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Echos of Techno: Electronic Music in Ann Arbor
"Echos of Techno: Electronic Music in Ann Arbor is an intimate exploration of the city's innovative electronic music scene in the early 2000s, directed by artist and filmmaker Martin Thoburn. As a former Ghostly International insider and multimedia creator, Thoburn traces how Ann Arbor emerged as a vital hub for experimental electronic music, bridging Detroit's techno roots with the digital dawn of online music cultures. Centered around the story of Ghostly International—a record label that grew from a UofM college dorm room to global recognition—the film weaves together candid interviews with pioneering artists like Matthew Dear and Tadd Mullinix with rare archival footage to capture a transformative period when the city's avant-garde sound helped reshape electronic music's landscape." - Filmmaker Martin Thoburn
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DeLong's
Director Kameron Donald takes us through the story of DeLong's Bar-B-Q Pit, one of Ann Arbor's most famed bygone eateries. In a history told by Diana McKnight-Morton, one of DeLong's founders, we learn about the idea for the restaurant being born out of the many heads that popped over the backyard fence during family barbecues and hear about the many people, Ann Arborites and those much more far-flung, who numbered it among their favorites.
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Setting the Pace: Ann Arbor's Running History
"Running sounds like a tedious activity that is common in any place, but the running scene in Ann Arbor has been special for a long time. Jesse Owens set four world records in one day at the University of Michigan’s Ferry Field, the year before his famed appearance at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Ann Arbor Track Club started 50+ years ago as an elite club that quickly morphed into a popular community club. That club then started the Dexter to Ann Arbor race in 1974, on the cusp of the national craze for “jogging.” Two decades before the first women’s Olympic marathon in 1984, before UM’s first varsity women’s track and field team in 1978, and even before Title IX was signed into law in 1972 granting equality for female athletes, Ann Arbor’s Michigammes defied gender expectations and ran, competing nationally and even globally in the Olympics.
In part because of this history, Ann Arbor has produced a vibrant running community that surprises and delights newcomers who share an interest in running. It offers 12+ clubs they can join, each catering to a specific distance, age and vibe. Despite residing in pancake flat and car-obsessed Southeast Michigan, Ann Arbor features hills, beautiful views of the Huron River and accessible paths, roads and trails. With the affluence of the University, it regularly produces world elite track and field athletes, runners whom any Ann Arborite can share the track or road with.
As such a newcomer myself in 2007, I eventually found my running club of choice. I have traversed trails, distant dirt roads, and every neighborhood park that offers a drinking fountain. I have participated in Dexter to Ann Arbor, as well as numerous other locally organized races and themed runs. Through running in Ann Arbor, I met my husband, improved my racing times and have made a diverse community of supportive friends. And over the past 17 years, I have heard over and over again from visitors and transplants, “We don’t have anything like this where I came from.”
The topic of “running” was not on Ann Arbor District Library’s list of highlights for the Bicentennial project, Ann Arbor 200, but I pitched the idea to them because I thought the running community in Ann Arbor was exceptional. I am glad that through this documentary process, not only have I found history that backs up this sentiment, but have also found that many agree." - Filmmaker Shannon Kohlitz
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Branching Narratives: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of the Tappan Oak
In this short documentary, filmmaker Jen Proctor tells the story of the Tappan Oak, a tree that predated white settlement in Ann Arbor and the campus that grew up around it, and the human actions that marked its last decades of life.
From Filmmaker Jen Proctor:
This film represents both singular and collective stories. A lone undergraduate student communes with a tree to help him feel connected to a college campus from which he felt alienated. A professor collaborates with students to create a sense of belonging to Michigan’s natural environment. A society of students fosters belonging by performing a ritual around the tree to induct members into their community. In creating belonging for a select few, however, the society excludes and demeans others who similarly seek to belong. An activist collective responds by effecting change over decades to create spaces for belonging for all people on the campus.
All of these stories bear a relationship to the great oak, an unwitting but central figure in their narratives.
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Keith & Martin/Martin & Keith: Elegy for the \aut\BAR
“From 1995 to 2020, Ann Arbor’s Aut/Bar was the mecca for the LGBTQ+ community. Its founders, Martin Contreras and Keith Orr, created a cultural and political hub that bridged the AIDS era with assimilation of the queer community and urban gentrification. This film is both tribute and elegy to a moment of significant hope when Ann Arbor lived up to its reputation for harboring a tolerant and liberal-minded population. It is dedicated to the two men who were at its heart and whose proud determination to make it happen was both fierce and tender.” - Peter Sparling
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The Gayest Generation Ep. 14 - Laughing Womyn Ashonosheni
Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ older adults speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Their stories make noise where there is silence and that silence has lived for far too long.
In this episode, we speak with Laughing Womyn Ashonosheni. We discuss queer spirituality, how to mend broken relationships, and the act of naming oneself.
AADL is excited to announce that you can listen to this episode, or any episode of The Gayest Generation, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube!
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The Gayest Generation Ep. 13 - Thomas McCauley
Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ older adults speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today.
In this episode, we speak with Thomas McCauley. We discuss his surviving conversion therapy, gay kismet, and the journey to self-love.
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The Gayest Generation - Episode 15: Roger LeLievre
Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ older adults speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today.
In this episode, we speak with Roger LeLievre. Roger has lived a thousand lives--Ann Arbor News reporter, longtime DJ at The Nectarine Ballroom, Lake Superior freight ship sailor. We get an inside look at the height of queer nightlife in Ann Arbor, the unique challenge of interviewing Yoko Ono, and almost killing Sylvester.
AADL is excited to announce that you can listen to this episode, or any episode of The Gayest Generation, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube!
Media
The Gayest Generation Ep. 11 - Curtis Chin
Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ older adults speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today.
In this episode, we speak with Curtis Chin. We discuss his childhood growing up in Detroit’s legendary Chung’s Restaurant, “The Gay Agenda”, and what it’s like to meet Vanna White (and the Obamas).
Curtis is the author of the forthcoming memoir Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, which is currently available for pre-order. To learn more about Curtis Chin, visit www.curtisfromdetroit.com.
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JCC Conversations | Ed Surovell and his passion for books
Listen to Chuck as he interviews Ed Surovell and explores his passion for books and his career as the founder of Edward Surovell Realtors. His amazing collection includes rare books about Ann Arbor, Michigan, Native Americans and some even dating back to the 1800s.
“I was destined to buy books – I couldn’t escape the things. I was born to them and married them. They come whispering to me in the middle of the night.” – Ed Surovell.