AAFF kicks off tonight! Go to the Michigan Theater at 7 p.m. for the opening reception or check out this evening's other showings at 8 and 9 p.m. Every day is a different program at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. michigandaily.com /arts ARTS 0 TUESDAY: MARCH 13, 2001 Ann Arbor Film Fest to showcase filmmakers from around the world Dick gets:- sick in MTV vanety show By Rohith Thumati Daily Arts Writer MTV's core audience must be dying for more "comedy" in the vein of "The Tom Green Show; or Andy Dick would never have gotten on the air "The Andy Dick Show" is like a horrible wreck or B3y Lyle Henretty Daily Film Editor Attending this week's 39th Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival at The Michigan Theater will be a revitalizing experience for those who decry the current state of world cinema. The experimental festival, the oldest one in America to showcase 16-millimeter films, draws talent from Ann Arbor to Australia and boasts an array of visual tech- niques and styles, ranging from animation to cin- ema verite to narrative to documentary. The screenings begin Tuesday night and continue through Saturday, ranging from two to five shows on any given evening. The festival's $16,000 in prize money will be handed out to the winners on Sunday, and the winning entries will be screened that evening. Past winners include Gus Van Sant, Brian DePalma, Agnes Varda and George Lucas. Tickets are seven dollars for individual shows and $50 for a weeklong pass. "I encourage people go to as much as they can, because [each film] is Only shown once' suggests Vicki Honeyman, who is directing the festival for the 14th year. Honeyman is expecting around 5,000 attendants from across the country, and strives to maintain 'heindependent flavor of the festival. "My goal is to prevent it from becoming way off base from what it intended to be" The main 16-millimeter entries are the only films competing for awards, and will be screened on The Michigan Theater's main screen. This year the festival will also be utilizing the theater's 'smaller screening room for special "sidebar" pro- grams. Sidebar programs include films that are shown as part of a theme, such as a gay-themed or a relationships-themed evenings. There will also be a virtual reality program in The Michigan Theater's main lobby. The festival was started in 1963 by University School of Art filmmaker and artist George Manupelli. Manupelli's vision was to create a fes- tival for those who saw film as an art form, and give them a forum to express their ideas without the conformity of categories, censorship, or "media tastemakers." In 1980, the festival broke away from the University and became an inde- pendent entity, a not-for-profit organization that not only has headquarters in Ann Arbor, but also sponsors a tour of the winning films, taking them across the country. The festival gets larger every year, and saw a particular jump in the number of film submis- sions this year, the first time entries were allowed to be submitted via videotape. There were several more entries from Michigan this year, including the ten that won admission. While two of these films are from Ann Arbor, Honeyman assures that there is no student category, as AAFF is "not an amateur festival." While other media is being explored this year ("Because it exists," says Honeyman), the main focus is, as it has always been 16mm films. Most of the filmmakers agree that this is an important part of the festival." I love the image quality of the film. The texture, grain, saturation, details in shadow areas are still superior to video,' says Jay Rosenblatt, a California filmmaker who has two Peter Miller's "The Internationale" brings communists and capitalists together through song. of his films, "Nine Lives (The Eternal Moment of Now)" and "Worm" competing in this years fes- tival. Roach, a veteran of the film-festival circuit and past winner in Ann Arbor, feels that film shorts allows for an important exercise of creative prowess. "I believe in minimalism. Less is more. If you overstate something you actually diminish its power. I try to find a form that best suits the content." Artist Maria Vasilkovsky, who brings her short animated feature "Fur & Feathers" to the festival this year, agrees with the importance of form and content. This is Vasilkovsky's first endeavor into painting on glass, a tedious process that took her over two years to produce her stylish five minute short. The film meditates on love and passion between two seemingly opposite personalities, showing the two individuals flawlessly morphing into different shapes and ideas. "Firstly I was not confident that I could realize my storyboard in this unfamiliar medium;' Vasilkovsky told The Daily. "Soon after I started, however, it was clear that my only true concern should be the content of my message: what it is I'm trying to say and how interesting it is. As long as the concept was pre- sent, its realization was wishes coming true" The festival is often a vehicle for conflicting ideas and emotions, both of the filmmakers and their subjects. While New York's Dean Kapsalis' "Jigsaw Venus" invests the viewer in the lonely life of refreshingly normal looking naked people, British filmmaker Suzie Templeton's "Stanley" shows an animated man's deadly obsession with his cabbage. Two striking documentaries, Peter Miller's "The Internationale" and Elida Schogt's "The Walnut Tree" show how beautiful and terri- fying history can be, on both a worldly and deeply personal level. "Two colliding worlds," suggests Schogt. "This is how 'The Walnut Tree' is struc- tured in terms of both image and text. There is a constant movement between facts and history (the tangible) on one hand and emotions and memory (the abstract) on the other." "The Internationale" tells the absorbing history of how one song can represent both freedom and oppres- sion, sometimes at the exact same time. The festival brings this emotion to the masses, and many artists are given a chance to showcase their work for the first time. So if you are inter- ested in seeing the next Lucas, Van Sant, or DePalma, the Ann Arbor Film Festival can be a once-in-a-lifetime event. The Andy Dick Show MTV Tonight at 10:30 p.m. the freeway: You don't want to slow down and look, but you can't help but stare at the carnage. The funny thing is that Andy Dick just ma> a better Tom Green than Green himself, as he showed in a segment during the first episode. Done up as Green, replete with a wig and fake mustache, Dick proceeded to harass people coming out of a grocery store, and even smashed the guitar of a guy playing it outside of the store. Andy Dick does possess some comic ability, which was proven during the run of "NewsRadio," but letting him do what he does unrestrain s a very, very scary sight indeed. Witness the las seg- ment of the first episode: A mock-"Making of the Video," with Dick, who writes, directs, and pro- duces the whole show, playing "Daphne Aguilera," Christina Aguilera's "cousin." There are some bright spots, but the song and the video, "Naughty Baby Did A No-No" (a parody of Britney Spears' "Hit Me Baby One More Time") prove that some- See DICK, Pa10 SLip4 Cai 41t/1 1 nia ml) Michiia AZ - - -- - - -- EP - - Alumni Association of the University of Michigan Working at the University of Michigan Alumni camp is a rewarding and exciting opportunity. Since 1961, Camp Michigania has been a treasured experience for thousands of alumni and their families. Those who serve as staff members have countless opportunities for personal and professional growth. Work in specialized program areas: WEGOT THIS ART5. GAME ON LOCK;, PLAYER6 CALLF. W 'NYO LEARN 1HOWTO BALL. - . [Account Executive By Shannon O'Sullivan D~aily Arts Writer Fast-paced news action drives 'Page' Feeding off the corrupted, gritty, tacky, sweaty reality of the press, "The Front Page" remains a timeless Arts and Crafts Ropes Course Teen Program Archery Riflery Tennis Ceramics Sailing Child Care Field Sports Store Swimming If you are interested in sharing your knowledge and skills with adults and children of all ages, and want to have one of the best summers of your life... Come to the Summer Job Fair!!! Wednesday March 14, 2001 @ UM Union 12:00 - 4:00 PM email: michigania@umich.edu, phone: 231-582-9191 G01 I - of the Week Jennifer Kaczmarek Sponsored by the Ann Arbor Comed showcase The Front Page Ann Arbor Civic Theater Through March 18 stories intertwine classic of American the- ater. Anything but simple and sweet, "The Front Page" takes audiences back to a 1920s Chicago press room, where journalists are covering a jail- break, an execu- tion, a political scandal and a shooting. All and connect, and the original fast-paced ideal of the show. When the film "His Girl. Friday," which is based on "The Front Page," came out, it was known for some of the most fast-paced scenes ever designed for film. Bugala structures this production in a similar manner with actors speaking extremely quickly and overlapping one another's lines. With the extremely fast-paced discourse, one *might have thought they were at an auction. Likewise, the actors running and jumping around the pressroom resemble a whirlwind. After adjust- ing to the fast tempo, however, one gets caught up into the world of the pressroom, and even finds that the extreme pacing brings out tension, humor and overall craziness of the play. Earl Williams, Bolshevik and accused murderer of a cop, is the man on everyone's mind, as he is awaiting his execution outside the window of the pressroom. The excla- mations of his escape on the eve of conviction makes each journalist jump up and run from their guitar or their poker game out onto the streets, amazingly enough, all take place within the pressroom, down the hall, or outside the window. Originally written in 1928 by comics Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, Ann Arbor Civic Theater Director Glenn Bugala exemplifies 4m I .-amwm--- SgraphI e icnajr I it I S time Are you interested in making ads that will be seen in print as a way to make money, gain experience, and build a portfolio??! Call 764.0556 ask for Susan or Dana for details -® or stop by the Student Publications Building The Office of New Student Programs is now recruiting Fall and International Orientation Leaders ONSP is looking for motivated undergraduate students to help facilitate the Fall and International Orientation Programs. Leader duties will include running check-in and registration, facilitating an informational meeting, leading a walking tour, participating in social activities, and assisting in class registration.k Pay: $65/day, $32.50/half-day (shifts vary). International Orientation Training: Thursday, August 23rd Program: August 24th - August 28th Fall Orientation Training: Monday, August 27th courtesy o Glenn Bugal Walter (Charles Sutherland) stands over Hildy (Carl Hanna) in "The Front Page." as they are all competing for the lat est news. After retrieving differen sides of the stories, each journalist i off racing once again to the ss room phones to relay their ates news. The lazy pressroom scene makes complete transition to hysteria at th slightest announcement of a news grabbing event. Within, yet straying from the cyni cal race for the latest, star reporte Hildy Johnson begins the play wit the announcement of his reti en of the press and his new joblK hi fiancee's uncle's business in Ne York. Delaying his departure to mee Peggy, his fiancee, at the train statio at least five times, Peggy and he mother add to the hysteria of th newsroom by showing up in sears for Hildy. It was obvious fron th get-go that the pressroom would nc be the same without Hildy's old-fash ioned attitude and wisecracks. Hi love and desire to get the bes fron page story possible takes t incredible lengths, like hiding Ear Williams in a pressroom desk, an keeping such news from his fellov newsmen. The action of "The Front .Page, echoed with gunshots, shouting an< the fast-paced movement, is also dis played in the characters themselves Sheriff Hartman comes off as..a car toon character, with his bugg yes big glasses, and wide mouth thus his interior character of a complet idiot is depicted in his outsid, appearance. In fact,eeverything ii this world seems to be corrupt sym bolized by the handcuffing of chic editor, Walter Burns, and the sta 'I 'I 3 and get an application from the Production Department. Now hiring for Fall/Winter terms 2001-2002.