details
- Dates: March 19 - March 24, 2013
- Website: www.aafilmfest.org/
highlights
- AAFF Mission: To support bold, visionary filmmakers, advance the art form of film and new media, and engage communities with remarkable cinematic experiences.
- In 2006 the Ann Arbor Film Festival came under attack by politically-motivated censorship and saw its state funding revoked. In response, the AAFF launched the Endangered Campaign and raised over $80,000 in 4 months.
Ann Arbor Film Festival
The Ann Arbor Film Festival specializes in screening avant-garde and experimental films, but beyond that its programming is focused on narrative-based fiction films, documentaries, and animation. The festival showed the early work of pioneering filmmakers like Kenneth Anger, documentarian Agnes Varda, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Gus Van Sant, Barbara Hammer, and "Star Wars" masterminds Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas.
The festival received a setback in 2006/2007, when special interest groups attempted to eliminate Michigan state funding for the festival on the grounds that the festival screens films that are offensive. Pshaw! Sensing censorship, the festival fought in court for its money and won.
Ann Arbor has also added a festival tour, where it sends some of its standout films to screens around the globe.
The festival is, indeed, a major stop for some of the most important edgy films. Look no further than the names slapped onto their awards to understand the diversity within the festival: Ken Burns Award for Best Film, Michael Moore Award for Best Documentary, Lawrence Kasdan Award for Best Narrative, Barbara Aronofsky Latham for Emerging Experimental Video Artist, and Gus Van Sant Award for Best Experimental Film. With $20,000 in awards and many categories, the festival believes in honoring great films that often get overlooked. Ann Arbor, the home of University of Michigan's main campus, is one of America's great college towns.
