Running back into Michigan Theater to catch the next screening, I sat down among a full crowd for two films, The Sole of the Foot (Robert Fenz, 2011) and Disorder (Huang Weikai, 2009).

The Sole of the Foot, a 34-minute film, focused on various real-life scenes in France, Israel and Cuba.  It specifically addressed the concept of borders and their ability to simultaneously keep some people “in”, while keeping other people “out”.  In France, Fenz focused on a North African community that was not well-accepted among those that lived within their vicinity,  in Israel, he portrayed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and in Cuba,”their right to rule themselves denied by foreign powers”.  There was artistic quality in that Fenz chose to incorporate different stylistic elements for each country he shot.  “Israel definitely featured more experimental shooting,” he said, as he explained the many bombings that occurred during his stay that became a bit of an obstacle.  “I was shooting from the window of our apartment”, and with that, he developed a fascination for the many winding, uneven walkways of Jerusalem.  The film, as a whole presented a tapestry of cultures, landscapes and people.

Disorder captures a chaotic China, and the problems that plague  its major cities due to increasing urbanization: pigs run wild on a highway, a baby is found in a park abandoned, a community is severely flooded, a supermarket is caught in possession of frozen bear claws…The black and white footage of these scenes compiled from amateur videographers creates a security camera ‘caught-on-tape’ effect that invites the viewer into a world full of ugly truths.  The absurdity that is Disorder almost produces a feeling of discomfort among the audience because the events are so inconceivable, and not to mention, uncontrollable.  The film portrays a reality, in which problems only seem to worsen because of a lack of cooperation between Chinese police and citizens, who many times find such upheavals to be a spectacle, rather than issues of concern.  Weikai’s work is truly brilliant in that it illustrates the dysfunction and dangers that harm Chinese society as a result of the country’s accelerated industrialization and expansion.

Watch the trailer here:

Disorder

Overall, this was my favorite screening yet.  Both The Sole of the Foot and Disorder illustrated realities in ways that immersed the audience in exploration and understanding of life as it is, beautiful and complex.

Thursday night I headed to the Michigan Theater for my first Ann Arbor Film Festival screening (I plan to go to more this weekend).  I had looked through the program schedule online (http://aafilmfest.org/49/index.php/events.) earlier this week to discover that many of the showings were groupings of shorts according to theme.  Perfect! I thought, I love shorts.  I had been to the Sundance shorts that were shown at the Michigan Theater ( in addition to Cedar Rapids) a few months ago, and was excited to return for some more film fest entertainment.

The screening that night entitled, “Always Elsewhere” featured 5 shorts.  Arriving early, my friend and I walked in and visited a few of the tables in the theater lobby.  Arbor Teas and RoosRoast were offering locally-produced and delicious tea and coffee with a suggested $1 donation.  “This is just what I wanted”, I said to the woman at the Arbor Tea stand as I decided on some Jasmine Green.  “I was just contemplating sneaking in a hot drink from Starbucks”.  She laughed and told me that Arbor Tea would be offering different flavors every night, along with RoosRoast.

My friend and I entered the screening room in the back (not the main theater) for the showing.  Below are the films we saw:

• You Can See The Sun In Late December (Sasha Waters Freyer, 2010)
• Immokalee, My Home (Kevin T. Allen, Jen Heuson, 2009)
• Castaic Lake (Brigid McCaffrey, 2010)
• Forsaken (James Sansing, 2010)
• While You Were Sleeping (Mary Helena Clark, 2010)

If I were to pick a favorite, I would say that I liked Immokalee, My Home the best.  The film documented the harsh realities of Guatemalan, migrant farm workers in Florida, in which three narrators tell their stories of their arrival to the US, their subjectivity to unfair labor conditions, and their longing to return home.  The film is narrated in Spanish and in an indigenous language native to Guatemala with English subtitles. The filmmaker really experimented with color and composition.  As the migrant workers told their story, images of their daily routine were blurred and unfocused, emphasizing the tedious and monotonous nature of their work.  As they described their home in Guatemala compared to their living situations in the US, a juxtaposition between color and black and white photographs was created.  The viewer eventually discovers that their desire to return home can never be fulfilled, because of the ’embarrassment of returning home with nothing.’  In the end, the migrant workers discuss their importance to the changing face of North America.  The viewer then sees close-ups of their faces, and reflects on the reality of their lives;  they have journeyed to the states in efforts to achieve an unattainable dream, but the culture they carry with them is ever-reminiscent in the stories they tell.

Two other interesting films were Castaic Lake and Forsaken.  Castaic Lake was a 30-minute short, in which the camera surveyed leisurely activity at a small lake within Los Angeles County.  Capturing the fragmented happenings within the lake’s surroundings, McCaffrey observed these interactions, often from a distance, but focused on a few characters by interviewing them and telling their story (why they were at the lake, what they did there).  Forsaken was a 7-minute black and white, silent film that combined photographs of a juvenile detention center to produce a flashy movement of the room’s appearance and emphasized the neglected, run-down space.  Sansing focused on a blowing curtain and aged, confidential probation documents, with which he photographed to create visuals of what still remained.

Both McCaffrey and Sansing were in attendance for a Q&A after the screenings. They both had focused on their subjects over a long period of time.  It was obvious that they were very drawn both to the lake and the detention center.  “I just love abandoned buildings and places”, Sansing said.  “California is really lacking abandoned buildings, so I often find myself venturing to the east coast to discover them.”  Sansing said he was also working on more photography of the detention center which will be published as a book.  To me, both McCaffrey and Sansings’ films were created from seeming obsessions that suggested they were, in fact, ‘always elsewhere’, captivated by the worlds their films portrayed.