Media
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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Relentless Warrior: Al Wheeler - Ann Arbor's First Black Mayor
"It's been 50 years since Al Wheeler’s historic campaign for Mayor of the City of Ann Arbor. 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of his death. Relentless Warrior lifts up little-known facts of Dr. Wheeler’s amazing saga. From humble beginnings to a whirlwind tour of top educational institutions, we share how Professor Wheeler shaped and shared a life of firsts with his equally impressive wife, Emma, and their accomplished family. We also hear from some of the people who knew Al best and helped him become the first Black Mayor of Ann Arbor, as well as win re-election with a one vote, precedent-setting result.” - Filmmaker Carole Gibson
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Premiere Performance of Last Summer - A New One-Act Play by Jim Ottaviani
The University of Michigan Summer Symposium in Theoretical Physics brought great minds from all over the world to Ann Arbor for 15 years between WWI and WWII. One evening in 1939, Enrico Fermi tried to convince his friend Werner Heisenberg not to return to Germany, where he would certainly be compelled to help the Nazis develop nuclear weapons.
Last Summer is a new one-act play about this pivotal conversation, based on the physicists' own writings, written for the stage by award-winning science comics writer Jim Ottaviani, and produced in partnership with the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre.
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Room for Change: Ann Arbor's Fair Housing Protests in the 1960s
"In the early 1960s, Ann Arbor neighborhoods were still mostly segregated. Racially restrictive housing covenants, realtors, banks, and landlords quietly worked to keep African Americans confined to only certain parts of the city. Hundreds of individuals and groups, including the NAACP, CORE, churches, and student groups began picketing, marching, and organizing sit-ins in protest. This film presents some of their stories." - Filmmaker Jennifer Howard
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A Walk Through the Farmers Market
"A Walk Through the Ann Arbor Farmers Market takes a brief glimpse at the vibrant community and history of one of Michigan’s oldest markets. The farmers, artisans, and locals passing by embody the essence of Ann Arbor – a diverse gathering spot where unique voices shine through. This film showcases these stories, the history, and the people who make the market what it is." - Filmmaker Alejandro Cantu
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Iyengar in Ann Arbor: An American Yoga Story - New Documentary Short
"Today, yoga is practiced practically everywhere in America, with a wide range of approaches, philosophies, studios, and styles. But in the early 1970s, this endeavor, originally from India, was mostly unknown in our country. B.K.S. Iyengar's visit to Ann Arbor from Pune, India in 1973 changed all that. Sponsored by the Ann Arbor Y and held at the Power Center, the series of public classes were the first the now-famous yoga master taught in North America. People came from across the U.S. for an opportunity to learn from him. The success of his visit sparked a special relationship between Iyengar and Ann Arbor which continued throughout his life." - Filmmakers Donald Harrison & Jeanne Hodesh
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Old Neighborhood Reunion - A Film by Kameron Donald
In this documentary short, filmmaker Kameron Donald lets us spend a day at the 25th Old Neighborhood Reunion, a (mostly) annual gathering of former residents of Ann Arbor's Historically Black Neighborhood. Attendees eat, dance, and share memories of growing up in a very different Ann Arbor at a very different time.
Media
Was Here / Now Gone - A film by IS/LAND
"Was Here / Now Gone is an experimental film by AAPI performance collective IS/LAND. With some members of IS/LAND having grown up in Ann Arbor during the 1980s, there is a keen sense of how much the city has transformed over the last forty years. With many storefronts and institutions that were cultural anchors (Borders, Schoolkids Records, Stucchi’s, etc.) from the city now gone, Was Here / Now Gone is both an elegy for a time now past but also an exploration of how memory itself can both secure and tether us to the past.
Monochromatic images from the past twist in our memory and collide with kaleidoscopic footage composed of multiple hours of vibrant imagery documenting while walking through the city—these multilayers of imagery merge into kinetic landscapes of the past's echoes, colliding and merging with the present day.
The idea of what was used to be there and what’s there now, and how we can see it as an appreciation of it being part of our lives, is at the same time a reality of change and how culture changes. Our hope is that this film encourages our audience to live grounded in gratitude for what came before while also embracing the potential of this city’s future." - Filmmakers Chien-An Yuan, Kyunghee Kim, S Jean Lee
Visuals + Sound: Chien-An Yuan
Voice + Poem: Kyunghee Kim
Producer: S Jean Lee
Photos from the AADL's Ann Arbor Historical Signs Collection
