Films & Events

The Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) traveling tour provides filmmakers the unique opportunity of having their work screened in front of audiences for whom, in many places, the tour venue is their only access to this form of film art. Each filmmaker participating in the AAFF tour is also paid for each tour stop, directly supporting their filmmaking.

Program:

Riding Day | Michael Alexander Morris Granville, OH | 2023 | 3min
Best Music Video Award With a loving nod to Malcom Le Grice’s iconic Berlin Horse, this music video explores the material qualities of film in ways similar to gestures in electronic music. Black Taffy sampled a Legend of Zelda video game soundtrack; this film reworks images from that game’s sequel, with loops that superimpose positive over negative and drift away from each other.

Desk Bugs | Hakhyun Kim Shinjuku City, Japan | 2024 | 3min
Best Experimental Animation Award A bright red desk and a blue pencil. Skulls, cups, and a modular synthesizer. When you sit at the desk, they appear. With fluffy purple bodies, they’re called Desk Bugs.

Simulacrumbs | Joanie Wind Detroit, MI | 2024 | 6min
CameraMall Best Michigan Filmmaker Award A character, living in eclectic nostalgia, seeks pleasure in her fridge but cannot experience it. She slices through superficiality, sensing something wrong with her mind. Discovering a deeper emptiness, she longs for authenticity. Ultimately, her desperate need for meaning torments her, as she herself turns out to be another fake.

I Hope This Helps! | Daniel M. Freed Lexington, KY | 2023 | 51min
Vox Populi In this humorous, genre-bending hybrid documentary, Daniel Freed enlists the help of Google’s AI chatbot, Bard, to collaborate on a documentary—about AI. Appearing in the blue, furry form that was requested, Bard helps Freed explore the benefits and risks of this world-changing innovation.

63 min.