Tian-Jun Gu and Greg Wachtenheim, both students in the University of Michigan's screenwriting program, are blogging for AnnArbor.com from the 49th Ann Arbor Film Festival. Here are their reports from two Day 3 programs on Thursday.

Juror Presentation: Stephen Connolly By Greg Wachtenheim

Stephen Connolly, a London-based filmmaker, made his first appearance in the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 2007 with “Film for Tom” (2005), one of six non-fiction films he screened throughout his presentation.

Connolly began his screening with his most concise, most entertaining, and most humorous non-fiction film, “The Reading Room” (2002). In less than three minutes, Connolly uses fast motion to capture an entire working day in the British Museum reading room using a stationary camera. This film is exceptionally self-aware. The subtitles comically explain that the film’s lack of sound is due to the fact that BBC charged too much for stock room tone. The subtitles, which served as commentary on the film and its making, rather than as a narrative, provoked regular laughs from the audience. This film is unique in that it not only incorporates humor, but is in fact a comedy, something atypical of documentary film.

“Film for Tom” is accompanied by voice-over rather than subtitles. While the mysteries underlying the majority of this film are never clarified, the film concludes with very powerful information. It reveals that Tom, the man for whom the film was titled, was stabbed to death in his home. His murderer’s trial became an unjust analysis of Tom’s personality in which the court determined that he was violent, bisexual, and often homeless. Tom’s friends were not even given a chance to testify. Despite its initial obscurity, “Film for Tom” delivered the most resounding message of the screening.

“Más Se Perdió (we lost more)” (2008) was the most visually stunning film Connolly presented. The film takes place in Havana, Cuba, where it focuses on an outdoor stadium where locals exercised, and the National School of Ballet, which was built of bricks to resemble a “strong Soviet structure.” The school was never opened, and has fallen into disrepair. While the interior of the building resembles a dark and murky prison, its natural surroundings are quite beautiful. Towards the end of the film, Connolly shows two men contently floating in rafts with their few basic belongings. Subtitles then allude to the utopian future so many cities aspire to become, and the materialism that those cities are truly representative of. Connolly explained that the outdoor stadium is “a man-made park full of wildlife,” which inspired him to “shoot people as wildlife.” The contrast between the images of happy and tranquil men in nature and the decaying ballet school seems to be Connolly’s declaration that man is part of nature and should be content to remain that way.

All of these films share a “documentary form,” but they are far from the linear narratives we’ve grown accustomed to seeing in traditional documentary. Connolly’s films prove that, much like civilization, all genres are capable of growth and evolution.

Greg Wachtenheim is a senior at the University of Michigan, majoring in Screen Arts and Cultures with a sub-concentration in screenwriting and a minor in Spanish. His love for creative writing and film has inspired him to pursue a career in screenwriting.

“Utopia in Four Movements” By Tian-Jun Gu

Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker Sam Green, a University of Michigan and AAFF alumnus, performed a “live documentary” or as Green referred to it, a “fancy ass lecture.” His “Utopia in Four Movements” explores the idea of utopia in four separate parts through projection slides, documentary footage, narration, and live music. As Green narrated, David Cerf, Green’s co-director, provided accompanying music with The Quavers (a Brooklyn-based band) and Brendan Canty of Fugazi.

Utopia is defined as “not in place” or “no place.” Green contemplates what’s keeping us from reaching that ideal state humanity strives for even though it doesn’t exist. After tragedy upon tragedy is brought up, Green breaks the pessimism to show a block of concrete with the words “sous le pave: la plage” (translation: underneath the pavement is the beach), a statement used in the French May 1968 protests. And so begins “Part One: The Universal Language.”

Esperanto, a constructed international auxiliary language invented by Ludwig Zamenhof, is the subject of “Part One.” Zamenhof, living in a community where language barriers created strife, believed that through a universal language, humanity could transcend war and adversity. While his vision did not come to fruition, thousands of Esperanto speakers around the world, since 1905, still meet at conferences in designated cities every year. What’s disheartening is that these speakers face ridicule from others for using this language, a language built upon peace. And these are individuals that come from different races, religions, and genders.

In “Part Two: The Revolution,” Green quotes revolutionary socialist Marx: “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” With that statement, Green views revolution as utopian. This segment follows an exiled American revolutionary in Cuba, and she states that she’s a revolutionary because of her love of people; it’s why she fights.

Green then places a lens on commercial society in “Part Three: The World’s Largest Shopping Mall.” Originally, the inventor of the shopping mall Victor Gruen wanted the experience to be utopic. As Esperanto would change people for the better through language and socialism would change through revolution, Gruen wanted buildings to have a similar impact. His original vision had daycare centers, parks, etc., but instead, only the profitable sections were used. Before his death, Gruen disavowed the shopping mall. In Dongguan, China, the world’s largest mall resides in the form of the South China Mall. Green believes that this mall is our era’s form of utopia, and the punch line is that the South China Mall is considered a “dead mall.”

“Part Four: Elegy for the 20th Century” follows forensic anthropologists, whose job is to exhume mass graves and identify the individuals buried in order to bring a sense of justice and peace to the deceased and their loved ones. It is a physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausting task, but these dedicated few see the value in every single human life. While somber at first glance, the significance of human life is what Green wants us to take from the documentary.

In our minds, we envision utopia to be a grand gesture, one that will rid disease, pain, and adversity, but utopia has been all around us. It is hope, it is imagination, it is you, and it is me. All the singular moments we gather each day to push our selves to be a little better, that’s utopia. And while the controversial figures and ideas contained in this performance may not be to everyone’s liking, “underneath the pavement is the beach.”

Tian-Jun Gu is a senior in the Screen Arts and Cultures program with a sub-concentration in Screenwriting at the University of Michigan. Although born in Shanghai, China, he considers himself a Michigander. Film has been an integral part of his life but never a path he planned on taking. Originally enrolling in the University of Michigan as an engineer, he fell back in love with film through Hubert Cohen’s “Art of Film” class and cannot see himself doing anything else now.