AA Film Festival features standout shorts aplenty
Staff Writer
NICOLE OPPER COURTESY PHOTO
The Ann Arbor Film Festival provides movie fans with some true artistic films, a refreshing escape from the blockbuster films of today’s movie industry. This year is no exception, and many of the films are must-sees.
Three of the shorts are real stand-outs.
“Missed Aches” is a clever film taken from the everyday occurrences of spell check’s imperfections. Somehow this provides fodder for a comedy short, in which the narrator’s words are constantly pronounced wrong. The images coincide with the words, all of which are very hilarious (i.e. missed aches instead of mistakes). This short is well-written and very funny.
“Photograph of Jesus” is a funny, animated documentary that shows the ridiculous circumstances people find themselves in when working at photograph archives. The story recounts various requests that people have made for pictures, most notably a photograph—not a drawing, painting or engraving, but a photograph—of Jesus.
Another beautiful short is “Sleeping Bear.” Very simple in its approach, it is black and white footage of Sleeping Bear Dunes. The footage is grainy, and the only soundtrack is the sound of continuous wind blowing. This adds to the simple beauty of the footage, which the filmmakers allow to speak for itself.
The other film which is a must-see is the feature-length documentary “Off and Running.” This film chronicles the story of an African-American who was adopted at birth by a white Jewish family. In her teens, she decides to try and find her birth family. The story follows her quest for these answers and how it affects her adopted family, while she is also struggling to become an adult.
The documentary is completely captivating. It shows the struggles that happily adopted children must go through, while being the intimate story of one family. It is alternately heartbreaking and inspiring, as the viewer watches a family struggling to stay together. The film also follows the teenager’s quest to be a runner, which provides a beautiful backdrop for the entire movie.
Ultimately, “Off and Running” is the story of a teenager’s search to find herself. This is a beautifully filmed documentary, which should definitely be watched.
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