Ann Arbor Film Festival paying a visit Thursday
The Ann Arbor Film Festival will bring seven short independent films at 7 p.m. Thursday to the Charles V. Park Library Auditorium.
The festival will feature a variety of award-winning films from around the world that range from five to 24 minutes in length.
“We are showing one night of highlights from last March’s 47th Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival,” said assistant professor of libraries Stephanie Mathson. “It is one of the oldest film festivals of its kind, featuring short films, experimental films and animated films. It doesn’t focus on full-length feature films like most other festivals do.”
Mathson said there was 30 films in the Ann Arbor festival and they chose seven for Thursday.
She said the reason she chose this program was to feature the Best Michigan Film Award winner “A City to Yourself” by director Nicole MacDonald.
“It’s about Detroit and how the economic decline hasn’t necessarily been a bad thing,” she said. “It’s looking at the fact that the population is shrinking, which means that the roads are less congested and there are different kinds of housing becoming more cheaply available. I thought that film would draw people because it is something positive about a subject that is so bleak.”
The films in the festival range from the winner of the Funniest Film Award, “Video Terraform Dance Party,” featuring director Jeremy Bailey of Toronto as a nerd, to “Passages,” an animated film about child birth.
“I think it is a great alternative kind of programming that we offer,” Mathson said. “Especially for students that are interested in the arts and media and in alternative sorts of films.”
Executive Director of the Office of International Education and former film professor Mark Poindexter said the festival provides students with a unique chance to view films with little risk involved.
“With a feature film, you are taking the risk of watching a movie for a couple of hours and disliking it,” Poindexter said. “Most of the films at this festival are only a couple of minutes long, so you’re not really taking any risks. I’ve yet to go to any festival where I didn’t leave without seeing a film I thoroughly enjoyed.”
