Attending the 55th Ann Arbor Film Festival, March 21-26, was just rollicking great fun, full of inspiration and discoveries–whether onscreen or in personal interactions. An authentic and warm experience, I loved seeing such a variety of art films, and the honest, searching talks I had with fellow filmmakers and artists.
The festival indeed presented a wide open range of film. It is, after all, the renowned and longest-running celebration of avant-garde, experimental film/video in North America! It was refreshing for me to see such a spectrum of approaches, from purely abstract, to jokey character animations, to heady futuristic works, with vintage cross-cultural selections, art installations and performances, plus more. So much to see, so many creatives to meet. It was an awesome festival. Seriously, I had a blast every day!
A hearty thank you to the terrific #AAFF55 staff! They really created a wonderful event. Thanks for the friendly environment and welcome, for the fun opening night, after-parties, gatherings in the Michigan Theater green room, and your generous spirit.
My short experimental film Betwixt screened at the festival in its competition program entitled “Almost All Ages.”
I also participated in “Off the Screen! Film Art Forum,” joined by directors Tish Stringer, Blair McClendon, and Alisa Yang, among others, in individual presentations about the making of or inspirations for our work.
A little side story: Who doesn’t live in fear of technical problems when giving a public art presentation? Yup, well, out of fourteen speakers, I was the lucky one to have that honor! But no biggie, the staff very kindly worked out a solution, while I jabbered on to pass some time. Hey, I got more than my allotted talk time of 20 slides x 20 seconds each!
For me, one of the highlights of the special AAFF programs was the presentation of pioneer video artist Yuan Goang-ming’s work. Wow, the complexity, the simplicity, the stillness, the depth…Yuan Goang-ming’s work blew me away…
The famed Taiwanese artist was present to give a short talk afterwards and do a Q&A. He was completely open and thorough in answering questions about his unusual techniques in staging, filming, and post-production. I admired his thoughtful and humble demeanor.
In terms of in-depth conversations with other filmmakers, by far, a most standout one was with Blair McClendon, Elegance Bratton, David Witzling, Gus Pewe, and others at our Directors’ Dinner table. The soul-searching, poignant, insightful views they each shared about startling life experiences made me feel like, despite the outward, apparent differences in our identities and narratives, it was a pound-your-heart-and-bump-fists-with-humanity moment.
I look forward to the next time I can attend the Ann Arbor Film Festival, a truly terrific, enriching event!
