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Posted on Thu, Mar 18, 2010 : 5:52 a.m.

Film festivals, an acclaimed animated movie, Wimpy Kid and more

By Russ Collins

Win free movie tickets
Editor's note: Comment on today's "Cinema Chat" for a chance to win free movie tickets to the Michigan Theater. Some time between now and 6 a.m. Wednesday, leave a comment on this column, written by the Michigan Theater's Russ Collins. Offer your opinion on a recent movie you've seen, or on anything Russ mentions. We'll randomly select a winner and notify that person via the email address they signed up with. They will get two passes to a movie of their choice.

The season of Spring is about to be sprung — it arrives Saturday, thank goodness. It is time to savor the arrival of more daylight, sunshine, budding flowers, warmer weather, baseball and grilling outdoors. It is also the time when wonderful film festivals come to Tree Town.

On Friday at 4:30, get a taste of a mini-film festival as the Huron River Watershed Council presents the Millers Creek Film Festival. Admission is free to this 5th annual presentation of very local, very amateur films that earnestly show our community’s connection to the Huron River — which is now free of ice and flowing freely!

On Tuesday, March 23, the granddaddy of American film festivals starts. North America’s longest-running independent and experimental film festival, the Ann Arbor Film Festival, presents 6 days of inspiring cinematic exploration at the Michigan Theater and other downtown locations. During the festival, 170 films from more than 20 countries, including more than a dozen premiere screenings, will be presented.

You can meet filmmakers who have come from around the world to see their film screened here. The Opening Night Reception is Tuesday, March 23, from 6-8 p.m. in the Grand Foyer of the Michigan Theater. The opening-night program of short films, which begins at 8:15, includes: The late Chick Strand's short film “Angel Blue Sweet Wings,” the U.S. premiere of Richard Kerr's “de Mouvement,” Vanessa Renwick's “Portrait #3: House of Sound” and Jack Cronin’s experimental documentary, “Sleeping Bear,” featuring the beauty of this famed Michigan landscape. The festival will world premiere new work from Peter Herwitz, now based in Ann Arbor, with a screening of his beautifully hand-painted silent film "Gesturings", as part of the Friday night shorts program "How the Darkness Doubled." The program also features renowned filmmaker Lewis Klahr’s cutout animated film "Wednesday Morning Two AM," which was recently honored at the 2010 Rotterdam Film Festival. Irish-born filmmaker Duncan Campbell’s film “Bernadette,” a portrait of the Irish Socialist and political dissident Bernadette Devlin, is also featured in this striking and beautiful shorts program.

And those are just some of the highlights. Other highlights include:

• Wednesday, March 24: Daniel Barrow live animation performance • Thursday, March 25: Short films, documentaries and LGBT “Out Night” • Friday, March 26: Flying Lotus plays "Heaven & Earth Magic" • Saturday, March 27: Legendary filmmaker Kenneth Anger in discussion • Sunday, March 28: Feature documentaries & award-winning films
For full program details and advance tickets to the 48th Ann Arbor Film Festival, visit the AAFF web site. Opening this week
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“A Town Called Panic” will play Friday, March 19-Monday, March 22 only. LA Times and NPR critic Kenneth Turan loved it: “Made with an anarchic, anything-goes spirit, this is truly a film, not to mention a town, where you never know what's going to happen next.” It was the Audience Award Winner at Fantastic Fest 2009 and the first stop-motion animated feature selected to the Cannes Film Festival. “A Town Called Panic” follows the wacky, hilarious and often surreal adventures of 3 plastic toys named Cowboy, Indian and Horse, who share a rambling house in a rural town which never fails to attract the weirdest events. Presented in French with English subtitles at the Michigan Theater. “The Bounty Hunter” stars Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler in a domestic comedy. A bounty hunter (Butler) learns that his next target is his ex-wife (Aniston), a reporter working on a murder cover-up. Soon after their reunion, the always-at-odds duo find themselves on a run-for-their-lives adventure with a bunch of New Jersey heavies in pursuit. Presented at your local multiplex.

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“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” is a live-action film based on the popular series of books that were first created as an Internet based comic strip. The Wimpy Kid (Zachary Gordon) uses the journal his mother forces him to keep to plot his middle-school survival. Presented at your local multiplex.

“Repo Men” stars Jude Law, Forest Whitaker and Alice Braga in a film set in a world where artificial organs are readily available for purchase, a man (Law) who makes his living repossessing organs from those who fail to make their payments first finds himself outfitted with a new heart, then forced to go on the run when he falls on hard financial times. It is an adaptation of “Matchstick Men” writer Eric Garcia's novel, who also wrote the screenplay with "House M.D." scribe Garrett Lerner. Presented at your local multiplex. Special screenings

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“The Bicycle Thief” is the classic Italian neorealist film from 1948 directed by Vittoria De Sica. It plays Monday, March 22 at 7 p.m. as part of the Michigan Theater’s World Cinema Series. The midnight film at the State Theater this week is the controversial Stanley Kubrick classic “A Clockwork Orange” It plays on Saturday, March 20 at 11:59 pm.

Russ Collins is executive director of the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor. Tune in to the audio version of “Cinema Chat” on WEMU radio (89.1-FM) each Thursday at 7:40 a.m. and 5:40 p.m., or listen to it online at WEMU's web site.

Comments

Erich Jensen

Thu, Mar 18, 2010 : 9:26 a.m.

The international film series at Michigan Theater on Monday nights has been great. We even took our college age sons for this global film experience. Thanks, Russ.

tony iannelli

Thu, Mar 18, 2010 : 6:08 a.m.

Town Called Panic looks like the best bet. But we'll most likely go and see wimpy kid. My son's got all of the books and loves them.