Text and nearly invisible artifacts are transmuted into bleeding abstractions via photocopying. The stuff of a day job at a make-up counter becomes raw material for an exploration of refracted light and color. A ceremony involving the gift of a tuba is recreated; the ritualistic aspects of drug use are explored in order to create alternatives; and Jesus Christ dies, rises, and ascends to heaven.

All films will be projected on 16mm and will include work by Chick Strand, David Lebrun, Peter Rose, Daina Krumins, Alexander Stewart, Courtney Hoskins, Carolyn Faber, Sarah Biagini, and Elwood Decker.

Screening organized by the Studies and Observation Group, co-presented by the Ann Arbor Film Festival

Posted on October 20th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening #2

October 20th, 2011 7:30pm
Michigan Theater
Ann Arbor, MI
$10.00

Mark Toscano, film preservationist for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, curates a selection of rare and influential films from the Ann Arbor Film Festival's 50 years of exhibition history, including recently restored works from the Academy Film Archive.

Films in the program include:
DIALECTIC DEFINITIONS
Dana Hodgdon, 1977, 8min.

GRAIN GRAPHICS
Dana Plays, 1978, 6min.

IOTA
Carolyn Faber, 1998, 6min.

ROSEBLOOD
Sharon Couzin, 1974, 8min.

XFILM
John Schofill, 1968, 14min.

WHAT IGNITES ME, EXTINGUISHES ME
François Miron, 1990, 9min.

THE MAN WHO COULD NOT SEE FAR ENOUGH
Peter Rose, 1981, 33min.

Toscano has restored films by Stan Brakhage, Chick Strand, Robert Nelson, Will Hindle, Pat O' Neill, Morgan Fisher and many, many more. He has curated programs for REDCAT (Los Angeles), The Museum of the Moving Image (NY), The International Film Festival Rotterdam among others. He keeps a blog on the particular challenges of preserving and restoring artists' film, titled Preservation Insanity.

Advance tickets are recommended and available here. All screenings take place at the Michigan Theater in downtown Ann Arbor. All screenings begin at 7:30pm and tickets are $10 general; $7 students/seniors/Michigan Theater members; $5 Ann Arbor Film Festival members. The series is supported by the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan and presented in partnership with the Michigan Theater.

Posted on October 19th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Past Awards

Posted on October 07th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Studies and Observation no. 1: AT SEA

AT SEA
a film by Peter Hutton
(2007, 16mm, silent, 60 min.)

Hutton's most recent film—a riveting and revelatory chronicle of the birth, life, and death of a colossal container ship—is unquestionably one of his most ambitious and profound. A haunting meditation on human progress, both physical and metaphorical, At Sea charts a three-year passage from twenty-first-century ship building in South Korea to primitive and dangerous ship breaking in Bangladesh, with an epic journey across the North Atlantic in between. –MoMA

Studies and Observation no.1
This is the first screening of a new monthly film series, organized by the Studies and Observation Group, co-presented by the Ann Arbor Film Festival.

WHEN: October 1, 2011 @ 8pm
WHERE: 327 Braun Court, Ann Arbor, MI
ADMISSION: Pay What You Can

Posted on October 01st, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Newsletter: October 2011

Official Call for Entries Deadline 10/3
AAFF Launches Archive with UM Bentley
AAFF 50th: Retrospective #2 - Mark Toscano
Final Chance for Special Edition DVD Collection Volume 3

Official Call for Entries Deadline: October 3rd

The official deadline for the 50th AAFF call for entries is Monday, October 3rd (postmarked).
We are seeking recent independent and experimental works that advance the art form of film. All genres, lengths, styles and formats, including 16mm, 35mm, Super-8mm, video and HD video are considered.

Artwork: George Manupelli
For more information on submissions, please visit our website.

AAFF Honors 50 Years
with Special Collection at UM Bentley Library

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is proud to announce the launch of a special collection to preserve the Festival’s 50-year history at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library.
The collection will preserve rare and important materials from the Festival, including program guides and posters starting in 1963, the Festival’s inaugural year. The Bentley collection will enable scholars to conduct research and allow for public access.

The AAFF is hosting a sneak preview reception at the Bentley Historical Library on October 13, 2011 from 6 – 8pm. Light fare and sparkling wine will be provided at this invitation-only celebration for supporters of the Festival, which includes all Festival members (those who sign-up by Oct. 11th receive an invite).

The AAFF collection will open to the public on November 1, 2011.

AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening #2

Mark Toscano, Academy film preservationist
Mark Toscano, film preservationist for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will curate a selection of rare and influential films from the Ann Arbor Film Festival's 50 years of exhibition, including recently restored works from the Academy Film Archive.
Toscano has restored films by Stan Brakhage, Chick Strand, Robert Nelson, Will Hindle, Pat O' Neill, Morgan Fisher and many, many more. He has curated programs for REDCAT (Los Angeles), The Museum of the Moving Image (NY), The International Film Festival Rotterdam among others. He keeps a blog on the particular challenges of preserving and restoring artists' film, titled Preservation Insanity.
When: October 20th @ 7:30pm
Where: Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor
Tickets: $10 general admission; $7 for students, seniors and Michigan Theater members; $5 AAFF members
Advanced tickets are recommended: aafilmfest.org.

Artwork: Angel Blue Sweet Wings (1966) by Chick Strand

Final Chance for Special Edition DVD Collection Volume 3

The AAFF DVD Collection Volume 3 includes best of 48th AAFF award-winner, Beauty Plus Pity, by Duke and Battersby; Travelling Fields by Inger Lise Hansen, Please Say Something by David OReilly, Black Rain by Semiconductor and five other great works.

Special edition Volume 3 DVDs come in a screen-printed matteboard case and include a set of five postcards with original artwork by filmmakers Martha Colburn, Lewis Klahr, Julie Murray, Michael Robinson and Deborah Stratman. Only a few of these special edition DVDs are left, so don't miss your chance!

To purchase Volume 3 or any of the AAFF DVD collections and all other things AAFF, please visit our store.

Posted on October 01st, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening #1

Alice Anne Parker, (a.k.a. Anne Severson), first made waves in the international film community four decades ago. The San Francisco filmmaker shocked audiences with a handful of films, which culminated with her 1971 film NEAR THE BIG CHAKRA. The 17-minute film features 37 static shots of vulvaes ranging in age from three months to 56 years and provoked a riot at the 1972 Ann Arbor Film Festival when it screened as the closing film for that year's festival. A melee ensued during the film's showing as some audience members rushed the projection booth, wrangling with others who prevented the film from being stopped.

The film went on to gain international notoriety and Severson’s films have influenced several generations of filmmakers, artists, and feminists. In 1974 Parker was chosen for a one-person retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Parker's films have screened as part of the New York Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, San Francisco International Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival and many more.

Forty years after this legendary screening, the AAFF is bringing Parker and her films back to Ann Arbor for the first of five retrospective screenings in celebration of the festival's 50th Anniversary, taking place March 27 - April 1, 2012. Parker made six films, from 1969 through 1974. She will present five of these, from her earliest film - the humorous I CHANGE I AM THE SAME to RIVERBODY (winner of Best Film at the 1971 AAFF) to her last film, the evocative short THE STRUGGLE OF THE MEAT. Parker will also present a handful of other historic works by her peers.

Festival Program Director, David Dinnell, said he chose to start the series with Parker and her films in part because "Alice Anne Parker made six short films in just 5 years in the late 60s and early 70's. The Ann Arbor Film Festival has always been a space for film as an art form, and Parker's films embody a deeply personal filmmaking, coming out of a time of a radical exploration of sexuality, gender, and the representation of bodies. The humor and curiosity in Parker's films still resonates to this day. Although the films are of a specific time, they still retain their power after more than three decades."

Parker will present her films at the Michigan Theater Thursday, September 22nd at 7:30pm and take part in a conversation with University of Michigan professor and performance artist Holly Hughes following the screening. Tickets are $10 for general admission; $7 for students, seniors and Michigan Theater members; AAFF members received $5 admission. Advanced tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets here on our website.

Posted on September 07th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening Series

The Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) launches its 50th season in September with a five-part Retrospective Screening Series, which presents influential and rare films from its five decades of ground breaking exhibition.

September 22 - The first retrospective screening includes films by Alice Anne Parker (a.k.a. Anne Severson), including her 1971 film Near the Big Chakra, an influential feminist film that provoked a riot during its screening at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1972. Severson will be in attendance and will be interviewed by artist and UM Art & Design professor Holly Hughes following the screening.
October 20 – The AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening Series continues with a program of short archival films selected and presented by guest curator Mark Toscano, film preservationist for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Program details for retrospective screening #2 are available here.
November 30 - David Gatten selects and introduces influential films from AAFF’s exhibition history. Gatten’s been attending AAFF for more than two decades as a filmmaker, visiting professor and 2007 festival juror. Program details for retrospective screening #3 are available here.
January 25, 2012 - Toronto filmmaker and 37th AAFF juror, Mike Hoolboom, visits Ann Arbor to present a program of significant films curated from the AAFF’s rich history. Program details for retrospective screening #4 are available here.
The series concludes February 22, 2012 with Robert Gardner’s feature documentary Forest of Bliss, which played at the 24th Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1986. This landmark and influential documentary film has recently been restored and will be screened on a new 35mm print on loan from the Harvard Film Archive. Program details for retrospective screening #5 are available here.

All screenings take place at the Michigan Theater in downtown Ann Arbor. All screenings begin at 7:30pm and tickets are $10 general; $7 students/seniors/Michigan Theater members; $5 Ann Arbor Film Festival members. The series is supported by the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Michigan and presented in partnership with the Michigan Theater. For more information and advance tickets at: aafilmfest.org

Posted on September 01st, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Newsletter: September 2011

AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening Series
Screening #1: Alice Anne Parker
George Kuchar 1942-2011 | Jordan Belson 1926-2011

AAFF 50th: Retrospective Screening Series
Starting September 22nd, the AAFF launches a monthly, five-part Retrospective Screening Series at the Michigan Theater. These one-time, not-to-be-missed programs present rare and influential films
from five decades of ground breaking AAFF exhibition. The AAFF is bringing in guest curators and filmmakers for these memorable screenings, including:
September 22nd - films by Anne Severson (see below)

October 20th - Mark Toscano, from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

November 30th - Filmmaker David Gatten (45th AAFF juror)

January 25th - Toronto filmmaker Mike Hoolboom (37th AAFF juror)

February 22nd - Robert Gardner’s feature-length documentary Forest of Bliss, which played at the 24th Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1986

The series is supported by the UM Institute for the Humanities and presented in partnership with the Michigan Theater.
For more details, times and advanced tickets check the AAFF website.

50th Retrospective Screening #1
Alice Anne Parker (Anne Severson)

Our series begins with five 16mm films by Alice Anne Parker (a.k.a. Anne Severson). Parker is best known for her 1970 film Riverbody, which won Best Film at the 9th AAFF, and her 1971 film Near the Big Chakra, a landmark influential feminist film which provoked a near-riot during its screening at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1972.

Parker will be in attendance and interviewed by artist and UM Art & Design professor Holly Hughes following the screening. Along with presenting her own works, Parker will show additional films from Gunvor Nelson, Robert Nelson and Jay Cassidy that screened at the AAFF in its first decade.

When: September 22nd @ 7:30pm
Where: Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor
Tickets: $10 general admission; $7 for students, seniors and Michigan Theater members; $5 AAFF members
Advanced tickets are recommended: aafilmfest.org.

George Kuchar    Jordan Belson
1942 - 2011            1926 - 2011
We are deeply saddened by the passing of two influential San Francisco filmmakers last week. George Kuchar and Jordan Belson, though from different eras, have both left their mark on the film world.

George Kuchar influenced generations of filmmakers and artists. A major figure of the SF Bay Area underground film community for over 40 years, George created more than 200 films and videos. His work was exhibited at the Ann Arbor Film Festival several times, beginning in 1976 with his 16mm films Carnal Bipeds and Remember Tomorrow, and most recently his video I, of the Cyclops,which won the award for best editing at the 46th Ann Arbor Film Festival in 2008. Kuchar was also a special guest at the 30th AAFF where he presented a program of his 8mm videos. To read more about George's life and legacy, here is Paul Vitello's article for the NY Times.

Abstract filmmaker Jordan Belson's work has influenced many makers over the past half century. Belson screened five of his films as part of the AAFF in the 1970's including: Meditation (1971), Chakra (1972), Light (1973), Cycles (1975, made with Stephen Beck), and Music of the Spheres (1977). Belson's work has screened at the Tate Modern, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and venues worldwide. To read more on Belson's lengthy career read Margalit Fox's NYTimes article here.

Posted on September 01st, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Cinema & Yoga V

hepworth image CINEMA & YOGA V
Please join us for the 5th annual Cinema & Yoga, a mind and body expanding event hosted by the Ann Arbor School of Yoga as a fundraiser for the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival.

Saturday, August 13th
7:30 - 8:30pm Yoga class for all levels by advanced certified teacher Laurie Blakeney
8:30 - 9:00pm Light fare and beverages
9:00 - 10:00pm Mind-expanding short films from the 49th Ann Arbor Film Festival

Admission: $25 per person at the door [$20 for AAFF or AASY members]. No RSVP necessary.
Location: Ann Arbor School of Yoga – 420 W. Huron St.
For more information, please call 734.995.5356.

Posted on August 13th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Newsletter: August 2011

50th AAFF Call for Entries - Early Deadline
AAFF High School Media Literacy Program
Support the 50th AAFF

50th AAFF Call for Entries

The early submission deadline for the Ann Arbor Film Festival is fast approaching - Monday, August 15th! Submit your film now and receive our lowest entry fee. For full details regarding submissions please visit our website.

Artwork: George Manupelli

Submission Deadlines
Early: August 15th - $30 Shorts / $40 Features
Official: October 3rd - $40 Shorts / $50 Features
Late: November 3rd - $50 Shorts / $60 Features

AAFF Receives AAACF Grant to Build Media Literacy Program

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is excited to announce a grant awarded by the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation to start a media literacy education program in Washtenaw County public high schools.

The program will be designed and conducted by artist and educator Jacqueline Wood. As a graduate of the University of Michigan Film and Video Studies program in 2005, Jacqueline was a key volunteer for the AAFF for several years. She received her M.F.A. in film and video from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009. Upon returning to Ann Arbor, Jacqueline once again became an active volunteer for the AAFF and a participating installation artist (2010 & 2011).

The AAFF media literacy program seeks to engage area high school students with their critical viewing skills, expand their exposure to non-commercial media, and build an appreciation for the arts. To read the full announcement.

Supporting the 50th AAFF

Help make our 50th anniversary season a one-of-a-kind celebration by becoming an AAFF member!

Membership is a tangible, meaningful way you can make a difference by standing in support of the AAFF. It's also a great way to get insider access to catch rare films, receive valuable discounts, attend special screenings and meet other film/art-goers all while expanding the community surrounding the Festival.

Signing up for membership is easy. You can do so here. You can even add a little extra for good measure here!

Posted on August 01st, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Cinemasports: Shadow Art Fair Edition 2011

Cinemasports at Shadow Art Fair 2011
Cinemasports is the "Iron Chef of filmmaking" in which self-assembled filmmaking teams are challenged to include assigned "ingredients" into 3-minute movies produced in 10 hours or less. This free event is Saturday, July 16th during the Shadow Art Fair at the Corner Brewery in Ypsilanti, MI. This event is hosted by Donald Harrison, Executive Director of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, for a return of last year's popular Cinemasports competition (video of one of the prize winners here: http://youtu.be/erWvhNknjlA).

The kick-off meeting with ingredients announced will take place at 10:30am at the Corner Brewery. Completed films are due back at the Corner Brewery by 9:00pm sharp with the screening starting at 10pm. Formats accepted for final screening are: DVD or quicktime file.

It's free to participate - simply sign up at Cinemasports.com. The first 12 teams to sign up are guaranteed a screening of their work (if they submit on time), so we encourage you to sign up early to ensure your team's work will get shown! Please note: there is also a $100 prize for the top film submitted on time, with ingredients included, as determined by our awards jury.

10:30am - Filmmakers' Kickoff / Ingredients Announced
Corner Brewery
720 Norris Street, Ypsilanti, MI, 48198 USA
Participation fee: FREE
9pm - Films due at Corner Brewery
10pm - Public screening of finished movies
Corner Brewery
Tickets: FREE

Event Co-hosted by:
Ann Arbor Fim Festival
Shadow Art Fair

Posted on July 16th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Cinemasports at Shadow Art Fair - Winners Announced and Online

On Saturday, July 10, 2010 the Ann Arbor Film Festival hosted a Cinemasports event at Ypsilanti’s biannual Shadow Art Fair. Cinemasports is a free, fun filmmaking challenge where self-assembled teams are required to include assigned "ingredients" into their 3-minute movie made in 10 hours or less.

The day started at 10:30 am when all participating teams arrived at the Shadow Art Fair’s main venue, the Corner Brewery, for the ingredients announcement: 1) a silhouette 2) an unresolved mystery 3) making a pass and 4) instructions. Following the announcement the dozen teams went scrambling with just 10 hours to make their best film possible! By 9pm that evening the completed films were submitted for our backyard beer garden screening and competition.

The films were juried by past Cinemasports winner, Andrea Steves, Jennifer Albaum of the Shadow Art Fair and myself. I think I can speak for all the jurors when I say we were impressed by the quality and creativity of the teams’ submissions considering the extreme time constraints. Among the 9 finished films we had a three way tie for first place: the energetic comedy “Bocce(d)” from iTeam, Now There’s an “i” in Team; C. Jacqueline Wood’s sweet and melancholic piece “How to Mend a Broken Heart” (screened vertically with AAFF director Donald Harrison holding the projector sideways!) and the clever public domain footage mash up “Oil Babies” by Jon Moodie. These winning movies can be viewed below.

Thank you to everyone who came out to watch and participate in the AAFF’s Cinemasports at Shadow Art Fair!

Posted on July 15th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

Co-respondents: Recent work by Lori Felker & Robert Todd

Co-respondents: Recent work by Lori Felker & Robert Todd
Thursday, July 14th @ 8pm (doors at 7:30)
60 min program
This Is My Show- Lori Felker, 14 min (HD)
Mere Mystery- Lori Felker, 12 min (16mm)
Imperceptihole- Lori Felker & Robert Todd, 14 min (16mm)
Golden Hour- Robert Todd, 16 min (16mm)
Weapons Expert Demonstration- Robert Todd, 3 min (16mm)

Friday, July 15th @ 8pm (doors at 7:30)
56 min program
The Mirrored Curtain- Lori Felker, 10.5 min (HD)
Across & Down- Lori Felker, 13 min (S8 - HD)
Imperceptihole- Lori Felker & Robert Todd, 14 min (16mm)
Groundplay- Robert Todd, 12 min (16mm)
Seeking Sunlight- Robert Todd, 6 min (16mm)

To Co-respond, or “respond” together, implies a match, which is (used) to light a flame or, in other words: to create light together, or to make light, to lighten, or to illuminate while at the same time unburdening, which suggests a vertical movement (a sort of anti- or counter-gravitational movement) and allowing the freedom to “move” more readily, and in this case interactively, one “note” in the correspondence opening a portal through which correspondent and correspondee can mosey, float, stride, jump, or ooze, and con- sider from both sides, the “outside” becoming an inside from within which other casements can be carved, other throughways considered, taken, burst apart and re-imagined. If there is an end point it’s formed/ foundon the edge of the horizon of this hall of revolving mirrors, dissolving what seemed to be a clear illusion of singularity, exploding the personal while turning over, under, upward, sideward, onward.

THE ARTISTS:
Lori Felker
Lori chose Filmmaking as her official second language in 2003-ish, bumping German into third place. Eventual fluency is important to her, so she employs many forms/formats, practices frequently with others, and tries hard not to shy away from expressing her thoughts on human behavior, travel, inter-activity, frustration, failure and political irritants.

Robert Todd
After a lifetime torn between music and drawing/painting, film sauntered into the picture in 1989 and offered Rob Todd’s maker-innards a truce that seems to have endured ever since. A lyrical filmmaker as well as a sound and visual artist, he continually produces short works that resist categorization.

The works in this program have been included in programs at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Boston Underground Film Festival, Migrating Forms, Chicago Underground Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, WNDX Festival, and the WiP Festival.

Posted on July 14th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Shorts @ Top of the Park III

It's your last chance to catch AAFF shorts at Top of the Park!

This week we will screen two animated films from the 49th Festival, "Accumulonimbus" from Brooklyn, New York and from Tokyo, Japan we'll present "The Mechanism of Spring".

Accumulonimbus
Andy Kennedy
(Brooklyn, NY) 2010
5 minutes

Natural and man-made objects on a spin cycle accumulate, disintegrate, and multiply. Created by stop motion animating clay on glass, this independent film is a meditation on motion and the life cycle of matter.

The Mechanism of Spring
Atsushi Wada
(Tokyo, Japan) 2010
4 minutes

An expression of the itchy feelings everyone experiences when Spring comes. -AW

Posted on July 07th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Newsletter: July 2011

50th AAFF Call for Entries - Now Open
Traveling Tour Launches for 49th AAFF
AAFF Founder George Manupelli - Video

50th AAFF Call for Entries - Now Open

The Ann Arbor Film Festival is now accepting submissions for its 50th season. We are seeking recent independent and experimental works (films completed no earlier than 2010) that advance the art form of film. We consider all genres, lengths, styles and formats, including 16mm, 35mm, Super-8mm, video and HD video.

Artwork: George Manupelli

The 50th AAFF will provide at least $18,000 in cash awards to more than 20 filmmakers, serves as a qualifying festival for Academy Award® nomimation in the short film category and provides touring opportunities for select filmmakers. The 50th Festival takes place March 27 - April 1, 2012 in downtown Ann Arbor, MI.

Submission Deadlines

Early: Aug. 15th $30 Shorts / $40 Features
Official: Oct. 3rd $40 Shorts / $50 Features
Late: Nov. 3rd $50 Shorts / $60 Features

For more information regarding submissions please visit our website.

49th AAFF Traveling Tour Launches

The AAFF pioneered the traveling film festival concept in 1964 and each year sends programs of short films from its current season on tour across the U.S. and beyond. This year's tour anticipates screening in more than 40 cities.

The 49th AAFF Tour features 24 international films presented across three different programs, including one full line-up on 16mm. Films featured include Natasha Mendonca's Jan Villa (AAFF Best of Festival), Fern Silva's In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails (AAFF Best Experimental), and The Florestine Collection, a film by Helen Hill, completed by Paul Gailiunas.

Image: Jan Villa (2010) by Natasha Mendonca

The Tour launches July 31st in Glen Arbor, Michigan, followed by a screening of the 16mm program on August 7th at the Los Angeles Filmforum. Visit the AAFF Tour calendar throughout the summer to see when we're coming to a town near you.

Interested in bringing the 49th AAFF Traveling Tour to your city? Please contact tour@aafilmfest.org

George Manupelli: An Unauthorized History AAFF Founder George Manupelli provided the artwork for the 50th festival's call for entries (pictured above). Manupelli particpated in the 47th festival with a compelling talk at the Penny W. Stamps distinguished speaker series. The entire artist talk has recently become available here for viewing online.

Posted on July 01st, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Shorts @ Top of the Park II

Join the AAFF for another evening of free films at Top of the Park!

This week we take "a look at life on the Mediterranean borders of Europe, where tourists try to relax while "illegal" immigrants struggle to get a chance for a better life" in Michaela Mueller's animation, "Miramare" screening before FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF.

Miramare
Michaela Mueller
(Zagreb, Croatia) 2010
8 minutes

Posted on June 30th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Receives AAACF Grant for Media Literacy Education Program

Ann Arbor Film Festival Receives Grant from Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation
to Build Media Literacy Education Program in Washtenaw County High Schools

June 27, 2011 Ann Arbor, MI - The Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) was recently awarded a $16,000 grant from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF) to build a media literacy education program for Washtenaw County high schools (For the complete list of AAACF grant awards please visit: http://www.aaacf.org/grants/grant-awards/spring-2011-grants).

The AAFF is developing this program to provide area high school students with the opportunity to view independent, artist made film to increase their critical viewing skills, expand their exposure to non-commercial media, and build an appreciation for the arts. The program will, according to AAFF Executive Director Donald Harrison, “help counterbalance teen media diets that are saturated with too much commercial content and strengthen their ability to analyze and appreciate what they see on the screen.” The AAFF estimates this new program will reach 300 – 500 area high school students.

In winter 2010 and 2011 the AAFF conducted several after-school media literacy workshops in three area high schools (Ypsilanti High, Willow Run High and Wayne Memorial High) with support from EMU Institute’s Bright Futures program. These workshops were positively received by participating students and educators, and will serve as the foundation for this expanded program. AAACF’s grant will give the AAFF the capacity to expand the program’s workshops to eight Washtenaw County high schools during the 2011-12 academic year. Many of the participating students will also have the opportunity to attend the family-friendly Saturday program at the 50th Ann Arbor Film Festival on March 31, 2012.

The AAFF will hire a person skilled in media arts and education for a part-time position to coordinate and implement the program: http://annarbor.craigslist.org/tfr/2445907300.html.

For more information about the program, please contact Donald Harrison at the Ann Arbor Film Festival: 734-995-5356.

About the AAFF
The Ann Arbor Film Festival is the longest-running independent and experimental film festival in North America, internationally recognized as a premier showcase for film as an art form. The AAFF is a pioneer of the traveling film festival tour, and each year visits more than 35 theaters, universities, museums and art house cinemas around the world. In recent years the AAFF has expanded to offer year round screenings, educational programs and distribute short artist-made films through its DVD collections. The festival's mission is to support bold, visionary filmmakers, advance the art form of film and new media, and engage communities with remarkable cinematic experiences. For more information, please visit www.aafilmfest.org

About the AAACF
The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation is dedicated to enriching the quality of life in our region through its engaged grantmaking, knowledgeable leadership, and creative partnerships with donors – to make philanthropic investments and build endowment. Founded in 1963, AAACF manages more than $60 million in assets on our community’s behalf and has awarded more than $21 million in grants and scholarships - $1.7 million in 2010. AAACF's continued success is a tribute to the thousands of community members - donors, volunteers, committee members and advisors - whose continued support and efforts help us meet the changing needs of our community - For good. For ever. For more information, please visit www.aaacf.org.

Posted on June 27th, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Shorts @ Top of the Park

Join the Ann Arbor Film Festival as we screen short films from the 49th festival before Top of the Park's Thursday main feature films.

This week it's all about the music. Check out U.S. Girls' music video for their hit single, "Red Ford Radio" along with "Classically Trained" a music video for hip-hop emcee and producer Clavius Crates, featuring Silas Green. Both films will screen before eighties film favorite, TOP GUN.

Classically Trained
Peter Dean
(Los Angeles/Ann Arbor) 2009
4 minutes
Director Peter Dean, shot on black and white super 8 film, which he processed by hand, and combined with footage in the public domain.

Red Ford Radio
Jacqueline Castel & Preston Spurlock
(Brooklyn, NY) 2010
3 minutes
This video for U.S. Girls was created entirely on the flatbed of a black and white photocopier, employing replacement animation and collage to create a hypnotic meditation on the mythology of the American woman.

Posted on June 23rd, 2011

Ann Arbor Film Fest

AAFF Newsletter: June 2010

Video: Genesis & Marie Losier at 49th AAFF
Festival Report: CUFF & Media City
AAFF Summer DVD Sale
Karen Aqua (1954 - 2011)

Video: The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye Q&A

One of the most talked about films of the 49th AAFF was Marie Losier's feature film debut The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye. After the film Marie and special guest Genesis P-Orridge took the stage for a provocative Q&A with AAFF Executive Director, Donald Harrison.

Festival Report: Chicago Underground & Media City
The spring season brings many excellent opportunities to see experimental film in the Midwest. At the recently completed 18th Chicago Underground Film Festival, AAFF Executive Director Donald Harrison served as an awards juror with Chi Jang Yin, Ygnatiy Vishnevetsky and Irvine Welsh. Eleven filmmakers were awarded, including Ben Rivers (Slow Action) and Laura Kraning (Devil's Gate) with films that screened at the 49th AAFF. View the complete list and award night photos here.

The week prior, Windsor, Canada hosted the 17th edition of the Media City Film Festival. The AAFF served as a community partner for International Program 1, which included Fern Silva's In the Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails,winner of best experimental film at the 49th AAFF. Five filmmakers were awarded for their merits, including 48th AAFF juror Tomonari Nishikawa (Shibuya - Tokyo), Rose Lowder (Bouquets 11-20) and Philipp Fleischmann (Cinematographie), who both screened at the 49th AAFF. View the complete list here.

AAFF Summer DVD Sale
This summer you can save almost 20% when you buy all three AAFF DVD collections as a
set. Each DVD retails for $18 but can be purchased together for only $45.

Volume 3 includes best of 48th AAFF award-winner Beauty Plus Pity by Duke and Battersby, Travelling Fields by Inger Lise Hansen, Please Say Something by David OReilly, Black Rain by Semiconductor and five other great works. Volume 3 DVDs come in a screen-printed matteboard case and inclu