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 6 programs on Sunday.

“Strange Attractors” By Tian-Jun Gu

The last block of films in competition, “Strange Attractors” presented explorations in the “ambiguous and analogous in narrative and non-narrative forms.” From one of the first innovators of electronic music to a sanitarium where three women are under the influence of a cult leader, these films deal with control either as an internal creative force or an external domineering one.

Kara Blake’s “The Delian Mode” (2009) is a documentary about Delia Derbyshire, one of the pioneers of electronic music and the composer of the original “Doctor Who” theme with Ron Grainer. Various musicians, artists, and friends reflect on Derbyshire’s life while various pieces of her work from different decades provides a soundtrack and commentary. It is a fascinating look into the life of an incredibly gifted artist who created unbelievable electronic music before the convenience of technology such as synthesizers.

Becky Ip’s “lungful lustre” (2009) is an entrancing choreography of dancing metallic magnets accompanied by an interview, in Cantonese, with her father. The film does not contain subtitles, but Ip was able to summarize her father’s responses during the Q & A. Ip’s family used to run a metal factory in Hong Kong, and as a child, her father once had to unpack an entire shipment of metal that had tarnished, polish the metal, and then repackage everything. The dancing magnets in the film then hold an interesting generational quality as Ip has now produced her own metal in a way.

“little fissures” (2010), directed by Sheri Wills, is a silent film that displays ephemeral black tears in a white space. There’s an organic quality to the shifting shapes that relies on the inorganic medium of film and photography. The patterns appear just as quickly as they disappear to create a Rorschach test-like experience of attempting to apply a concrete form to what we’ve seen before the moment passes.

Melika Bass’ “Shoals” (2011) centers on three women in a sanitarium. The women collect flowers to make tinctures, listen to the cryptic teachings of a cult leader, and attempt to find an existence of their own. While a narrative is present, it’s fragmented. It adds to the disorienting environment presented by Bass, not allowing viewers to discern the true nature of the establishment. In the end, the three women lay down on the train tracks, awaiting fate. It’s either a tragic end or one of muted optimism.

While this block of films examines control in various forms, it’s a theme that also applies to the entire festival. It is a venue not only for the artists to hold control, but the audience as well. These films aren’t passively given to us, they’re meant to incite discussion between the creators and fellow film-lovers. It’s about engaging everyone. What a week of films it has been. Next year can’t come soon enough.

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.

"Foreign Parts" by Greg Wachtenheim

J.P. Sniadecki and Véréna Paravel’s documentary “Foreign Parts” centers on Willets Point, a downtrodden and deteriorated neighborhood stuck in the shadows of the recently built, $900 million dollar Citi Field, home of the New York Mets.

The majority of the film’s subjects work in junkyards and auto shops that compete for customers by approaching lines of cars and bargaining prices for auto repairs. Not only is there insufficient business to sustain these shops, but the neighborhood has a large unemployed population as well. These people are desperate for work and envy those who work at the junkyards, but that should by no means serve as glorification for such workplaces. One worker told the filmmakers, “This is a junkyard. Nobody wants to work here.” This worker lives a second life as a street racer. Although he has been to jail three times, this worker continues to race illegally because he is in desperate need of more money.

Despite the abundance of crime, the inhabitants of this neighborhood are generally moral and good-natured individuals. At one point, a man who can’t find any work rolls a joint to get high and forget about his frustrations. Out of genuine concern, his friend questions, “How you got drugs and you got no money?” This shows the sensibility that most of these unfortunate New Yorkers have, but are not rewarded for.

The 7 train, which brings fans to and from Citi Field, and the planes constantly flying in and out of nearby LaGuardia Airport, serve as a reminder to members of the Willets Point community that while others simply visit the poor area, they are stuck there. You can’t help but side with these people, who seem to be forgotten by their government whenever their streets need repaving, only to be remembered again on tax day. Two of the core characters in this film are Luis and Sara, a married couple. Luis and Sarah live in a car, and in winter, they wake up freezing every morning. While they realize they live in a poor neighborhood, they at first are hesitant to leave their friends behind. When Luis is arrested for unannounced reasons, Sara fears to sleep alone in her van. She arms herself with a knife and tire iron at night to fight off any potential intruders, and claims that police refuse to enter her neighborhood. Upon Luis’s return, his reunion with his wife is so joyous that it is nearly impossible to believe that whatever crime he committed could have contained even a hint of malice. The “criminals” portrayed in this movie are certainly not the “bad guys” but rather are survivors. They do what they have to in order to provide food and shelter for their families.

While Mayor Michael Bloomberg has approved plans to develop Willets Point, Brooklyn, the fate of its inhabitants are uncertain. The area will surely become more gentrified and visually appealing. It may even become economically prosperous. But that is no guarantee that the members of its current community will reap the benefits of this development. There’s no guarantee they’ll get better jobs. They are sure to face obstacles that will challenge the close-knit community they already have. They will become “foreign parts” in their own neighborhood.

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.