Spend an All Ages Saturday at the 61st Ann Arbor Film Festival!

While experimental film often can seem challenging and inexplicable to newcomers, many of the processes adopted by filmmakers are based on games and spontaneous activities to which children are naturally drawn.

The 61st Ann Arbor Film Festival has created a Saturday schedule for March 25th (10:30am - 2:30pm) with families and children of almost all ages (6+) in mind! Families can start with a hands-on activity at 10:30am where they can see their creations brought to life with a film projector!

After a choose-your-own lunch in downtown Ann Arbor, family activities shift to the Michigan Theater at 1pm for a ceiling-gazing introduction to the lobby spirals created by artist Noel Stupak with the assistance of Ann Arbor area families.

Finally at 1:30pm, families can relax in the luxurious seats of the Michigan Theater Main Auditorium for the Almost All Ages film program for movie lovers aged 6 and up, and for which the tickets are a family friendly $6! Read more below about this wonderfully wild and wonderful collection of films all of which are chosen with 6+ attention spans in mind.

For more information and tickets, please visit aafilmfest.org

Saturday, March 25

The Joy of LOOPing with the Pickle Fort Film Collective

10:30am-12:30pm | North Quad Space 2435 | FREE

Families are invited to try their hand at creating short hand-drawn and painted loops of film. All the necessary tools will be provided, but feel free to bring your own favorite Sharpies. We will premiere your unique cinema art on the spot with live sound.

In 2012, Sean Kenny formed the Pickle Fort Film Collective, which specializes in the creation of handmade 16mm film loops.

Spiral-Gazing in the Michigan Theater Lobby

1-1:30pm

Join artist Noel Stupak for an exploration of spirals she created for the Michigan Theater Lobby with the exuberant participation of Ann Arbor area families during a workshop at the A2 District Library on March 11.

Films in Competition 9: Almost All Ages (6+)

1:30-2:30pm | Michigan Theater Main Auditiorium | $6

SPONSOR: Sesi Mazda

EDUCATION PARTNER: U-M Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

COMMUNITY PARTNERS: Ann Arbor District Library & Ann Arbor Summer Festival

System | Dana Sink | Harrisburg, PA | 2022

An animated film intersecting machinery, life, and our subconscious. System.

Sit Down, Don't Touch Anything | Frederic Siegel | Zurich, Switzerland | 2022

North American Premiere

A face is born out of chaos. It struggles to exist. It struggles to find its purpose. It struggles to sit on a chair. In fact, it struggles with many things. But, thank God, it’s trying. ¯\_(?)_/¯

What Are You Looking At? | Liberty Smith | Crewkerne, UK | 2021 | 15

The visual artist Angela Charles shares her story of unexpectedly losing her sight, and her experience of “coming out” as a blind artist after years of hiding it as the self-proclaimed Queen of Bluff. The film integrates audio description and captions for increased inclusivity—and explores notions of seeing, the power and limitations of language to describe the visual world, and questions our preconceptions in asking us, “what are you looking at?”

BOOM | Diane Nerwen | New York, NY | 2022

BOOM weaves together images from New York City luxury real estate listings into a single virtual tour. Cutting between multimillion dollar apartments with “soaring cinematic views,” BOOM depicts a city that has undergone a dizzying transformation into perhaps the world’s largest gated community.

Red House | Barry Doupé | Vancouver, Canada | 2022

Red House is an animation that playfully explores metamorphosis in relation to the stability and structure of housing. Created using the Amiga computer console and Deluxe Paint IV software, hand-drawn sequences delight in the constant reconfiguration of images, characters, and forms.

Salin | Anne-Marie Reine Bouchard | Percé, Canada | 2021

The director revisits a family film shot by her grandfather. The images, shot in Super 8 in 1966, are masked and revealed by an organic film made from algae. Formed by visual and sound loops, this work explores organic textures related to the images. “My grandfather's nervous camera, combined with his fascination for certain innocuous movements, resonates with my artistic practice.”

Back to School

Tyro Heath | London, UK | 2022 | United States Premiere

As another London lockdown comes to an end, a neurodiverse 13-year-old skater reflects on being in and out of the classroom.

Menagerie

| Jack Gray | US | 2022

Day after day, inhabitants of the Menagerie play out their daily lives like clockwork. Menagerie is a study of the daily motions and mundane tasks of contemporary city life. Featuring hundreds of looping animated characters, the film explores how the repetitive actions of our day-to-day lives quickly spiral into an endless kaleidoscope of abstraction.

There is exactly enough time

| Oskar Salomonowitz | Vienna, Austria | 2021

Oskar Salomonowitz, the 12-year-old son of filmmakers Anja Salomonowitz and Virgil Widrich, had drawn 206 frames of a flip book when he died in an accident. Using the remaining blank sheets, his father continued drawing the film.

*WOMEN (Nico) | Karin Fisslthaler | Vienna, Austria | 2021 | United States Premiere

Nico was a musician, a model, muse, actress: an icon who evaded descriptions, broke expectations, and cultivated a self-destructive lifestyle. Karin Fisslthaler’s homage dissects Nico’s image and puts it back together in broadly based audiovisual body collages. An exciting remix, a resounding portrait in incessant transformation.

Images

Above: Sit Down, Don't Touch Anything

Below (clockwise from top left): Back to School | Red House | Menagerie | System