NOT YOUR AVERAGE EPISODE

The most recent episode of “Let’s Watch with the Ann Arbor Film Festival” was unique to the series. The featured filmmaker, Sean Kenny, could not make it for an interview with Dana Denha but instead created a video to share his inspirations and insights on experimental film. Kenny is a psychologist and filmmaker and is the founder of the Pickle Fort Film Collective in Grand Rapids, MI. His film, Astral Atomic, screened at the 55th AAFF as part of Films in Competition 1.

In the video, Kenny includes clips from Slacker by Richard Linklater and Laurie Anderson’s Language is a Virus. He was introduced to experimental film when his cousins shared these two films with him. There are also clips from some of the work at the Pickle Fort Film Collective, and Kenny highlights the importance of collaboration and conversation at the Pickle Fort. He is currently working with belly button lint and food stuffs on 16mm film.

Astral Atomic, which had its World Premiere on opening night of the 55th Ann Arbor Film Festival last week, plays at the end of the episode. It is a 16mm hand bleached and inked abstract film with images accompanied by NASA recordings from deep space. Kenny says there is no particular meaning to his film, and that he sees film as more of an “object of sculpture” since he manipulates it by hand. If you missed the screening at the 55th AAFF make sure to watch it here!