Michigan theater – Page 20

REVIEW: M-Agination Film Festival

April 10, 2015April 10, 2015 Phillip Wachowiak

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.

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.”

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)

PREVIEW: M-Agination Films 14th Annual Film Festival

April 1, 2015April 1, 2015 Phillip Wachowiak

M-agination Films is a student run organization on campus that runs similarly to a production class in the Screen Arts and Cultures department. Our goal is to help dedicated, creative students create their own passion projects.

Who: Students like you (possibly) and me, who worked on independent movie projects the past two semesters. They are presenting the fruits of their labor on the big screen for one night only.

Where: The Michigan Theater

When: April 9th at 7:30

Cost: FREE!

There are a wide variety of films this year, from documentary, to narrative, to straight avant-garde.

There’s a link to the Facebook event here

REVIEW: Sister Africa 2015

March 14, 2015March 14, 2015 Phillip Wachowiak

This was the 17th annual Culture Show put on by the African Students Association, and after weeks of hype and social media frenzy, the Michigan Theater was filled to capacity.

Comedian standup comedian Foxy P took the stage and did not hesitate bringing up diversity. It was a pleasant surprise to hear him complementing the diversity in Ann Arbor, as he told us a story about walking into a barber shop downtown and having his hair cut by a white guy named Tim. This story and every other time he came on stage was filled with an energy that kept the audience filled with passion.

There were no bad performances. Whether it was the Amala dancers flowing across the stage, the Uprizin Steel Drum Band reminding us of warming weather, or a blisteringly frank spoken word poem by Adedolapo Adeniji, the audience was on the edge of its seat.

Two standout dance performances by the Michigan Center for Capoeira and the Zuzu Dancers book-ending the second half truly made the Africa Show a worthwhile experience. Not only were the dancers shaped like bodybuilders, but we watched them flip and spin and fly through the air as if they were superhuman. The Zuzu Dancers especially condensed several acts into a short performance that deserved a standing ovation at the end.

Spaced at different points through the show was a fashion show. This was a reminder of Africa’s wide range of cultures and dress, as well as a reminder of how beautiful its people and clothing are.

Like the Fusion Show put on by ASA months before, the Culture Show was something that can only truly be enjoyed in person. This time, at least, there will be a video available of show online at 1Africa. For future reference, this is not an event to pass up when it comes around again next year.

PREVIEW: ASA Culture Show – Sister Africa

March 9, 2015February 16, 2015 Phillip Wachowiak

The African Students Association (ASA) is putting on its 17th Annual Culture Show and this year’s theme is “Sister Africa,” where they will be showcasing Africa across borders.

In the words of the group: ” We hope that people leave the show with a better understanding and appreciation for Africa and a renewed hope for unification of its descendants from around the world.”

What you can look forward to:

Foxy P from African Comedians will host the show.
Fashion Designers from all over the USA showcasing their work
Performers including: ASA’s Amala Dancers, Oga Boys, Brazilian Capoeira dancers, and Zuzu Acrobats
Poetry, singing and instrumental ensembles!

When: March 13th @ 7:30 PM

Where: Michigan Theater

Cost: $5 Students, $8 Non-students

If you have questions please e-mail asa-board@umich.edu

REVIEW: Charlie Chaplin Short Films

February 20, 2015February 20, 2015 camsterdam

Have you ever shut off the volume on the TV because you were tired of listening to commercials, only to find that the show has sneakily come back on? Now you watch in silence and people are dancing about on the screen, mouths are moving, dogs are chasing postmen, and you don’t know a single thing that they are saying. But that’s the fun! You start creating your own dialogue and suddenly, a tense chase scene turns comic with every pun you fling about the room.

Silent films increase creativity, I’m sure of it! I definitely felt like my mind was more active than usual when I sat in the magical Michigan Theater watching a silent black and white Charlie Chaplin tumble and twirl his famous little bowler hat on the big screen.

Charlie Chaplin made the majority of his vaudeville films from 1920-1940, and is known widely as one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. He wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and wrote the music for most of his films. He was a do-it-all kind of guy. His films were silly, inventive, full of plot twists and long-drawn out humorous scenes (think of those Family Guy moments when Brian and Stewie go back and forth for five minutes), just the kind of entertaining distraction people living through the Depression and World War 2 needed. But all of his films mostly serve as a response and encouragement to the condition of the people. His protagonists are mainly poor and are treated badly, but remain upbeat and kind, which was also just what I needed on a dreary cold winter day!

A very talented man on the vintage Barton Organ sat down and began to play Chaplin’s own accompanying score as the lights went down. At first, it was very strange to see the actors’ mouths moving without knowing what they were saying. It was like I was watching a poorly-timed Anime movie, but even worse, an Anime movie that had forgotten to put the sound in altogether! There were hardly any slides of “dialogue” – where the films cuts away from the action and includes a line of dialogue directing the audience how to interpret a certain scene. Without many clues, we were forced to pay attention to the mood invoked by the organ music. At times of suspense, it rushed along with anticipation. In dreamy moments or love scenes, the organ might play a variation of the Wedding Song. It’s amazing how the brain soon adapts to missing elements of everyday life (talking), and normalizes a new way of enjoying life.

For that hour and a half, I didn’t miss talking at all. In fact, I was quite pleased to create my own story to match what I saw before me. I watched the other movie-goers and wondered if their stories were similar to mine. But I realized that it didn’t matter. And anyways, I wouldn’t dare break the silence to ask them! Here we were sharing a public space, but experiencing very different movies in our head. It was the first time it hit me: that films are intrinsically private journeys. Private journeys that Charlie Chaplin believed the world should go on together.

REVIEW: Jose Miguel Sokoloff (Penny Stamps Speaker)

February 19, 2015February 23, 2015 Phillip Wachowiak

Jose Miguel Sokoloff is many things; first and foremost, however, he is an advertiser who loves his home country of Colombia.

For roughly an hour, we experienced a condensed version of Colombia’s history and its war with the guerrilla movement. Beginning with the Cold War, Sokoloff laid the groundwork of the guerrillas’ ideological foundation, followed by a gradual shift to an economical role after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The key to ending Colombia’s war with the guerrillas, he stressed, was realizing that the members were as much victims of the organization as the general populace.

We watched the growth of the advertising campaign against the guerrilla’s–from it’s missteps at the beginning to the enormous successes it has achieved in recent years. Always, the message remained the same: “Demobilization is the way out” / “desmovilización es la salida”

What struck me most was how successful Sokoloff and the nation of Colombia was with its advertising campaign, and its intersection of art and politics. Realizing that genuine testimonies were more important than professional actors, the campaign would always “speak to the human” in an effort to convey the message that the war would eventually end anyway.

The government concentrated on Christmas and family, because that was when the members were most vulnerable. Soldiers decorated trees in the jungle with Christmas lights. Glowing balls with heartfelt messages floated down the waterways that the guerrillas used for travel. The military sent soccer balls all over the country to remind the guerrillas what they were missing.

Most touching of all was a campaign involving mothers, in which they stated “Before being a guerrilla, you are my son” / “Antes de ser guerrillero, eres mi hijo”

Overall I loved this talk. This was explicit proof that we don’t need extensive peace talks or military campaigns to dissolve the potency of a violent movement. Instead, this advertising campaign appealed to the hearts and humanity of the guerrillas in the jungle, and it worked.