Meet the Patels will premiere tomorrow at the State Theater! Siblings Ravi and Geeta Patel co-directed the film, which mixes the genres of comedy, romance, and documentary. The film highlights the cultural differences between traditional Indian and contemporary American societies; I’m fascinated by culture, anthropology, and cultural differences more generally so I’m excited to view this film!
Tom Long of the Detroit News: “It’s a delight of a film, but it also examines problems of assimilation, culture clash, modern romance and the value (or prison) of tradition. Which is quite a bit of stuff for a movie that’s just plain fun to watch.”
One of the best orchestras in the United States, the New York Philharmonic, is coming to town later this week and offering a bunch of festivities in the next few days.
The New York Philharmonic is visiting Ann Arbor for an adventurous five-year residency program with the University Musical Society (UMS) and the School of Music, Theater, and Dance (SMTD). As a result, the New York Phil personnel will be offering a lot of master classes, concerts, lectures, and even a halftime show at the Homecoming football game (!) in the next few days. Check them out:
Join Maestro Alan Gilbert, the musical director of the New York Philharmonic, as he gives his keynote speech on the role of orchestras in the 21st century.
Eight students from the School of Music are playing chamber music with the New York Philharmonic musicians in this free concert. They have been rehearsing a lot and are sounding great already!
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9
Public Master Classes
Time Varies, School of Music Moore Building (1100 Baits Dr.), FREE
Many musicians from the New York Philharmonic are giving master classes throughout the day. Check the link above to see if your favorite musician is giving one! All are open to public.
Come hear the President of the New York Philharmonic, Matthew VanBesien, talk about his view on how the orchestra can make a huge impact despite its challenges today.
Friday night’s performance will consist of classical favorites including two works by Beethoven. Student tickets ($12 and $20) are slim, if not sold out, for this concert as of this writing.
Saturday night’s performance explores some newer works, including one by the New York Philharmonic composer-in-residence, Esa Pekka Salonen. Student tickets ($12 and $20) are available at ums.org as well as the Michigan League Ticket Office, or you can also get a FREE ticket using the Passport to the Arts if redeemed before the night of the event!
Come hear Vince Ford, Director of Digital Media, talk about how digital media can be a great tool for marketing in this age. There will be breakfast served before the event as well.
Public Master Classes Time Varies, School of Music Moore Building (1100 Baits Dr.), FREE
There will be another round of master classes by the musicians of the New York Philharmonic on Sunday. Check them out at the link above!
The third and final performance by the orchestra for this year will feature “On the Waterfront” by Leonard Bernstein – the legendary composer and long-time conductor at the New York Philharmonic. This concert will be preceded by Dig In with UMS, where you can meet your fellow concertgoers in a casual setting with food and activities.
This is a very unique opportunity to see such a high-class orchestra for multiple days in multiple settings. Don’t miss out, Ann Arbor!
Looking for a break between exams? Come to Lightworks!
The Lightworks Festival is a showcase of Screen Arts & Cultures’ student films. Presented by SAC’s student organization FVSA (Film and Video Student Association), the Lightworks Festival is the venue for students to present their end-of-the-year production coursework to classmates, family, and friends of Screen Arts.
Even cooler, this is your chance to see a variety of talented, visionary filmmakers before they make it big and you have to pay to see their work on the big screen.
Do not be deceived–Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is depressing. What begins as an off-beat comedy escalates slowly, but surely to a moving climax, and finally to a bittersweet ending. I don’t cry during movies, but this one made me want to cry more than The Fault in Our Stars.
Warning aside, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is an absolute must-see film.
The plot: “We follow Greg, a high school senior who is trying to blend in anonymously, avoiding deeper relationships as a survival strategy for navigating the social minefield that is teenage life. He even describes his constant companion Earl, with whom he makes short film parodies of classic movies, as more of a ‘co-worker’ than a best friend. But when Greg’s mom insists he spend time with Rachel – a girl in his class who has just been diagnosed with cancer – he slowly discovers how worthwhile the true bonds of friendship can be.”
I was pleasantly surprised multiple times at the little eccentricities–the parents walk into Greg’s room and he frantically attempts to close his porn windows, conversations touch upon sexually assaulting fluffy pillows, strange and exotic lunches, etc. Anyone who felt awkward or different in high school can relate instantly to this film. It captures the imaginative, uncertain energy of being a senior in high school without all the banal school tropes that you’d find in something like Glee.
If nothing else, watch this film for the camera work. It’s impossible to miss the ridiculously wide angles and outrageous telescopic views and swinging camera, and it makes you feel like you’re adventuring along with our characters.
After watching the film, I wondered why we don’t see more creative approaches to camera movement and lenses. Compare Me and Earl and the Dying Girl to any Hollywood blockbuster and the shot selection of those high budget films seems so much more stale in comparison.
Finally, the acting can only be described as on-point. Each of the main characters delivers a genuine and heartfelt performance, but it’s the supporting actors that really shine. Molly Shannon plays Rachel’s mother, who copes with the sickness of her daughter with hilarity. Nick Offerman (who plays Ron Swanson in Parks and Rec) plays against type as a strange, introverted father. Lastly, Jon Bernthal (of Walking Dead Fame) plays a badass history teacher.
If you only get to watch a handful of movies this summer season, make Me and Earl and the Dying Girl one of them. The trailer is below:
Going to any event at the Michigan Theater makes the event itself a hundred times more grand. Despite a tornado warning and wretched weather, the 14th Annual Festival put on the student group M-Agination Films was a smashing success.
Each year 10-15 short student films are created with the help of M-Agination films and the results are shown together at the end of the year. I have seen this festival for the past three years, and every year the overall quality of films has improved.
And live music now too!
As with many festivals, the genres of the films varied: “Oreo Therapy” was about a man getting over a recent breakup with the help of food-related gifts from his hall neighbor, while “Awaken Ann Arbor” was a documentary about a meditation group of the same name on U of M’s campus, and “Dreamer” was a full-on avant-garde piece that I will not even attempt to decipher.
This was a full event, with multiple half-hour films–“Co-Education” and “A Sense of Sound”–to end each block of the festival. There was a nice mix of comedies and dramas to take us on a subtle emotional roller coaster throughout the night. “Looking Back,” a depressing piece about a young student reminiscing about his lost lover, preceded “Babysitter,” a hilarious comedy about a young teen jumping through hoops to get the title job, and then we went to the documentary “Awaken.”
Vice President Anthony Kalil
The second half of the festival was much the same. We opened with “Fortune Teller Gynecologist” which is a comedy that needs no further description, on to “A Study in Tokyo,” which was a documentary shot during a class trip. The best part about “Tokyo” was that, despite being shot almost entirely with a GoPro, it was entertaining and edited well enough to keep the audience focused.
“Legs” was a groovy music video shot literally below the waist. “Three” followed three individuals with various disorders (OCD, Anorexia, Social Anxiety) and used images, rather than words to describe their daily lives. To cap off the night was “A Sense of Sound,” which was a lot like Whiplash, but with elderly people.
Overall, amazing festival and something to attend in future years.
Festival Line Up
Oreo Therapy Directed by Monica Dollive (4 minutes)
Looking Back Directed by Leo Sheng (7 minutes)
Babysitter Directed by Jameson Duggan (8 minutes)
Awaken Ann Arbor Directed by Will Ellis (11 minutes)
Hero Directed by Claire Holloway (2 minutes)
Co-Education Directed by Anna Baumgarten (25 minutes)
Intermission 15 minutes
Fortune Teller Gynecologist Directed by Michael Wylie (6 minutes)
Dreamer Directed by Layne Simescu (6 minutes)
A Study in Tokyo Directed by Rachel Goldberg (9 minutes)
Three Directed by Karen Hua (7 minutes)
LEGS Directed by Jorge Gonzalez (4 minutes)
A Sense of Sound Directed by Jeremy Borison (30 minutes)
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is about an awkward high school senior and a gravely ill classmate who surprise themselves by becoming inseparable friends. It stars Thomas Mann, Olivia Cooke, and Jon Bernthal, and is not even scheduled to be released until June 2015!
Through Fox Searchlight pictures, there are free screening passes available to get a free viewing of the film (see below)!
This drama premiered at Sundance 2015 to a standing ovation. If it is anything like The Fault in Our Stars, I would recommend you bring a box of tissues to the screening.
The Lightworks Festival is a showcase of Screen Arts & Cultures’ student films. Presented by SAC’s student organization FVSA (Film and Video Student Association), the Lightworks Festival is the venue for students to present their end-of-the-year production coursework to classmates, family, and friends of Screen Arts.
