This year’s theme is “It’s Time to Watch,” and there is much anticipation for one of the mostdynamic programs in the festival’s 46-year history. With more than 36 screenings, daily free events, live film-based performances and multiple world premieres, audiences will have ample opportunities to watch this year.
Over the course of the 6-day event, the festival will showcase five feature-length documentaries, three full animation programs, an exclusive narrative program and several experimentally-focused film programs. Issues of the day will be analyzed with selections from the Live Earth series about climate change. Out Night features two programs of LGBT-focused films, one hosted by last year’s popular curator Debra Miller. The ever-packed Midnight Movies also return to the State Theater with Tom Waits in Big Time and a rare screening of Leningrad Cowboys Go America. Having selected from more than 2,000 submissions, the 46th Ann Arbor Film Festival presents over 100 independent films from 20 countries in competition for more than $18,000 in awards.
This year’s Opening Night gala has been extended to a two-hour reception from 6 – 8pm in the Grand Foyer of the Michigan Theater on Tuesday, March 25th. Flavorful catering will be provided by Sava's Cafe, a selection of high-quality wines from Italy, Spain, and Uruguay by U.S. Wine Imports of Ann Arbor, microbrews from Arbor Brewing company, Absolut vodka, Maker's Markbourbon, chocolates by Schakolad, and live music performed by festive Ann Arbor salsa band Los Gatos. Following announcements from Russ Collins of the Michigan Theater, Mayor John Hieftje, and executive director Christen McArdle, some of the festival’s most memorable films in competition will screen.
Many of this year’s films in competition are thematically programmed, though continuing to mix genres, such in the program titled “For Kids of All Ages.” This family-friendly Saturday matinee has kids acting like grown-ups, adults with a youthful exuberance, and animated figures with colorful energy.
Also on Saturday late afternoon “Conspiracy Countdown” features films with edge-of-your-seat suspense, propaganda, and the world premiere of Jim Finn’s “The Juche Idea,” which provides a rare glimpse into the underpinnings of propaganda of North Korea’s arts culture. Thursday at 9:30pm “Cracking the Space-time Continuum” is for bold and daring adventurers of cinema and reality, not for the faint of heart. These films will transport the viewer through wormholes of the space-time continuum to arrive within new dimensions of the universe.
Other themes include:
• “Aftermath of the Clash” -A program of films that examine the effects of war on the individual, as well as on landscape. (Wednesday at 7:30pm). • “The Orbits Inside” -Revolving around our values, beliefs and ideologies, films in this
program explore the influences on our identities. (Wednesday at 9:00pm)
• “Collisions at the Crossroads” -This narrative and dramatically-driven program delivers
unforgettable intersections of relationships, raw emotions, and the random turns of life.
(Friday at 7:00pm)
• “Illusions of the Body Snatchers” -This program spirals through the deluded, delightful
imaginings of a disconnected consciousness. These films abduct our expectations of
the status quo and transport us beyond any fleeting sense of normalcy.