The Ann Arbor Film Festival, in partnership with Third Mind Books, continues its monthly screening series AAFF Presents with Field Trip, Short Films by Jack Cronin on Tuesday, July 11 at 7pm at Third Mind Books (118 E. Washington Street, Ann Arbor). This screening will be FREE of charge to everyone (the remainder of AAFF Presents is ticketed but free for AAFF and Michigan Theater Foundation members).
Jack Cronin is a Detroit-based artist, filmmaker, and educator. This program contains eight of his short films that he created, he said, “to convey an affection for the strangeness and wonder of the landscape around us.” These films use both representational and abstracted images to suggest the subjectivity of place and invite the viewer to meditate on the natural and constructed world. Cronin will participate in a Q&A following the screening.
The eight short films by Cronin in the program, with descriptions by the filmmaker, are:
Island, Isle Royale National Park, MI, 2023, 2.5 minutes
A filmic postcard from Isle Royale National Park.
Invisible City, Detroit, MI, 2006, 11 minutes
Invisible City was filmed in Detroit between 2002 and 2005. Inspired by Italo Calvino’s Le città invisibili, in which the Italian author suggests that what constitutes a city is not so much its physical structure but the impression it makes upon its visitors. The film is loosely organized into four segments representing spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Sleeping Bear, Empire, MI, 2010, 11 minutes
Sleeping Bear was filmed at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in northern Michigan over the course of three years. The film, which loosely follows the cycle of seasons, is a study of the landscape and an attempt to represent the unique character of this region.
Rivergarden, Ann Arbor, MI, 2013, 10 minutes
Rivergarden explores the river as a place of spectacle and reverie. Filmed along the Huron River and Malletts Creek in Ann Arbor and Dexter, Michigan, the film incorporates images of light and moving water as well as the filmmaker’s children.
Pictured Rocks, Munising, MI, 2019, 8 minutes 40 seconds
With a perspective both granular and cosmic, this immersive tone poem captures the ebb and flow of seasons along Michigan’s Upper Peninsula lakeshore.
Mirage, Las Vegas, NV, 2019, 6 minutes 20 seconds
A study of Las Vegas and the Red Rock Canyon through dense, lyrical, fantastical images.
The Wind That Held Us Here, Leamington, ON, 2021, 6 minutes 25 seconds
During their annual migration to Mexico, thousands of Monarch butterflies funnel into Point Pelee National Park in Leamington, Ontario, where they wait for calm weather to allow them to fly across Lake Erie. The Wind That Held Us Here is a visual expression of the fleeting wind and ever passing time.
Communion, Cranbrook Gardens, MI, 2023, 2.5 minutes
A micro investigation of the communion between bees and flowers.
AAFF Presents continues at the State Theatre with the following films selected from the recently concluded 61st Ann Arbor Film Festival:
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August 8, Huahua’s Dazzling World and its Myriad Temptations, Daphne Xu (China)
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September 12, Adieu Sauvage, Sergio Guataquira Sarmiento (Colombia)
Winner, Best Documentary, 61st Ann Arbor Film Festival
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October 10, Kapr Code, Lucie Králová (Czech Republic)
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November 14, Berbu – The Wedding Parade, Sevinaz Evdike (Syrian Arab Republic)
For more information about AAFF Presents, please visit the AAFF Presents webpage. For more information about Third Mind Books, please visit thirdmindbooks.com.
About the Ann Arbor Film Festival
Founded in 1963, the Ann Arbor Film Festival is the oldest independent and experimental film festival in North America and is internationally recognized as a premier forum for film as an art form. For the 61st Festival, AAFF received 2,743 film submissions from 95 countries and serves as one of a handful of Academy Award–qualifying festivals in the United States. The AAFF is a pioneer of the traveling film festival tour, and each year AAFF touring programs are presented in dozens of theaters, universities, museums, and micro cinemas around the world.
aafilmfest.org | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Vimeo.
About Third Mind Books
Named after the book by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, Third Mind Books specializes in works by and about the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance. Curated by Arthur S. Nusbaum to provide an antiquarian bookselling source of paramount legitimacy to enthusiasts, collectors, and scholars, Third Mind Books also offers items from the Modernist, “New York School” and “Black Mountain” canons, along essential rarities from other notable movements and more recent publications of notable authors and philosophers. Third Mind Books is located at 118 E. Washington Street, Ann Arbor.
Major AAFF Partners and Foundation Support
AAFF gratefully acknowledges funding from and partnerships with the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, which encourages, initiates, and facilitates an enriched artistic cultural and creative environment in Michigan; the National Endowment for the Arts, an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation; the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan, which creates permanent, positive change in southeast Michigan through thoughtful philanthropy; Destination Ann Arbor, which enhances the economy of the Ann Arbor area, and Washtenaw County in general, through the promotion of the area as a destination for day and overnight visitors; Root | Circ, a double event venue that honors the beauty of the past while staying connected to the present; the University of Michigan Stamps School of Art & Design, a place for students to form an innovative, friendly community and apply their creative skills to solve global issues; and Wana Brands, a grassroots, woman-owned business committed to enriching the communities they serve.
