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A Series of Mysteries: The 52nd Ann Arbor Film Festival Traveling Tour

A Series of Mysteries: The 52nd Ann Arbor Film Festival Traveling Tour

Fe26 by Kevin Jerome Everson

Happy New Year! Filmforum dives into its 40th anniversary year with our second show of the week, highlights of contemporary works from around the world.  The Ann Arbor Film Festival Traveling Tour gives Los Angeles audiences a chance to see the best new experimental films and digital works. Digital Program A features nine films including Mystery, the short narrative by Spanish filmmaker (and AAFF favorite) Chema García Ibarra; Cut, the most recent film by German artists Matthias Muller and Christoph Girardet; Michael Robinson’s The Dark, Krystle, which brilliantly repurposes the 80s television program Dynasty; Broken Tongue, Mónica Savirón’s animated collaboration with poet Tracie Morris; Kevin Jerome Everson’s Fe26, a portrait of two men scrapping copper in Cleveland (52 AAFF Jury Award); Gowanus Canal, Sarah Christman’s beautifully abstracted depiction of one of the most contaminated urban waterways in the United States (52 AAFF Gil Omenn Art & Science Award); Mountain in Shadow, Lois Patiño’s sublime film of skiers set in immense mountainous landscapes; the ecstatic, recursive animation Division by Dutch artist Johan Rijpma (52 AAFF  Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for Emerging Experimental Video Artist); and 52 AAFF audience favorite Suchy Pion (Dry Standpipe) by Polish artist Wojciech Bąkowski, a collage of home videos condensed into blocks of abstraction with a wry, melancholy confessional narration. 

Tickets: $10 general, $6 students/seniors; free for Filmforum members.  Available by credit card in advance from Brown Paper Tickets at http://bpt.me/1092995 or at the door.

The AAFF is the longest-running film festival tour, having pioneered the concept in 1964. The 52nd AAFF Tour runs from August 2014 through February 2015, screening in galleries, art house theaters, universities, media art centers and cinematheques throughout North America.

01 Misterioso

Misterio (Mystery)

Misterio (Mystery)

by Chema García Ibarra

Elche, Spain | 2013 | 12min

They say that if you put your ear to the back of his neck, you can hear the Virgin talk. —CGI

Los Angeles premiere!

02 The Dark Krystlesmaller

The Dark, Krystle

The Dark, Krystle

by Michael Robinson

Brooklyn, NY | 2013 | 9.5 min

The cabin is on fire! Krystle can’t stop crying, Alexis won’t stop    drinking, and the fabric of existence hangs in the balance, again    and again and again. —MR
“The Dark, Krystle brilliantly repurposes the artificiality of stock  gesture, allowing viewers to see its hollowness and to feel it  recharging with new emotional power. Equal parts archival fashion show and feminist morality play, Robinson’s montage rekindles the unfinished business of identity, consumption, and excess in 1980s pop culture.” —Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago

03 Cutsmaller

Cut

Cut

by Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet

Hannover & Bielefeld, Germany | 2013 | 13 min

A body as a wound that never heals.

N. American Premiere at 52nd AAFF. 

04 BROKEN TONGUE 01 smaller

Broken Tongue

Broken Tongue

by Mónica Savirón

New York, NY | 2013 | 3min

Los Angeles Premiere!

Broken Tongue is an ode to the freedom of movement, association, and expression. It pays homage to the diaspora of the different waves of migration, and challenges the way we  represent our narratives. It is a search for a renewed consciousness, for reinvention, a “what if,” the formal equivalent of asking a question expressed with a broken tongue – or not so broken after all.
Mainly made with images from the January 1st issues of The New York Times since its beginning in 1851 to 2013, Broken Tongue is a heartfelt tribute to avant-garde sound performer Tracie Morris and to her poem “Afrika.” —MS

World Premiere at 52nd AAFF

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/107107825

05 Fe26smaller

Fe26

Fe26

by Kevin Jerome Everson

Charlottesville, VA | 2014 | 7.5 min

Fe26 follows two gentlemen around the East Side of Cleveland,  Ohio and examines the tensions between illegal work—in this  case, the stealing of manhole covers and copper piping—and the basic survival tactics that exist in areas of high unemployment.

52nd AAFF Jury Award

06 Gowanus Canalsmaller

Gowanus Canal

Gowanus Canal

by Sarah J. Christman

Brooklyn, NY | 2013 | 7 min

Just below the surface of one of the most contaminated urban  waterways in the United States, microorganisms thrive amidst the  toxic waste.

52nd AAFF Gil Omenn Art & Science Award

07 Mountain in Shadowsmaller

Mountain in Shadow

Mountain in Shadow

by Lois Patiño

Madrid, Spain | 2012 | 14 min

A contemplative look toward the snowy mountain and skiers’ activity on it.
The vastness of the mountainside contrasts with the insignificance  of the people on it, almost invisible by distance. Starting from the  white snow, the image of the film becomes increasingly darker, transforming the space into something unreal, dreamlike and spectral. The skiers become artificially illuminated, now more visible as they appear to slide down the slopes in a hypnotic movement. – LP

Los Angeles premiere!

08 Divisionsmaller

Division

Division

by Johan Rijpma

Netherlands | 2012 | 1 min | Video

A piece of paper is divided by hand into an even number of pieces and then reassembled. A photograph of this finished composition is then printed and divided again. This makes the impossible possible, tearing the now included empty spaces that  make up the tears in the paper. The feedback division process is  repeated while the number of imprecise manual divisions gradually increased. - JR

52nd AAFF Barbara Aronofsky Latham Award for Emerging Experimental Video Artist

Los Angeles Premiere!

09 Suchy Pion Dry Standpipe smaller

Suchy Pion (Dry Standpipe)

Suchy Pion (Dry Standpipe)

by Wojciech Bakowski

Poznan ́, Poland | 2013 | 13 min

A raw, personal, confessional narration undercuts the abstract images in Polish artist, musician and poet Wojciech Bakowski's  interlaced video collage Suchy Pion. Condensing home videos into blocks of abstraction, Bakowski creates a startling account of  depression, numbness and paradoxical lucidity. - Andréa Picard

US Premiere at 52nd AAFF.  Los Angeles Premiere!