Sections

Excellence thrives at Film Festival

In a season renowned or, more appropriately, infamous for filling multiplexes with commercial garbage and unnecessary sequels, it is comforting to realize that films still exist where style and creative expression have not been jettisoned in favor of turning a profit.

The recent source of many of these significant, phenomenal films was the 34th Ann Arbor Film Festival.

The usually dismal first quarter of the year at the movies was brightened once again by the welcome appearance of the weeklong 16mm film festival, which concluded Sunday at the Michigan Theater.

Handing out $10,000 in awards, the awards jury had the arduous, yet ultimately rewarding, task of narrowing down a field of 93 films in contention for prizes to just 29 talented filmmakers to be recognized for their outstanding contributions to the medium.

Showcased in three separate screenings on the final day of the festival, the awarded films were extremely diverse in both content and production technique. The winners ranged from three-minute shorts to 90-minute features and originated from all over the world -- including Iceland, Australia and even Ohio.

The most significant and monetarily large award this year -- the Best of the Festival Award at $1,500 -- went to Leighton Pierce of Iowa City for the amazing "50 Feet Of String." This film was a portrait of the seemingly monotonous trials of daily life and how they can be perceived in an impressionistic, beautiful fashion.

Two films by the same creator, Laura Collela of Providence, R.I., were honored with the Tom Berman Award, given to the most promising filmmaker. Her two films, "Statuary" and "The Same Ark" are quite different, but are undeniably linked by wit and raw talent.

For outstanding achievement in an animated film, "Superhero," an animated tale of a hero who must fight Batman, by Emily Breer, was given the Chris Frayne Award of $500.

Named for popular filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan ("The Big Chill," "Grand Canyon"), the award for best narrative film was presented to Festival veteran Richard Myers of nearby Kent, Ohio. With his "Monstershow," Myers used imagery of horror icons Dracula and Frankenstein to interpret his dreams.

Filmmaker Michael Moore uses the money earned from his successful "Roger & Me" to fund the award for best documentary film aptly named the Michael Moore Award. This year's recipient was Laurence Green of Toronto, Canada, for his account of a dysfunctional family, "Reconstruction."

While these and other victorious films, such as Donald Joh's "18% Grey" and Bill Brown's wondrous "Roswell," were shown in the more widely attended evening showings at 7 and 9, audience members who went to the 5 p.m. screening were treated to five less rewarded, but no less cinematically significant, films.

The first of these movies was "Those Precious Mints," which was one of the three films given the Old Peculiar Award. Peculiar is, indeed, the best adjective for this dreamy tale; the film captures a small girl's recollection of vying for some of her grandfather's Mentos-like mints, set to the sounds of a clicking camera.

Next was the gripping "The Idea Of North," a winner of the Best First Film Award. A chronicle of an 18th century polar expedition by Rebecca Baron, the film ingeniously blends photographs of the mission with journal entries and close-up re-enactments of the explorer's actions for a static-filled tale of survival.

After the seriousness of the prior film, "Postal Exchange," by Bradley Gake of Los Angeles, this film provided a lighter, animated fare. A depiction of two unseen penpals in the United States and the former Soviet Union and their respective disgruntled postal workers, the picture won an honorable mention.

The centerpiece of this screening was the hour-long "Tender Fictions" by prominent lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer. Her poignant and funny autobiographical story of self-realization and obsession with Shirley Temple garnered her the prestigious Isabella Liddell Award for artistic accomplishment.

The highlight of this showing was the hilarious, Prix DeVarti-winning "Joe Was Not So Happy." Juxtaposing stock footage of amphibians and a voice-over from a 1950s instructional film, the short subject by Chicago's Heather McAdams traced the cheerless life of a frog.

Following in the ground-breaking footsteps of previous festivals, this year's event proved to be another extravaganza of experimental filmmaking that alternately entertained, informed and expressed creativity rarely seen in this age of mass-marketing.

As the marquee darkens and the last souvenir T-shirt is sold, the 34th Ann Arbor Film Festival becomes just a fond memory. However, while committees start planning for the Festival of 1997, and students, faculty and city-dwellers continue on with life here, selections from the award-winning films will tour the country until the end of August.

This tour, which will stop in at least 12 cities, is an attempt to provide movie-goers with a fresh alternative to the creatively barren marketable cinema. It will spotlight an independent film movement that is not likely to fade out anytime soon.