By Kim Voynar Voynar@moviecitynews.com
Spotlight: Ann Arbor Film Festival
Much of the indie film world is gearing up for South by Southwest, which runs in Austin (the film part, anyhow) March 11-19. And they have a swell slate, and Austin’s a fun town, and SXSW is always a great party sandwiched around some interesting films, but you already know that. Love SXSW, love the folks who run it, but you already know about that fest, right? Probably you already have your digs set, your plane ticket purchased, your film-and-party slate lined up.
What you may be less aware of is the Ann Arbor Film Festival, which runs March 22-27 in lovely Ann Arbor, Michigan. When I went there a couple years ago, it was C-O-L-D! And it snowed during the fest. In March! But I didn’t care, because the films that Ann Arbor programs are so engaging, and their primary venue, the Michigan Theater, is just a lovely place to celebrate film.
AAFF just announced their slate for their 49th year, and it includes an opening night world premiere of The Florestine Collection, the last film of the late Helen Hill, slain during a 2007 home invasion in New Orleans. The film was seen to completion by her husband, Paul Gailiunas. The fest has all kinds of excellent, fascinating programs this year, including a live multimedia performance by Amsterdam trio Telcosystems, which just had an installation at Rotterdam. Are you kidding me? I would go to AAFF this year for that, if it was the ONLY thing on their slate.
But that’s not all … AAFF also has:
An entire night of LGBT programming called Out Night (this, I’m pretty sure, is new since I was there last).
And check out their experimental slate, which is my favorite part of AAFF! The experimentals are an absolute treasure trove if you’re into exploring that realm of cinema, and reason enough to trek to Ann Arbor.
Ann Arbor is the oldest experimental film festival in North America, and it has become a showcase for indie and experimental filmmakers to present their work before an appreciative audience. The year that I attended, every screening was packed. I saw some of the coolest experimental films I’ve ever seen, and heaps of awesome animation and shorts.
I ate dinner with Ellen Kuras and talked about cinematography and lighting issues and the tenacity it took to stick with her project Nerakhoon (Betrayal) for the 20 years it took to get that film made. I listened to master animator Bill Plympton preach his gospel of how to make a living making the kinds of films you want to make, and found that while I have neither the talent or inclination to be an animator, most of what he had to say applies to indie film generally, which I am interested in.
Ann Arbor is one of those well-entrenched little regional fests that does a superb job of both knowing the community it’s serving, and finding a niche and excelling in it. Personally, if I were an experimental filmmaker I’d far rather submit my film to AAFF, where it would be lovingly showcased and appreciated and discussed passionately than at, say, Sundance, where it would likely get lost in the shuffle. No one’s making experimental films to explore getting rich, they’re doing it for the art, and there’s no better fest than AAFF (in North America at least, where we can be a little behind the curve on these things) for truly experimental and avant garde work to be appreciated.
But beyond that, I’d like to posit that AAFF is a great example of how a regional festival can really serve a role in its community of expanding audience interest in films that are aiming more for the realm of art than purely entertainment. You go to the experimental slate there, it’s like sitting down in a dark room at an art gallery and being bombarded by astounding imagery that pushes the boundaries of what you can do with film. Ann Arbor isn’t Rotterdam, or Amsterdam. It’s a college town. Lots of smart people, just as in any college town. There’s no reason other fests in close proximity to major universities couldn’t (and shouldn’t) be pushing their programming boundaries the way AAFF is.
By curating experimental film — not to mention programming lots of animation and shorts — in addition to a more traditional slate, AAFF has set a high bar for their community on what they expect that a film festival can and should be. They don’t just program the “easy As,” the films that anyone can like without trying. Year after year, they program a challenging slate that sends the message to the local residents who flock to their screenings, “Yes, you are smart enough to handle this. And if you don’t like it, that’s cool, let’s talk about why.”
I love the way the AAFF team programs and runs this fest, and I wish more regional fests would have the guts to push the boundaries in the way AAFF has been doing since 1963. If you live in or near Ann Arbor, you have no excuse for not checking out this festival. If you don’t? Well, aim to put it on your calendar some year, will you? I promise, it will be well worth it.
Oh, and P.S. … I forgot to mention that they put out a DVD of the fest’s short films every year, which is awesome. So if you can’t go to Ann Arbor, you can still buy the DVD and be the envy of your cinephile friends.
I love experimental films,
I made 3 short films. “Still Death” is one of them.
This years AAFF DVD is awesome!