City Guide
March Films
Everyone's a Critic: arborweb's culture blog
Ann Arbor District Library. FREE. 327-4555. AADL multipurpose room (lower level), 343 S. Fifth Ave.
Mar. 24: “Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story” (Bill Kavanagh, 2007). Documentary about the contemporary battle for civil rights that follows 3 Yonkers families in the middle of a confrontation about the politics and law of racial discrimination in houƒsing and schools that challenges and changes their hometown. Followed by a discussion led by U-M Community Scholars Program faculty and students. 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Ann Arbor Docu Fest. Screening of a different documentary film every Mon. FREE. 929-9979. Café Ambrosia, 326 Maynard, 7 p.m.
Mar. 7: “The Tillman Story” (Amir Bar-Lev, 2010). Documentary about the coverup of the circumstances surrounding the death early in the war in Afghanistan of U.S. Army Ranger and former NFL player Pat Tillman.
Mar. 14: “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” (Taggart Siegel, 2005). Acclaimed documentary about a midwestern farmer who continues his organic farm despite community opposition.
Mar. 21: “Casino Jack and the United States of Money” (Alex Gibney, 2010). Documentary about convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Mar. 28: “Healing Cancer from the Inside Out: (Mike Anderson, 2008). Documentary promoting specific plant-based raw food diets to avoid and combat cancer and other diseases.
49th Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival. Tickets: $95 for the entire festival & $55 for weekend passes in advance at aafilmfest.org/store/passes, and $9 (students, seniors, & members, $7; midnight movies, $6) per evening show at the door. 995-5356. Michigan Theater (unless otherwise noted), various times.
Mar. 22: Opening Night. The oldest and one of the most prestigious film festivals in North America kicks off tonight with screenings of independent short films from around the world. Preceded by a gala reception (6-8 p.m.; $30; members, $20; screening only, $9) with an open bar, food, and music spun by DJ Juziuk. Also, a “Backstage Fundraiser Dinner” (6-8 p.m.; $125; couples, $250). 8-10 p.m.
Mar. 23: “Vanessa Renwick.” Short films by this festival judge. FREE. 12:30 p.m. “Student Film Showcase.” Short films by students from regional universities. FREE. 3 p.m. “Music Video Program.” FREE. 5 p.m. “Films in Competition.” The competition showcases new experimental and independent 16-mm, 35-mm, and digital films and videos in a wide range of genres and of generally high quality. Past contributors have included Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Brian De Palma. 7:15 & 9:30 p.m. “Sonic Acts.” Abstract experimental films from this biennial Amsterdam festival. The films explore space in performance and audiovisual art, film, music, and architecture. Films are followed by an after party at Arbor Brewing Company. 9:15 p.m.
Mar. 24: “Stephen Connelly.” Short films by this festival judge. FREE. 12:30 p.m. “New Directions in Non-Fiction Films.” Panel discussion. FREE. 3:15 p.m. “Ben Rivers.” Short films by this British experimental filmmaker. He is best known for cinematic portraits, usually shot on 16mm black and white film, that seem divorced from everyday life. With an appearance by Rivers. “Films in Competition.” See above. Tonight: short LGBT films (7:15 p.m.) and short films TBA (9:30 p.m.). Telcosystems. Live multimedia performance by this past AAFF Best Experimental Film Award winner. Also, a screening of their winning film, Loud Things. Films are followed by an after party at the autBar. 9:30 p.m.
Mar. 25: “Rebecca Meyers.” Short films by this festival judge. FREE. 12:30 p.m. “Wang Bing.” Artist talk at UMMA (see Mar. 25 events calendar listing). 3 p.m. “Documentary.” Panel discussion. 5 p.m. “Midori-Ko.” Keita Kurosaka’s 2010 animated futuristic dystopian film about a woman who tries to engineer a food that can stop a massive famine in Tokyo. With an appearance by the director. 7 p.m. “Films in Competition.” See above. Tonight: films TBA (7:15 p.m.) and animated shorts(9:30 p.m.). “Duke Battersby.” Retrospective of collaborative works by past film festival winners Emily vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, including Beauty Plus Pity and others. Also, the North American premiere of their new video, Lesser Apes. They are known for their satirical work about humanity’s inability to coexist with the environment. With an appearance by the directors. Followed by an after party at the Blind Pig. 9:15 p.m. “Daft Punk’s Electroma” (2007, Daft Punk). 2 robots try to become human. State Theatre, midnight.
Mar. 26: “Kid-Friendly Films in Competition.” Shorts appropriate for kids age 6 & over. 11 a.m. “Films in Competition.” See above. Today: shorts and/or feature-length films TBA (1, 3:30, 5, 7:15, & 9:30). Also, noncompetition films TBA (12:30, 3, & 7 p.m.). “Sam Green Retrospective.” Retrospective of works by this San Francisco-based documentarian whose 2004 film The Weather Underground was nominated for an Academy Award. With an appearance by Green. 9:15 p.m. “Dead Man” (Jim Jarmusch, 1995). Western about an accountant turned outlaw. Johnny Depp. State Theater, midnight.
Mar. 27: “What the Hell Was That?” See UMMA, below. Noon. “Films in Competition.” See above. Today: feature-length films (1 & 3 p.m.). Also, noncompetition films TBA (1:30 & 3:30 p.m.). “Awarded Films Program.” Screening of the festival competition winners. 6 & 8 p.m.
Ann Arbor Palestine Film Festival. Note: this schedule is tentative. For an updated schedule, email lkthams@gmail.com or call (248) 709-3966. $5 (except as noted). Michigan Theater (Mar. 16 & 17), location TBA (Mar. 18 & 19), and Rackham Auditorium (Mar. 19 at 7:30 p.m.). Different times.
Mar. 16: “The Time That Remains” (Elia Suleiman, 2009). Drama about the creation of the state of Israel. Arabic, Hebrew, English; subtitles. Also, a screening of Nizar Wattad & Hany Abu-Assad’s A Boy, A Wall, and a Donkey. $9, 7:30 p.m.
Mar. 17: “Rachel” (Simone Bitton, 2009). Documentary about Rachel Corrie, a young American woman who was killed while trying to stop a bulldozer from demolishing Palestinian homes. English, Arabic, Hebrew; subtitles. Also, a screening of Emmanuel Hamon’s Selves and Others: A Portrait of Edward Said. 7:30 p.m.
Mar. 18: Screenings of Tawfik Saleh’s The Dupes and Ihab Jadallah’s The Shooter. 7:30 p.m.
Mar. 19: Screenings of Larissa Sansour’s Run Lara Run, Tone Anderson’s Look for Me: Children of Gaza,] and Basma Al-Sharif’s We Began by Measuring Distance. FREE, 2 p.m. “Budrus” (Julia Bacha, 2009). Documentary about a Palestinian leader who unites Fatah, Hamas, and Israelis in a peaceful movement to save his village. Arabic, Hebrew, English; subtitles. “Into the Belly of the Whale” (Hazim Bitar, 2010). Drama about a Palestinian man, caught in a Gaza tunnel, who reflects on life as he approaches death. Arabic, subtitles. 7:30 p.m.
Interfaith Center for Spiritual Growth. $5 suggested donation. 327-0270. 704 Airport Blvd., 8 p.m.
Mar. 19: “Spiritual Cinema.” Screening of “Eastern Mystics II: Discovering the Sacred in the Ordinary” (Eric Temple, 2010), a documentary in which well-known mystics from the Buddhist, Hindu, Advaita, and Taoist traditions discuss their own awakening experiences, the nature of mysticism, religious tolerance, love and compassion, spiritual practices, the many paths to truth, and world peace.
Jewel Heart Buddhist Center. FREE. 994-3387. Jewel Heart (1129 Oak Valley Dr. between Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. & Ellsworth), 7 p.m.
Mar. 25: “The Night of the Hunter” (Charles Laughton, 1955). Expressionistic black-comedy thriller about a psychotic ex-con preacher who terrorizes 2 orphaned children in order to get his hands on a cache of money stashed away by their father. Screenplay by James Agee. Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, Lillian Gish. Followed by discussion.
Michigan Theater Foundation. Unless there is a live show in the main theater, 2 or 3 different films are shown, usually twice, almost every night. For complete, updated schedules, see michtheater.org or call 668-TIME. Tickets (unless otherwise noted): $9 (children, students, seniors, & veterans, $7; MTF members, $6.50; Wed., $6). Michigan Theater, times TBA unless otherwise noted.
Through Mar. 3: “Another Year” (Mike Leigh, 2010). A happily married older couple are surrounded by unhappy friends and family.
Mar. 2: “Bilal’s Stand” (Sultan Sharrief, 2008). Semiautobiographical drama about a Detroit high school student forced to choose between carrying on a 60-year-old family business--a taxi stand--and accepting his admission to the U-M, where he had secretly applied. Followed by a Q&A with U-M grad Sharrief. 7 p.m.
Mar. 3-10: “Cedar Rapids” (Miguel Arteta, 2011). Comedy, shot in Ann Arbor, about a small town guy who gets a rude awakening when he travels to the big city of Cedar Rapids to attend a corporate convention. Stars Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, and Sigourney Weaver.
Mar. 6 & 7: “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” (Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, 2009). Computer-animated family comedy. Kids 12 & under, free. 1:30 p.m.
Mar. 7: “The Kid” (Charlie Chaplin, 1921). Silent comedy that stars Charlie Chaplin in his first feature as The Tramp and Jackie Coogan as a streetwise orphan he takes under his wing. Also, The Idle Class (Charlie Chaplin, 1921), a short in which The Tramp heads to a resort for warm weather and a bit of golf. 7 p.m.
Mar. 10: “Red State” (Kevin Smith, 2011). Horror movie about 3 teen boys who come face-to-face with a terrifying “holy” force when they try to respond to an online personal ad from an older woman. Michael Parks, John Goodman, Kevin Pollak, Melissa Leo. Followed by a Q&=A with director Smith. 7:30 p.m.
Mar. 13-21: “Somewhere” (Sofia Coppola, 2010). Drama about a Hollywood actor who reexamines his life after his 11-year-old daughter pays him a surprise visit. English & Italian, subtitles.
Mar. 14: “The Great Dictator” (Charlie Chaplin, 1940). Chaplin portrays both tyrant “Adenoid Hynkel” and a Jewish ghetto barber in this barbed slapstick comedy. 7 p.m.
Mar. 18 & 21: “Phil Ochs: There but for Fortune” (Kenneth Bowser, 2010). Documentary about the influential 60s topical songwriter who got his start while studying journalism at Ohio State.
Mar. 21: “Modern Times” (Charlie Chaplin, 1936). This memorable satire of the machine age is Chaplin’s last silent film. Also, Pay Day (Charlie Chaplin, 1922), a comic short featuring Chaplin as an expert bricklayer who likes to have fun. 7 p.m.
Mar. 28: “A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate” (Charlie Chaplin, 1923). Edna Purviance stars as a country girl abandoned by her fiancé as she embarks for Paris, where she becomes the mistress of a wealthy businessman. 7 p.m.
Mar. 28-31: “White Material” (Claire Denis, 2009). A white family attempts to save its African coffee plantation. French, subtitles. “My Dog Tulip” (Paul Fierlinger & Sandra Fierlinger, 2009). Animated tale of a man who rescues a German shepherd. With the voices of Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave, and Isabella Rossellini.
Projectorhead. FREE. 615-0445. Angell Hall Auditorium A (Mar. 11), U-M North Quad Dining Hall (Mar. 17) 105 S. State, and Lorch Hall Askwith Auditorium (Mar. 18 & 25), 611 Tappan, different times.
Mar. 11: “Chinatown” (Roman Polanski, 1974). Hammett-Chandler style mystery, set in the 30s, about an L.A. private eye drawn into a case by a femme fatale. Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway. In conjunction the U-M LS&A Water Theme Semester. 7 p.m.
Mar. 17: “The Man Who Wanted to Classify the World” (Francoise Levie, 2002). Documentary about the Belgian visionary Paul Otlet who in 1934 first conceived of a library without physical books, where people would read from a screen. 9 p.m.
Mar. 18: “Bon Voyage”/“Aventure Malgache” (Alfred Hitchcock, 1944). Two short films commissioned as WWII propaganda by the British government, which then found them inflammatory and suppressed them. Also, a screening of a series of Warner Bros. animated propaganda shorts. 7 p.m.
Mar. 25: “The Sorrow and the Pity” (Marcel Ophuls, 1971). Landmark documentary about the collaboration during WWII between France’s Vichy government and Nazi Germany. 7 p.m.
Temple Beth Emeth “Movie Tuesday.” FREE. 665-4744. 2309 Packard, 1 p.m. Followed by discussion (tentative). Snacks. Child care available with advance notice.
Mar. 15: “The Chosen” (Jeremy Paul Kagan, 1982). Adaptation of Chaim Potok’s novel about the friendship that develops between 2 Jewish teenagers growing up in Brooklyn in the 40s, one the son of a Hasidic rabbi, the other the son of a Zionist professor.
U-M Center for Chinese Studies. Chinese Documentary Film Series. FREE. 764-6308. Angell Hall Auditorium A (entrance at the Fishbowl on the east side of the bldg.), 7:10 p.m. Mandarin, subtitles.
Mar. 12: “I.M. Pei: Building China Modern” (Anne Makepeace, 2010). Documentary about this renowned contemporary architect’s return to his ancestral home of Suzhou, China, to build a commissioned modern museum in the city’s oldest neighborhood, which is populated by classical structures from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Mar. 26: “China: Empire of Art?”< (Sheng Zhimin & Emma Tassy, 2010). Documentary about contemporary Chinese art--the fastest-growing segment of the international art market.
U-M Center for European Studies. FREE. 647-2743. 1636 SSWB, 1080 South University, 4-5:30 p.m.
Mar. 17: “Eden Is West” (Costa-Gavras, 2009). A man sets out with other illegal immigrants in a boat upon the Aegean Sea on a journey, echoing that of Odysseus, that eventually leads him to Paris. French, English, & Greek; subtitles.
U-M Center for Russian, Eurasian, & East European Studies. FREE. 764-0351.
Mar. 8: “Kabul Transit” (David Edwards, Maliha Zulfacar, & Gregory Whitmore, 2006). Spare, poised, deeply lyrical documentary about daily life in war-scarred Kabul. English, Dari, Pashto, Russian, & French; subtitles. Location TBA, 7-8:30 p.m.
U-M Center for Southeast Asian Studies. 764-0352. FREE. 1636 SSWB, 1080 South University, 4 p.m. (except as noted).
Mar. 8: “Magnifico” (Maryo Delos Reyes, 2003). Drama about a young Filipino boy whose optimism brings hope to those living in misery around him. Filipino, subtitles.
Mar. 15: “How Funny (This Country Is)” (Deddy Mizwar, 2010). A young Indonesian business student starts a business helping pickpockets manage their earnings. Indonesian, subtitles.
Mar. 22: “Beautiful Boxer” (Ekachai Uekrongtham, 2003). Drama based on the true story of a Thai boxer who underwent a sex change operation to become a woman. Thai, Japanese, English; subtitles.
Mar. 28: “Owl and the Sparrow” (Stephane Gauger, 2007). Drama about the relationship between 3 Vietnamese strangers--a runaway child, a zookeeper, and a flight attendant--whose paths cross in Saigon. Vietnamese, subtitles. 3 p.m.
U-M Japanese Animation Film Society. U-M campus admission policy: No one under 18 admitted without an adult. FREE. umichanime.com. MLB, 812 E. Washington at Thayer, 4 p.m.-midnight.
Mar. 19: “Animania.” Monthly anime-a-thon of feature films and episodes from Japanese TV series.
U-M Residential College. Screening of 2 Irish films, with introductions by RC drama lecturer Martin Walsh, in conjunction with the Druid and Atlantic Theater Company performances of The Cripple of Inishmaan (see Mar. 10 events calendar listing). FREE. 647-4354. RC Keene Auditorium (East Quad), 701 East University, 7 p.m.
Mar. 6: “Man of Aran” (Robert Flaherty, 1934). Documentary film about life on the barren Aran Islands off the western Irish coast.
Mar. 8: “In Bruges” (Martin McDonagh, 2008). Comedy about 2 Irish hitmen who hide out in Belgium after a contract killing goes bad, where one wants to hunker down and the other to sightsee. With Six Shooter (Martin McDonagh, 2005), an Oscar-winning short about 4 recently bereaved strangers who share a fateful train ride.
UMMA. FREE. 763-UMMA. Helmut Stern Auditorium, 525 S. State St., various times.
Mar. 15: “Google Baby” (Zippi Brand Frank, 2009). Documentary about reproductive technological advances that make it possible to separate reproduction from sex and the globalization--such as outsourcing surrogacy to women in poor countries--that makes it affordable. 7 p.m.
Mar. 27: “What the Hell Was That?” U-M screen arts and cultures professor Dan Herbert shows and discusses several challenging experimental short films from this year’s Ann Arbor Film Festival (see listing above). Noon.
WCBN-FM. FREE admission. 763-3500. Arbor Brewing Company (114 E. Washington), 8:30 p.m.
Mar 9: “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” (Russ Meyer, 1966). Cult favorite sexploitation flick about a trio of female killers. Stars the recently deceased Tura Satana, along with Haji and Lori Williams.
