56th AAFF SPECIAL PROGRAMS
The 56th AAFF features many engrossing special programs that will complement the short and feature films-in-competition programs. Special programs will be held in the Michigan Theater Screening Room, unless otherwise noted below. On Wednesday, March 21, Robert Fulton’s Reality’s Invisible (1971), a poetic portrait of an iconic Le Corbusier building, will screen at 7:15 p.m. At 9:15 p.m., Memories of Disintegration features experimental Ibero-American works made on Video8, Super 8, 16mm, Super 35mm, and VHS by a new generation of emerging filmmakers from Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, and beyond who are establishing a strong presence on the festival circuit for Spanish- and Portuguese-language films from Latin America. The next day—Thursday, March 22—at 7:00 p.m., Disasters of Peace draws together artist-filmmakers who in varying ways will explore modern paranoia and eschew the visuals of spectacle. In doing so, they seek to challenge our cultural and conceptual interpretations of disaster. Later, at 9:15 p.m., Black Radical Imagination will present another iteration of its ongoing film showcase, which has explored themes ranging from Afrofuturism and Afrosurrealism to Reclamation of the Black Body and the Black Fantastic. Dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer is also heavily featured in this year’s special programs. On Friday, March 23, there will be a 7:00 p.m. screening of Rainer’s subversive feature about menopause, Privilege. On March 24 at 4:00 p.m. in the Michigan Theater main auditorium, Rainer’s Five Easy Pieces, a collection of short 8mm and 16mm black-and-white films, will screen alongside a performance of her 1969 dance composition Chair/Pillow by the Freshman Touring Company from the University of Michigan Department of Dance. Details on these and other Rainer-related programs are here. Saturday, March 24, will be the final day for special programs, beginning with URe:AD TV (United Re:Public of the African Diaspora Television) at 2:45 p.m.. URe:AD TV presents fresh, contemporary audiovisual work by and for the African diaspora. It challenges the narrow, stereotypical, and banal aspects of both popular media and art institutional framing of Black representation. At 7:00 p.m., The Irresistible Joy of Film: The Early Works of Karpo Godina celebrates the legendary Yugoslavian director’s Black Wave works from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Finally, please enjoy a special retrospective of films hand-picked by Vicki Honeyman, who directed the Ann Arbor Film Festival from 1988 to 2002. Vick’s Picks! features a dozen of her favorite works, ranging from George Griffin’s whimsical animated poem Viewmaster (1976) to Gerald Holthius’s lush documentary Hong Kong (1999). These special programs are not to be missed! Buy your tickets today!
