Off The Screen at the 64th AAFF

Updated March 17, 2026

Left: Image from Is The War Close?—Joseph Andrew Sywenkyj

Right: Image from  Planting Disabled Futures: a virtual reality ritual—Petra Kuppers

A longstanding cornerstone of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Off the Screen once again brings salons, performances, and installations into dialogue with the festival’s screenings. In 2026, the program takes on a more intimate scale, foregrounding regional artists and close community collaborators while continuing to champion adventurous forms of moving image art.

Running March 25–29 as part of the 64th Ann Arbor Film Festival, this year’s Off the Screen emphasizes process, participation, and embodied experience, including hands-on 16mm film workshops, live cinema performance, and immersive virtual reality installations. The series opens space for festival attendees to experience moving image art off the screen in varied forms while creating opportunities to engage with one another.

Off the Screen: Salons

I’ve Created a Monster: Generative AI, Found Footage Filmmaking, and the Archive Effect

Thursday, March 26 | 10:30–11:30 AM | Third Mind Books

In this salon, filmmaker Jennifer Proctor discusses her reimagining of Bruce Conner’s 1958 experimental landmark A Movie through generative AI tools. Her new work, AI Movie, engages directly with questions of authorship, archival authority, and the ethics of machine-made images. AI Movie premieres in Shorts in Competition 1 on Opening Night, March 26 at 8:15 PM.

The Joy of LOOPing

Saturday, March 28 | 11:00 AM–1:30 PM | Michigan Theater Grand Foyer

This hands-on, Montessori-style workshop celebrates the tactile foundations of cinema. Participants create hand-painted and hand-inked 16mm film loops directly onto clear film leader, exploring the materiality of film as both object and projection. Facilitated by Sean Kenny and members of The Pickle Fort Film Collective, the workshop includes projecting completed loops on the Michigan Theater screen.

What the Hell Was That?

Sunday, March 29 | 10:30–11:30 AM | U-M Modern Languages Building 2

A festival favorite, this lively discussion invites audiences and visiting filmmakers to collectively unpack three short experimental works. Inspired by an audience member’s exclamation: “What the hell was that?” the session embraces curiosity and conversation as essential elements of the experimental film experience. Moderated by U-M FTVM Associate Professor Daniel Herbert.

Off the Screen: Performance

Devotional Signals~

Friday, March 27 | 7:30 PM | Michigan Theater Main Auditorium | ticket required

Opening the FIC 7 screening, Eric Souther’s Devotional Signals~ is a live cinema performance that shapes signals in real time through gesture and spatial motion. Souther transforms projection into an instrument, activating the theater as a responsive, performative space.

Off the Screen: Installations

Michigan Theater Lobby

Throughout the festival, the lobby becomes an active site of encounter and reflection — a place where audiences can linger, participate, and experience work outside conventional screening formats.

Planting Disabled Futures: a virtual reality ritual

March 25–27

A virtual reality installation by Petra Kuppers exploring environmental connection, crip joy, and embodied ways of knowing. Blending live interaction with VR experience, the work invites participants into a ritual space that imagines disability futures as vibrant and generative.

Is The War Close?

March 28–29

Joseph Andrew Sywenky’s new immersive VR documentary places participants inside a Kyiv home during a large Russian drone and missile attack, using spatial audio and six degrees of freedom to create a visceral sense of presence.

Change Variable Vacillations

Created by lobby decoration artist N. Stupek in collaboration with the Ann Arbor community and the Ann Arbor District Library, this mixed-media installation combines text and sculptural elements to encourage attention and reflection.

What We Saw

An evolving social sculpture and experimental remix documentary shaped by audience contributions. Throughout the festival, visitors write observations on cards that are photographed and incorporated into an ongoing slideshow — forming a collective portrait of spectatorship and shared experience.

Even in a more intimate year, Off the Screen remains a space where moving image art extends beyond projection and becomes a site of shared presence.

64th AAFF Schedule and Tickets