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How To Watch The Ann Arbor Film Festival

How To Watch The Ann Arbor Film Festival image
Parent Issue
Month
March
Year
1995
Copyright
Creative Commons (Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share-alike)
Rights Held By
Agenda Publications
OCR Text

Matter many years of attending the Ann Arbor Film Festival I have seen too many people walk out of good films that they haven't made the effort to appreciate. They expect the thrills that Hollywood packs into its product and instead they get art, and they don't know what to do with it. Here are a few hints which I humbly offer with the hope that you may find a couple of new ways to get more out of the sensual and intellectual bounty offered every year at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Expect to learn things about Ufe Hollywood has only come up with a few formulas for entertainment and documentarles, and a lot of life gets left out. In the AAFF you can fill your self to overflowing with new sensations, experiences and knowledge about the world. It can even be highly practical. Tips for Living" (Michael Majoros & Jim Kaufman, 31 st AAFF) gathered the best advice from more than twenty people. We learned how to buy fresh fish, how to park in Manhattan, and how to rob a bank. Another memorable film that I never expected to see again showed up at Liberty Video in a collection of women's short films - "Nice Girls Do" is a great documentan about female ejaculation. You won't see that on TV any time soon. Watch as many films as you can Get the series ticket - it's cheaper. You won't miss the really great film that goes over the judges' heads and doesn't get programmed for Winner's Night. You won't feel bad about walking out on a film that doesn't suit your mood. All six days of viewing wilt help you get through the relative cultural desert of the rest of the year. Get plenty of rest and eat lightly The Film Festival is a Triathalon for the mind. You'll fall asleep during the best movie if you aren't in good form. Ifafilm seems too long and repetitive, just relax Maybe it is repetitive. But maybe there's an effect that you will only get from repetition. Driving by a river will never have the same effect as sitting next to it all day. Watch and listen a lot instead of talking You are watching films out of the ordinary genres, more independent and experimental, with fewer predigested formulae. Sometimes you have to watch a truly great movie several times before you can appreciate t. There's always someone who will get it first time round, ar d it won't be you f you weren't paying atiention. What feels like empty space in a Festival film is space to exercise your imagination in, not an opportunity to make loud comments. You can interrupt a Hollywood movie because you know what's going to happen next. Go home and watch TV if you'd rather react with your mouth than with your mind. Pay attention to differences between the audio and the visual Sometimes most of the message is in the soundtrack, sometimes it's in the visuals. In general there is more separation between audio and visual A "Rope-o-Matic" camera rig was u sed in filming "Out of the Way Cafe, " one of the films which was entered and may be shown at this year's Festival. than in mainstream fare. This is why MTV music videos utilize so many techniques first seen in film festivals. Except for lip syncing, music videos spend most of their time working with a poetic distance between the audio and the video. Experimental film takes this far beyond the narrow requirements of the promotional music video, and often the music is better as well. Look at the screen as ifit were a giant painting I remember Festival films that were nothing but frame afler frame of abstract art, or nothing but repetitive views of ripples in water. These are the movies that really rub the unenlightened TV viewer wrong. No sound bites, no jump cut edits every 3 seconds! An entirely different viewpoint is required to discover the pleasures in such films. Imagine that the screen is a giant painting in a gallery. Lots of the most abstract and difficult film takes on a whole new dimensiĆ³n when you view it this way. Some films go by very slowly, but f they were paintings they wouldn't be moving at all. You don't look at the label on a painting in a gallery to see how long you should look at t. If you've gotten all you can from looking at a 20 minute film of running water, look away . Enjoy the quiet space it creates just by listening to the soundtrack. Feel the difference in the audience's energy. These are the moments of quiet reflection that art encourages, which are opposed to commercial television's need to make you want to go out and buy things. These tips may help even f you know nothing about the technical aspects of film. There are always some films that are best appreciated through some understanding of how they were made, or the theoretical issues involved. But you can get something out of almost any film at the Festival if you just give it a chance and try to imagine what the creator ntended. You already know how to watch TV. Try something new.