AADL Productions Podcast: Donald Harrison, Ann Arbor Film Festival

Sun, 03/08/2009 - 3:05pm

When: March 8, 2009

The 47th Ann Arbor Film Festival is right around the corner, so we asked the festival's Executive Director, Donald Harrison, to give us a preview of this year's offerings. He let us in on some of the interesting events planned for this year as well as talking about some of the filmmakers who will be showing their work and giving talks. Aside from this year's highlights, we also discussed how the festival has changed over the last few years and how they go about whittling down over 2600 submissions to just 200 films.

Transcript

• [00:00:00.00] AMY: Hi. This is Amy.
• [00:00:04.18] ANDREW: And this is Andrew. And this is the AADL Productions Podcast.
• [00:00:10.08] AMY: The 47th Ann Arbor Film Festival begins on Tuesday, March 24th and runs through Sunday, March 29th. We spoke with executive director Donald Harrison about the process of putting it all together and what we can expect at this year's festival.
• [00:00:27.45] Before you tell us about what's in store this year, can you give us a little background on the Festival -- how long it's been around and its significance as the original independent film festival in the U.S.
• [00:00:37.61] DONALD HARRISON: Certainly. It was founded in 1963 here at the University of Michigan by George Manupelli. And he's actually coming back this year. George is in his 80s and we're excited that he's going to be coming back for the festival. We're going to showcase one of his films, and he's going to give the Penny Stamp's lecture, which is a free lecture at the Michigan Theater on Thursday, March 26th at 5 o'clock. And the festival was a film festival that was started before independent film was the term that people were using. And it start as an alternative to the studio industry. It was a time when people were not able to get their work seen -- if they were making art, they were making their own independent films outside of the system. And so it's the first festival that really created a forum on an annual basis for people who were making work that was maybe challenging the system or was maybe unpopular or was maybe just they didn't have inroad with the movie industry.
• [00:01:36.52] AMY: Can you tell us a few of the other highlights from this year's festival?
• [00:01:40.30] DONALD HARRISON: We have a program at 1 o'clock on Saturday that's Shorts Program that you could bring your 5-year old to -- we call it for kids of all ages. And we make sure that there's nothing in there that's going to offend anyone, and at the same time it's still within the context of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, we're not watering down the quality. So if you're somebody who's used to seeing great experimental work, we think it's a fantastic program. We're not lowering the bar at all, we're just making sure that there's nothing inappropriate in that program. So again, you could bring your 5-year old, your 6-year old. Then we had one of our screeners watched this program with his 6-year old and helped make sure that OK, yes, is not going to fall asleep and it's not going to be anything really inappropriate.
• [00:02:26.44] The UMMA, so the University's Museum of Art is reopening during this year's Film Festival, and so we've been talking for quite a while about what we might be able to do together during that. So we have a midnight, free music video screening as part of their 24-hour reopening and that's going to showcase some of the best independent music videos in their new theater. So it's about a 220-seat theater, and for us that's a very exciting part of this year's festival because that's a new venue that we get to be part of the ground breaking of. And hopefully that's a venue that we see the Film Festival expand to in future years. So hopefully, again, this program goes really well. We haven't done a music video program, so I'm very curious to see, again, how that goes over with the public.
• [00:03:15.07] We have free panels Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the Film Festival. So, Wednesday, March 26th we have a free panel at 1 o'clock at the Work Gallery and that is exploring the Michigan Film Incentives, which are a big topic in the past year. And for us the focus is really looking at what does that mean for independent filmmakers, because a lot of the attention goes to the Hollywood film productions that come to town, and that's exciting and I think that's been very good for the film culture in our state. But for us, being an independent film oriented festival, we're really looking at well what does that mean for somebody who maybe is trying to make $100,000 film or a $50,000 film or maybe a $5.00 film. Does that affect them and how does it benefit them. And so Thursday is our remixing the rules, fair use and copyright panel. We're doing a panel all about remixing the rules, fair use in copyright with Craig Baldwin. He's an artist who did a lot of sampling of other work, of educational videos, of corporate videos -- somebody who really pioneered a lot of things you take for granted now in terms of the music video or what you'll see on YouTube. Mark Hosler from Negativland was sort of the next generation, and Craig and Mark worked together on a documentary about Negativland.
• [00:04:26.46] Now we have somebody who's really pushing things into the future who did a documentary called RIP: A Remix Manifesto, and it's going to be the second U.S. screening of that, and the filmmaker Brett Gaylor's coming. His whole documentary was "open source edited," meaning he posted footage online and people around the country, around the world were able to go download footage, do their own edit and upload it, so you ended up having hundreds of people around the country editing this film together. So the final result isn't just one or two people saying OK, here's the best way to tell the story, it's truly people around the world telling the story together in an open source style. So we're excited to see that thread and have all these people, to have Craig Baldwin, to have Mark Hosler, to have Brett, the director of this film, all here together and that's 1 o'clock at the Work Gallery. It's free to the public. Friday we have a lecture by Gerry Fialka, and that's exploring the pioneers of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and Gerry is a very colorful speaker. He's been very popular. We brought him back the last few years. And that's also at 1 o'clock Friday at the Work Gallery.
• [00:05:36.63] ANDREW: You mentioned the film that was basically edited, crowd source edited, and that kind of approach is -- I wanted to ask about how have you seen submissions change in the last few years with the advent of professional quality editing equipment that people have on their home computers? And even the change in the internet where people have a distribution scheme available to them. How has that affected submissions?
• [00:06:05.99] DONALD HARRISON: Well, we've seen a huge increase in the number of submissions. And going back seven, eight years, this Film Festival was very much a diehard 16 millimeter film celluloid festival. That's part of what it was known for, and for a long time that's part of what made it really unique and special. Around 2000, 2001 the Festival finally acknowledged and realized if we don't switch over and accept digital work, we're going to miss out on a lot of great stories and artists. And if we want to be cutting edge, which is what we're about, then we can't limit ourself to a format, we have to think bigger than that. So, it went from approximately 300 submissions back then, around 2000, 2001, and started to increase dramatically over the next few years as we started accepting digital work. And so it went up to 800 and then 1,200. And the last couple of years we sort of plateaued at 2,000 submissions, which is a lot of submissions and a lot of work to review and go through. And then this past year in large part due to the publicity we've received with The Censorship Campaign and our fundraising efforts to recover from it, we had a 25% increase in the submissions and we had over 2,600 submissions this past year from over 40 countries. It's fantastic because you end up seeing so much work -- you see work from a country that you've never seen a film from before and you hope it's really great and it's something you get to showcase. But for us it just means that we have a wealth of content, we have a wealth of films that we're able to go through, find out what we think is the best and the most compelling for our audience.
• [00:07:40.89] And for us, also one of the things that has changed, as well as our traveling tour, is that after the 6-day Film Festival each year, we go through and we pick out a Best Of Program, and what we do is we then work out an arrangement with those filmmakers where they get paid for each screening and we package it and we rent it out across the country. Again, 15, 20 years ago this was on 16 millimeter and it was something that was sought after because it was a unique thing that you -- oh, we can get this good package of short films on 16 millimeter. Now we do still include 16 millimeter on it, but there's less and less of that available and so it's much more of a digital program and we find ourselves in a different landscape where it's no longer unique because it's a 16 millimeter program, now it's really about well what does the Ann Arbor Film Festival represent, what are we about. It makes us look a lot harder at our own programming, at our own reputation and what we're standing for, what kind of work we're showcasing.
• [00:08:46.32] AMY: You alluded to a couple years ago, the Landmark Settlement with the State of Michigan, and it really served as an example of how an organization can stand up to censorship and to objectionable finding restrictions. I'm wondering how that has changed the festival or your approach this year?
• [00:09:06.33] DONALD HARRISON: That's a really good question. I think for us the last couple years has been very much about reacting to this censorship that we were experiencing and a lot of politics and a negative situation that we had to turn into a positive one. And again, that led to a lot of support. We were able to bring a lot of attention to what the Film Festival was about, what it stands for. A lot of artists came out and supported us -- somebody like Sam Raimi who directs Spiderman movies, he came in and gave us some support. So things like that were really great. For us, the thing that's exciting is that now we're focused on the positive side of the same issue and this year we're seeing a convergence of a lot of the foremost people doing art, dealing with censorship, dealing with copyright and fair use. Somebody like a Craig Baldwin, somebody like a Mark Hosler. And those are the kinds of things that we're excited about because those are people who are really dealing with the positive aspects of creativity and the law, instead of us having to react and be on the defensive in terms of being attacked and dealing with censorship on that side of things.
• [00:10:12.46] ANDREW: With that number of submissions, you whittle it down to, what, about 200? Do you have a number that you shoot for--?
• [00:10:19.29] DONALD HARRISON: We don't shoot for a specific number, but we do have a certain amount of run time that we have available during the course of the week-long Film Festival. So last year the number of submissions that were chosen for competition, meaning they're eligible to win awards at our Festival and give out $18,000 to $20,000 in cash awards each year. Of those 2,000 last year we had 120 that were in competition and chosen, and another 70 films that were curated, that were part of the Film Festival for us showcasing to our audience. This year I would expect it to be a similar number of films. If we have more shorts that number might be a little higher. If we show more features or 40, 60 minute films it might be a little bit lower. Right now we're finalizing that number very, very quickly. But I expect, again, around 120 films that would be in competition to win awards, and roughly 190 to 200 total films shown over the six days.
• [00:11:20.30] ANDREW: How do you make your selections? Do you watch them and then think about them and get together, or do you just watch them and you all kind of -- because it's a lot of films to go through. So do you make snap decisions, or do you go out and think about them and come back together? How many people are working on that?
• [00:11:38.05] DONALD HARRISON: That's a great question, because it is a very big process and we start taking submissions in July and we start having people screening in August. And from August through into February, people are screening films and there are over 40 people that we have as screeners and they're almost all volunteer. It's something that is not for everyone. We have some people that have tried screening and they just can't get through it, they can't do it. And then we have other people, and I'm one of these people, who get really addicted to it and just love it because it's fascinating to put in a film not knowing what you're going to see, not knowing the quality. Usually if you go to a festival or a theater, you maybe read a review or you have some sense that it's been recommended. With us it's coming in cold. You really don't know. You might see the best film you've seen all year, or odds are with 2,600 films, you're probably going to see a work that's maybe unpolished and maybe needed a little more editing.
• [00:12:36.28] So you end up going through a lot of work that really isn't crafted and up to the standards of the Film Festival and yet it's still really fascinating. To see a film where somebody -- you can't even figure out why they made it sometimes other than they were expressing themselves and maybe they just picked up a camera for the first time, and when we see that -- I appreciate that a lot, but after you go through hundreds and hundreds of films, sometimes it does get a little challenging when you're really looking for something that's well-crafted. But in terms of the process, there really are not snap decisions. It's very much a discussion and a debate. The kind of Film Festival that we are, it's not about OK, is this going to bring in the most people, is this going to sell the most tickets, is this the most entertaining or does this have such and such star in it. We look at everything, and for us it really is about what are the artistic merits of this film? Is this film going to be memorable? Maybe we actually don't enjoy the film or it disturbs us but it kind of gets under your skin and it's the kind of film that we know will stay with people, it will leave an impact and it's worthwhile. There was something, a purpose behind it, there was an artistic vision behind it.
• [00:13:49.37] AMY: You must occassionally when you're screening you see really stand-out films, you see highlights. Do you then organize the screenings for the Festival around those? How do you set up what order that you're going to screen the films in?
• [00:14:03.82] DONALD HARRISON: That's a great question about in terms of programming and how you present the work. It's very much, I guess for lack of a better word, an organic process. That the content that we are really wowed by, that we feel very strongly about, it tends to rise to the surface, and you notice as films go through the process, there's a number of films that just get high marks across all the screeners. And those films typically are fantastic and we're very excited to show to our audience. So you do start to build programs around those films -- those tend to be more of your anchor films. And then we look for themes that kind of emerge and sometimes those themes are very loose, and sometimes those themes present themselves in ways that fit together very much like a puzzle, almost like it was planned out by someone that you would get these films that all seem to fit together. I do think there is something to the collective consciousness happening when we look at this kind of work and we'll see a number of patterns and themes develop. This past year we've seen still a number of films about Katrina, and obviously, there's been a lot of films put out about it, but that's a story that really impacted people in a deep way and it's a topic that we see people still wanting to explore, and we've seen a few films that really blew us away and we felt were important to show, even though there have been a lot of films already put out about it.
• [00:15:24.37] AMY: What other themes are emerging this year?
• [00:15:27.14] DONALD HARRISON: We're seeing a theme, and I think there will be a program. I don't know how directly it's going to relate to this, but a lot of stories of women's issues and told in ways that are really deep and profound and moving. And so there's probably going to be a program that's -- it might not be directly called the women's program, but it's going to be a program that's dealing with women, from anything from childbirth, menopause, dealing with breast cancer, and really telling it from very, very personal stories. And so I definitely see that as a theme emerging, beyond just even that program, we're seeing a lot of work from women that is really powerful. And again, as I mentioned, we're seeing a lot in terms of fair use and copyright -- that definitely being a theme that's emerging. We're also seeing a lot of work that's not the most cheerful. Some of the most high quality work we're seeing is a little bit more somber this year, and I think perhaps it's a reflection of where we are in terms of in our culture and society. So we're definitely making sure we're going to sprinkle in as much kind of high energy, fun light-hearted work, because a lot of the films that we have to present are really either dark or somber or just very honest and real. To us those are important works to show, but at some point you have to just bring a box of Kleenex for your audience and almost apologize for like hey, you're going to go through something here, and you gotta make sure that you find a balance between it because we don't want to have people come away and feel like they need to go and see a psychologist. And we're seeing a lot of animation, and I think that also that gets into the whole digital realm in terms of it's a medium that people can afford to do animation, it's getting cheaper and cheaper, and we're seeing a lot of very creative, imaginative artfully conceived short films that are really fantastic. So we'll probably have a good amount of animation at this year's festival.
• [00:17:35.32] And one of the highlights of the animation this year is Don Hertzfeldt, and he's an Academy Award nominated animator, independent animator, and I would say he's one of the stars of YouTube, his animation rejected basically uses stick figures. He's been on the Cartoon Network and he's kind of twisted, very, very funny and clever, and he's coming, so we have an evening with Don Hertzfeldt. We have Harrod Blank coming with his very inspiring larger-than-life Art Car documentary and it's called Automorphosis and it's going to be Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock. This is a film that is pretty much for anybody and everybody of all ages. It's featuring some of the most creative, eccentric, colorful Art Car builders, and these are people that take cars and turn them into wild works of art. Harrod's going to be in town, he's also kind of a larger-than-life character, so we're excited to have him here. And right now we're trying to get a car donated so that we can have him build an Art Car while he's here in Ann Arbor.
• [00:18:42.59] So again, those are the kinds of things that we love to do is have some activities happening, have some creative surprises and have those interactions, because it's not just about showing some of the best films in the world, some of the best independent films, it's really also about the community experience that people have. That's one of the things that to me I'm excited about. This really is a festival that you don't have to go to New York or Paris or Los Angeles or California to see this caliber of work. We have something that is a world class caliber right here in Ann Arbor and people are coming in from all over the world just to go to this.
• [00:19:18.80] ANDREW: Do you think there's something special about Ann Arbor as a community that has made this possible for such a long time?
• [00:19:26.02] DONALD HARRISON: I think that's a great question. Let's get philosophical for a moment. I like that question because this year there is a theme in terms of the design and then it goes beyond just the design in terms of geography. And so we've sort of played around visually with maps and with the ideas of place and what does it mean -- what does Ann Arbor as a container mean? What is the State of Michigan, what makes that unique? And so there will be a little bit more of an international focus, and there will be some fun sort of extras at the Festival. We have a couple of people doing a free walking tour. So I think it's going to be Saturday morning, you're going to meet at the Michigan Theater and go on an alternative walking tour of Ann Arbor looking at sort of the more obscure patinas. So bring your camera, come out, walk around and look at the non-famous landmarks and look at the textures of Ann Arbor. So your question about what is it about Ann Arbor, I do think that Ann Arbor is a place that was very much part of the counterculture movement back in the '60s. I lived in San Francisco for ten years after graduating from U of M from Ann Arbor, and I think there's a lot of parallels and overlaps between Ann Arbor and San Francisco. I felt like when I left Ann Arbor and moved to San Francisco, I was moving to a bigger version of Ann Arbor. Now coming back here, I'm really excited to be back in Ann Arbor because I think it is a really great community. I feel I can get my arms around it and get to know the community a lot better. But there is a lot of parallel and a lot of overlap with also what's going on in the Bay area, and we tend to see a lot of the best work that we showcase in our festival coming from the Bay area and coming from places which people are really thinking about the world in a different way and they're not just thinking about how am I going to make money off this film, because this is a business and I gotta make a living. Hopefully they are making a living and they are thinking about it as a business, but they really have a vision that's unique and a voice that needs to be heard. And I think that's a very important part of this Film Festival is that we're looking for filmmakers who have a vision that's going to make you think about things in a little bit of a different way, and I think that that's the importance of art and that's very much what our film Festival is rooted in.
• [00:21:47.76] AMY: You can get the full schedule of Ann Arbor Film Festival events and buy tickets online at AAfilmfest.org.
• [00:21:56.00] AMY: You've been listening to the AADL Productions Podcast from the Ann Arbor District Library.