The 48th Ann Arbor Film Festival ~ March 23-28, 2010 ~ The Historic Michigan Theater
The 48th Ann Arbor Film Festival ~ March 23-28, 2010 ~ The Historic Michigan Theater
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Monday, February 8, 2010 Naomi Uman, Daniel Barrow, Nicky Hamlyn and LUX The AAFF's curated special programs will present several acclaimed filmmakers and a featured distributor of avant-garde and experimental documentary work. Naomi Uman will present films from her series “Ukrainian Time Machine”, personal documentaries exploring life in a small Ukrainian village. Uman, formerly of Los Angeles, has lived in the Ukraine since 2006. Her work has been exhibited internationally in festivals and museums including the Museum of Modern Art, Bilbao Guggenheim, Austria’s Viennale and the Sundance Film Festival. British filmmaker and author Nicky Hamlyn will make his first AAFF appearance to present a special selection of his silent 16mm experimental films. His book “Film Art Phenomena” (2003), a survey of experimental film and video, was published by the British Film Institute. Joining Hamlyn from the U.K. is Benjamin Cook, Executive Director of London-based distributor LUX, to present a select program of new short avant-garde films and experimental documentaries.  Daniel Barrow will bring his newest "manual animation" from Montreal for a special performance which combines overhead lamp projection with video, music, and live narration. “Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry” tells the story of a garbage man with a vision to create an independent phone book chronicling the lives of each person in his city. Barrow has performed at numerous international venues including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, The International Film Festival Rotterdam, The Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver, and the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago.[image from Daniel Barrow's EVERY TIME I SEE YOUR PICTURE I CRY] Labels: 48th festival, Kenneth Anger 
Irina Leimbacher, Tomonari Nishikawa and Ben Russell The 48th AAFF filmmaker awards competition will be juried by three accomplished filmmakers and curators of experimental cinema. These jurors will award approximately $20,000 to filmmakers in the festival. They will each also present a free public program of their own works throughout the festival week.  Irina Leimbacher is a filmmaker, writer, curator and professor of ethnographic and anthropological film theory at the University of California Berkley. Leimbacher was 2009's guest curator of the Flaherty Film Seminar and stands as a leading historian on the late avant-garde filmmaking legend Chick Strand. Leimbacher will present two Chick Strand retrospective programs paying tribute to this revolutionary feminist filmmaker and co-founder of both Canyon Cinema and SF Cinematheque. Japanese filmmaker Tomonari Nishikawa made his mark with technically innovative experimental films, videos and new media installations. His film "Market Street" won a Honorable Mention Award at the 2007 AAFF and also went on to screen in the the Festival's traveling tour. Nishikawa spent the past year completing an Artists Residency in Kuala Lumpur where he researched Thai and Malyasian artists' cinema. Ben Russell, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, has been featured in solo programs at Anthology Archives NYC, International Film Festival Rotterdam and he has won a Honorable Mention Award at the 2007 AAFF. He will present his rigorous and stunning feature debut, "Let Each One Go Where He May", which challenges ethnographic and narrative conventions as it follows the journey of two brothers in Suriname. [image from Chick Strand's SOFT FICTION] Labels: 48th festival, jurors
Monday, December 21, 2009 Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Awards Ann Arbor Film Festival with Tribute to Kenneth Anger Legacies collide as 82-year-old Anger returns to Ann Arbor The Ann Arbor Film Festival has been selected as one of two dozen film festivals nationwide to receive a generous grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. This award supports a tribute to American avant-garde icon Kenneth Anger at the 48th festival (March 23 - 28, 2010). This tribute to Anger will include multiple screenings of his work and a live on-stage conversation with him at the historic Michigan Theater. As one of the seminal figures of post-war American avant-garde filmmaking, Anger’s imprint on the contemporary film world is pervasive, with direct influences on filmmakers Martin Scorcese, David Lynch, Gus Van Sant, Andy Warhol, George Lucas, and Guy Maddin. Anger’s early works were exhibited at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in the 1960s/1970s. Included in the tribute will be recent 35mm restorations of Anger’s films by UCLA, preserved through the Avant-Garde Masters program funded by The Film Foundation and administered by the National Film Preservation Foundation. After the film Anger will be present onstage at the historic Michigan Theater for an interview and audience Q&A. Anger’s participation in the 48th Ann Arbor Film Festival supports the organization's commitment to providing audiences with an understanding of the historical context for independent filmmaking. With the 50th anniversary of the Ann Arbor Film Festival approaching, the AAFF is focusing attention on the festival’s important contributions to the history and success of independent filmmakers. Labels: 48th festival, AMPAS, Kenneth Anger
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