Ann Arbor Film Festival 2009

The political or cultural aspects of history are the mere surface of history; that in preference to, and deeper than these, the reality of history lies in biological power, in pure vitality, in what is in man of cosmic energy, not identical with, but related to, the energy which agitates the sea, fecundates the beast, causes the tree to flower and the star to shine. Built out of a 30-fram clip of a lens flare. LSD is illegal, 1859 is not. Jury's Choice First Prize at the 2009 Black Maria Film and Video Festival. 2008 New York film Festival, Views from the Avant-Garde 2009 Rotterdam International Film Festival Brakhage Symposium at the University of Colorado

Serving as the second piece in a three-part cycle exploring the unperceivable conditions that frame life, in this film the same protagonist encounters an antagonist that is studying her, measuring her body and comparing her to units of space and time. Clocks rush and her movements are calculated on a grid: the eye is observed augmented through lenses; under water her breath is submitted to a resistance rate; needles are use to quantify her reactions and pain: and storing machines capture voice and motion. For the scientist measurement is understanding. At the operation table she opened a small vivisection in the patient body. With a flower stigma she proceeds to pollinate her, giving to nectar and blood the same flow.

This film reveals the play of light and shadow upon the walls of the Castro Camera Store set for Gus Van Sant's film Milk. These mundane shots are almost bereft of movement and sound. So quiet, so still. All the better to showcase the range of emotions evoked by Harvey Milks words on the soundtrack.

Over the last 28 years, Negativland’s work has touched on a number of issues that are very much in public view these days: creative anti-corporate activism, media literacy, intellectual property issues, evolving notions of ownership in a digital age, the art of collage, pranks and media hoaxes, and “culture jamming.” Most famous for getting sued for their “U2” single, and the subject of renowned filmmaker Craig Baldwin’s 1995 feature film Sonic Outlaws, Negativland have grown many thorns in the side of the corporate media and the entertainment biz. Join us for this one-of-a-kind multimedia presentation by Mark Hosler, founding member of Negativland. Q & A to follow. No lawyers were harmed in the making of this event! Sponsored by: Michigan Radio - 91.7 WUOM Ann Arbor

The ordinary life of a group of people approaching the last hours of humankind is documented with a futuristic Italian city of Turin on the background. Evident signs of a mysterious happening from the past alter the skyline and urban profile as the countdown goes on.

Character-driven cinema that etches its stories of triumph and tribulation across vast canyons walls. Sponsored by: SEE Eyewear Films in screening order: Pop Art (Amanda Boyle) Excision (Richard Bates) Honor & Justice (Shachar Freddy Kislev) Die Schneider Krankheit (Javier Chillon) found oBjects (David Birnbaum) Glory at Sea (Benh Zeitlin)

Music by David Byrne and Brian Eno.

"Je jouis dans les paves.” -graffiti on the streets of Paris, May 1968 (“I have my orgasms among the paving stones”) Viewer discretion advised -- some films contain graphic images Films in screening order: Dig (Robert Todd) Speechless (Scott Stark) Lossless #2 (Rebecca Baron and Doug Goodwin) De Tijd (Bart Vegter) Horizontal Boundaries (Pat O'Neill) Public Domain (Jim Jennings) ELEMENTs (Julie Murray) Origin of the Species (Ben Rivers) Sarabande (Nathaniel Dorsky)

Animated short films run wild across all styles and techniques – beware what hides in the woods! Contains mature content. Viewer discretion advised. Sponsored by: Roos Roast Coffee Films in screening order: Retouches (Georges Schwizgebel) Trepan Hole (Andy Cahill) Battery Acid. (Dean Denell) Father (Sebastian Danta) The Heart of Amos Klein (Michal & Uri Kranot) I Live in the Woods (Max Winston) Permutation (Viktoriya Gruzdyn & Katerina Friday) El Miedo (Fear) (Jimena Sarno & Ms. Bea) The Idiot Stinks (Helder K. Sun) Friluftsliv (Outdoor Life) (Håkan Wennström) Kanizsa Hill (Evelyn Lee) Chainsaw (Dennis Tupicoff)