Following a reception in the Michigan Theater lobby on Tuesday evening, 200 invited guests crammed into the screening room to see highlights from “Trivial Pursuits” — a feature film shot in Ann Arbor last August — and hear from the film's creators (and Ann Arbor native brothers) Chris and Mike Farah, as well as co-producer Anna Wenger.

“People have been telling us congratulations, but I feel like we have so much more work to do, and this is just really the beginning,” said Mike Farah, who produced the film.

The crowd got to see a rough-cut montage — a kind of 25-minute trailer — of the movie, which is about a University of Michigan graduate student who’s trying to find his place in the world while competing in pub trivia contests with two friends. (U-M, for the first time ever, granted permission to be identified in the film.)

Chris Farah, who wrote and directed the film, talked briefly about the original inspiration for "Pursuits."

“It’s also very much a movie about Ann Arbor,” Chris told the screening room crowd. “I think it’s good to see Ann Arbor through a lens, through the eyes of an outsider, a movie crew, so you can appreciate and understand what you have here now. Because I know, when I was living here, just walking down the street, you forget a lot of the time. But watching this, I think, really brings the specialness of this place, and of all of you, who make up the place, to life. So I hope you get that from the movie.”

Indeed, the Farahs brothers' affection for the town came through Tuesday night's highlighted scenes loud and clear. From leisurely, summertime bike rides on the streets of the Old West Side, to scenes in local parks, to shots of U-M's campus (including U-M Stadium on a game day) and downtown businesses, "Pursuits" appears to paint Ann Arbor in a wholly idyllic light.

Currently, the filmmakers are still working on sound editing and color correction, among other post-production tasks; but on Tuesday night, they predicted they’d have a final cut by July.

“We’ll probably premiere it at the Traverse City Film Festival, which is at the end of July, early August,” said Mike. “I think this could be a great place to start, in Traverse City, and make this a Michigan movie and go out from there.”

Mike — who was just recently named president of production at the popular comedy website FunnyOrDie.com — noted that FunnyOrDie, University of Michigan alumni, and Hasbro (makers of the board game Trivial Pursuit) may all play a role in the marketing of the film.

“Really, it’s tapping into all these different groups who have incentive to really support the movie,” said Mike Farah.

Chris noted that an independent distributor would likely get the film to college towns and larger cities. But by then, the film will have another, yet-to-be-determined title, as the filmmakers explain in this clip.

“When you see movie award shows, you get this feeling like, oh, the director, that’s their movie,” said Chris. “That’s really just kind of absurd, to be perfectly (honest). There are so many moving parts to this — so many different people have to go into making it. And that’s the most fun part of making a movie is that you get all these different people who bring their own different talents into it, and you come out with just one single product. And it’s great, because it’s like running a business, in a sense.”

The Farah brothers also talked about the role that retired U-M English professor Ralph Williams plays in “Pursuits.” (Chris had worked with Williams while earning a masters degree in Near Eastern Studies at U-M.)

“The first scene we have of him is the lecture hall, where he’s a natural, because he’s doing what he does best,” said Chris. “So people start out thinking … 'OK, they must have gotten a professor.' But then, by the end of the movie, … they start thinking, 'Wait a second. Is this somebody who I just don’t know about in Hollywood, who I probably should know about?'”

Williams also got involved with Tuesday night's discussion, beginning by talking about how he ended up appearing in "Pursuits."

Williams also touched on the difference between stage acting, with which he has some experience, and film acting, which was new to him.

"One of the challenging things for me about the film was this: when you see the fuller film, the character … is your humble servant, in many ways," said Williams. "There are characteristics that this character has, in connection with his son, which were hard for me to do, because I was playing me doing things that I wouldn’t do. … He’s oppressive to his son, overly controlling, directive and so on."

Williams remarked that the true test will come when his own 25 year old son sees "Pursuits."

"If he says, 'That’s my dad,' I will have learned something about myself," Williams joked.

Chris Farah noted that Williams' habit of asking, “Yay, nay?” at the end of a question is a running gag in “Pursuits”; and reportedly, the verbal tic is contagious.

“You can talk to somebody a week later, and just in the middle of the conversation, they’ll say, ‘So, you want to go get lunch? Yay, nay?’ … And then they’ll say, ‘I just can’t stop saying that,’” said Chris.

The Farahs said they planned to return to Ann Arbor with the finished film this summer.

Fittingly, Williams asked the crowd, “Will you be there? Yay, nay?” and got a resounding affirmation.

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.