ARTS
The Michigan Daily
Tuesday, March 11, 1986
Page 5.
IV
Film Festival
returns to
Ann
Arbor
By John Shea
T he Ann Arbor Film Festival
commands attention. Now in its
twenty-fourth year, it is the oldest and
perhaps most prestigious festival in
North America. Filmmakers from all
around get the respect of their peers
and the attention of the major studios
in Hollywood.
Ruth Bradley is the director of the
festival for the ninth consecutive year.
She is part of a five member commit-
tee who will prescreen over 200 en-
tries before the festival gets under
way Tuesday night. They will watch
these films for three straight weeks,
six hours a night. "After the first
eighty to ninety films," Bradley
jokes, "you move into a new realm of
consciousness.' "
From these entries, ap-
proximately eighty of them will be
chosen for public screening. The en-
tire spectrum of film styles will be
represented, from documentaries to
narratives, and animation to abstract
works. Among the films which will be
shown are:
Voices, Joanna Priestley's
autobiographical account about her
life and her work. Voices is a four-
minute animation film which is both
amusing and bizarre. Priestly por-
trays herself going through many
metamophoses in the film changing
form with each new emotion and
feeling.
Troubled Waters, Brooklyn's Dean
Wertherha1l's fourteen-minute
documentary of an independent
clam digger's struggle to maintain his
family's economic security.
Everywhere at Once, is Alan
Berliner's slick ten-minute montage.
The New York filmmaker mixes fast-
moving images and pictures with or-
chestral music. The editing is excep-
tional, Berliner's film is a roller
coaster ride from start to finish.
Violent, Sal Giamonna's nine
minute black and white film centers
upon a man who openly admits
to using violence to get his way.
Giamonna focuses on the man and
then cuts to a demolition derby, where
one car is piled up on top of another.
It is a powerful film that hammers
across its message.
This is not the first time Giamonna
has entered a film in the festival. Last
year he won the top prize, the Tom
Berman Award, for the most
promising filmmaker; this is the
brass ring that over 200 entrants are
hoping to grab.
"Even the money ($1000) doesn't
mean that much," Bradley said. 'It is
just to enhance their reputation and
prestige with other filmmakers. It's
very encouraging to win (the Berman
Award). It gets one noticed."
For those who don't win the Ber-
man, there is still an additional $2500
in prize money to be awarded. Films
will be shown at the Michigan
Theatre Tuesday through Friday at 7,
9 and 11 p.m., and Saturday at 1, 7,
and 9 p.m., to conclude the festival.
All of the programs will be diffferent
and each will be of equal quality.
Among the highlights of the festival
will be two feature-length films.
German artist Werner Nekes'
"Ulyssess" is a narrative based on
James Joyce, Homer and "The
Warp", by Neil Oram. Also entered
from Germany is Dore O's "En-
zyklop." Both are experimental films
and both are entered with the help of
Ann Arbor's Goethe House, which
promotes the best of recent German
culture and arts.
There will be special performances
as well. Men Working will present a
conceptual performance piece on
Thursday, and an experimental rock
and roll band, GKW, will perform on
Friday. Saturday, the J. Parker
Copley Dance Company will be on
nand.
Heres More
The Thread
of Life
Richard Wollheim
"Richard Wollheim has written a highly
original book... one of those rare works
that extend the limits of philosophical
analysis.'
$8.95 -New York Review of Books
Object Conversation, a ten-minute color film, is described as a kinetic animation which combines elements of
words, objects, drawings, and sounds to form a fast-paced cinematic conversation. Object is one of the many
films that will be shown during the festival.
Art Museum
fetes fortieth
By Arona Pearlstein
" Adevice for the furtherance of
£L7teaching" is how Jean-Paul
Slusser described the fuction of a
university art museum. Slusser, who
wrote those words in 1909 when he was
Acting Director of the University
Musuem of Art, described a univer-
sity art museum's chief merit as
"...the aptness with which it is able to
supply concrete illustrations for the
processes and developments
discussed in studio and lecture hall."
These thoughts and a collection of
photos, memorabilia, posters, and
other nostalgic material fill the
University Museum of Art's 40th An-
niversary Exhibition. The exhibition.
follows the museum's history from
the time the building itself was simply
the Alumni Memorial Hall to its even-
tual establishment as a museum of
art.
The Alumni Memorial Hall was
built between 1907 and 1910. It housed
sculpture on the first floor, paintings
on the second floor, a faculty club in
the basement, and classrooms and of-
fices for the Department of Fine Arts.
Several photos from this period
show the first floor as a mini-
Pantheon where classical sculpture
virtually dominates. Professor Henry
Frieze, a classical scholar, had
brought many replicas of classical
sculpture to the museum from his
travels.
A poster designed by William Cald-
well Titcomb for the opening of the
building in May 1910 shows an elegant
Art Deco rendering of a peacock. The
poster, an advertisement for an
exhibition of American and Oriental
art, typifies the drawing style of the
time at its most charming.
In 1946 the University Museum of
Art and Archeology was split as an
administrative unit, and the Univer-
sity Museum of Archeology was
moved to Newberry Hall. The Univer-
sity Museum of Art occupied only por-
tions of the Alumni Hall and lacked
basic equipment such as standard size
frames and secure display cases The
University Museum of Art did not fully
occupy the building until 1967-68.
The exhibition itself is small and
pleasant. It details photographs of in-
teresting events such as the in-
stallation of Charles Ginnever 's
"Daedalus", the large black sculp-
ture in front of the museum. The
sculpture was a 30th birthday present
from the Friends of the Museum and
it raised much controversy as to its
aesthetic value.
Possibly the best way to celebrate
the museum's 40th birthday is simply
to wander among the different works
of art. Look at the small collection of
medieval art on the first floor or climb
up the lovely staircase to the second
floor where modern works await
curious eyes.
The exhibition runs through Mar-
ch 29.
Contemplating
Music
Challenges to Musicology
Joseph Kerman
"Nothing less than a Who's Who of
musicology, and a What's What of
theory, analysis, and musical
philosoph"
Hills sets to warm A
$7.95
- Brich Leinsdore,
New York Times Book Review
By Joseph Kraus
There's something to be said for the
middle.
Anne Hills has worked for the last
several years with two of folk music's
old guard: Tom Paxton and Bob Gib-
son. At the same time, though, she has
ties to a host of up and coming young
songwriters like Jon Ims, Andrew
Calhoun, and Mike Smith.
Meanwhile, she is a woman in the
midst of the strong Chicago folk scene
which seems, however uninten-
tionally, to be dominated by men.
Cashing in on her in-betweeness,
Hills has carved a distinct niche by
performing contemporary folk songs
in a stunning voice with intelligent
back-up musicians.
Experimenting with country, blues,
and jazz techniques, she brings a
fresh vision to many of the finest folk
songs being written today.
In particular, her version of Jon
Ims' "Two of a Kind" on her last
album, Don't Explain is one of the
finest single folk cuts of last year. The
song, a beautiful ode. to travelling late
at night, seems tailor made for Hills
who gives it a double-edged treatment
of loneliness and consolation.
Her version of Paxton's "Johnson"
is a powerful updating of the song
about a coal miner's widow. For all
his past success, Paxton sometimes
seems on the verge of irrelevance, but
a spirited interpretation of his
material, such as Hill's, is exactly
what his career needs.
Hills plays at The Ark tonight at 8
p.m. Tickets are $6, $5 for members or
students and are available at the door.
Herbert Blomstedt, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony,
conducts his world famous orchestra tonight at Hill Auditorium at 8 p.m.
The
Culture of Time
and Space,
1880-1918
Stephen Kern
"No brief summary can do justice to the
riches and range of this exciting book .."
-London Review
$8.95 of Books
Gender Politics
Ethel Klein
"This book is critical for understanding
women's changing role in the political
process.
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