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the Ann Arbor Film Festival Newsletter 46th AAFF Program Announcements Discounts for Attending We Want to Hear From You Filmmaker Focus: Jessie Stead & David Gatten "Live Screening" - a free hands-on event

46th AAFF - Mark Your Calendars!

Mark your calendars! Opening Night of the 46th AAFF springs to life Tuesday, March 25th from 6:00 - 10:00PM at the historic Michigan Theater. Our two-hour gala reception, complete with food, drinks, desserts, and music, will be followed by opening remarks and some of the most memorable shorts from this year's festival.


Special Program Highlights of the 46th Include

Saturday, March 29 - 7:00pm

The world premiere of The Juche Idea by Jim Finn, the critically-acclaimed filmmaker who created Interkosmos (2006). This film mixes together North Korean archival propaganda films, the Juche teachings of Kim Jong-il, and a documentary exploration of a modern day North Korean artist residency. With a sense of craft and humor, Finn creates an unusual and fascinating examination of the underpinnings of North Korean culture and the effects of propaganda in cinema.

Friday, March 28 - 7:00pm

Nerakhoon (The Betrayal) is an epic documentary by cinematographer extraordinaire Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind among many others) created in collaboration with her editor (and central character) Thavisouk Phrasavath over a 23-year period. The cinematography is poetic and intimate, as Kuras creates a depth of connection rarely found in a non-fiction film. Nerakhoon delivers an overdue reality lesson about the Unites States's hidden and prolonged bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War. Bringing this political backdrop to a personal intensity is the story of Thavi and his family, whose lives reveal the harsh impacts of U.S. foreign policy decisions.

Friday, March 28 - 9:30pm

Bill Plympton Presents - A not-to-be-missed program for any fan of animation, Plympton is one of the most successful independent animators in the world. His shorts and feature animations have won prizes at Cannes, multiple Oscar® nominations, and commissions from MTV, Vogue, and Kanye West. Plympton will be in attendance with a world premiere of his new work and to demonstrate the art of his craft.

Additional program announcements include:

Nathaniel Dorsky program - Silent films of devotion, Dorsky's work evokes and explores the spiritual underpinnings of cinema.

Sandra Gibson & Luis Recoder live performance - Renown for their multiple film projector performances, Gibson & Recoder interact with light through refraction as they collide image and sound.

Full program details and advance tickets/passes will be available online March 4th.

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Discount on Hotel and Airfare

In the meantime, we have discounted rates for air travel and hotel accommodations for those of you coming from beyond. Weber's Inn has single & double rooms for just $89/night, using the AAFF code "AAFF32508" by March 15th.

Northwest Air is also providing a discount (WorldFile # is NYVNK), which can be used online at www.nwa.com or with many travel agents. [see bottom of PROJECTIONS for instructions.]

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We Want to Hear From You

Help the AAFF set its future course as we head toward our 50th anniversary. Take just a few minutes to add your voice to our conversation by joining our online survey. Your responses will be anonymous and appreciated. Click HERE to take the survey now.

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Filmmaker Focus: Jessie Stead

The AAFF is committed to championing bold, pioneering, and artistically-inspired filmmakers. And we're dedicated to bringing creative, quality content to our audience. Thus, another installment of Filmmaker Focus, which features an AAFF "alumni" providing personal insights into her/his approach on new projects. This month, we hear from Jessie Stead who won the Ken Burns Award for Best of the Festival at AAFF in 2007 for her film "Foggy Mountains Breakdown More Than Non-Foggy Mountains":

1. What's your newest project about and what motivated you to make it? I am working with David Gatten on a film called "TODAY!". David and I met at the 45th AAFF and soon after began shooting improvised scenes on location at random. Highlights so far include cameo appearances by the United States Postal Service, a dance in Chicago with some abandoned candy, and a recurring pre-occupation with a useful but problematically self-aggrandizing shopping bag.

2. What's your approach and process for making this film?

"TODAY!" is part transmutable daydream, part pseudo-haiku playground, part epic prop comedy and maybe more. We are working with a screenplay that is only one sentence, more specifically a slogan. Traditionally, most screenplays are many, many pages. And because we are on a tight budget, the screenplay must also multi-task as a prop and a stunt-double, luckily it is inexpensively reproduced.

3. Is there anything unusual or different to how you've approached
previous work?

I am starring in "TODAY!", in one of my most challenging roles to date as "one of the filmmakers who also stars in the film". "TODAY!" is also a collaboration with another filmmaker, so the film has "four eyes"... actually it has eight eyes because David and I both wear spectacles.

4. What are the objectives of your project, both internally (for yourself) and externally (for the world)? The expectation of a film requiring a pre-determined objective is perhaps a situation "TODAY!" will be asking future audiences to mildly ponder. In fact, we are going out of our way (literally) to constantly relocate in order to keep our own objectives in constant question. Its perhaps that the presence of media potentially expands our consciousness in ways that we don't experience analogically, and how our imaginations function to inhabit the landscape created by the space in between immediate reality and represented experience.

5. What are the most challenging aspects of your project content, structure and/or story-wise?
There is a joy in the very misunderstanding of "TODAY!" which ironically seems to be easily mistaken for irresponsible filmmaking. The very risk of it being misunderstood is what we think makes it a quintessentially experimental film.

6. Have you discovered anything unexpected or surprising so far on this project?
Yes, discovery and unexpectedness THEMSELVES are notions we are purposefully embodying as the working creators of "TODAY!" and it is our hope to reinstate these as crucial experiential aspects of cinematic reception and therefore ALL PERCEPTION...

For more info about Jessie Stead and her projects, please visit: www.jessiestead.com

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"Live Screening" for 46th AAFF at VGKids in Ypsilanti!
Saturday, March 1st
6:00 - 9:00 PM
216 W. Michigan Avenue, Ypsilanti
FREE
The "Live Screening" will feature a do-it-yourself screen-printing set-up for making custom designed t-shirts using dynamic graphics from the 46th Ann Arbor Film Festival. VGKids will supervise and lend assistance, but each participant gets to create their own vision for the festival t-shirt. Bring your own blank t-shirt or buy one at the shop for just $10 and get to work!

To provide inspiration there will also be a live screening of favorite and award-winning short films from the 45th Ann Arbor Film Festival. Hot and spicy food will be generously provided by Tios and drinks will be served. All are welcome!

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Instructions For using AAFF discount on Northwest Airlines:
Northwest Air is also providing a discount (WorldFile # is NYVNK), which can be used online at www.nwa.com or with many travel agents. At the bottom of the 'Flights' tab, click the 'NWA Discount Travel; E-Cert Redemption' link; Complete the 'Flight Options' section of the Flight Search screen; In the 'Additional Search Options' section, navigate to the section labeled E-Cert; Do you have a Discount Travel E-Cert, Electronic Credit Voucher (ECV), NWA Extras Voucher? Select: Yes; From the drop-down select 'Meeting Agreement WorldFile number'; Enter the Meeting Agreement code (WorldFile number) in the box provided and complete your transaction.