The 49th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival is an epic celebration of experimental media that runs for six days on March 22-27. There’s so much great stuff screening this year, it makes one wonder what they’ll have left for their 50th anniversary next year!

A couple of the highlights include the highly anticipated feature-length documentary The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye by Marie Losier, which chronicles the pandrogynous love story between industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge and his late wife. The film already made a big splash at the Berlinale earlier in the year and looks to be a major hit on the festival circuit this year.

Also not to be missed is a special retrospective of one of this year’s festival jury members, Vanessa Renwick, a longtime favorite on the Underground Film Journal. Renwick will screen 10 of her quirky and artistic documentary portraits, including the autobiographical Crowdog, the artist profile Richart and other classics such as The Yodeling Lesson, 9 is a secret and the unsettling Britton, South Dakota.

Renwick’s fellow jurors, Rebecca Meyers and Stephen Connolly, will also have dedicated screenings.

Some other festival highlights include Sam Green‘s “live documentary” slideshow and narration project Utopia in Four Movements; plus, a retrospective of his short documentaries. There’s also a retrospective of the role-playing videos of partners Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby; the 10-years-in-the-making animated film Midori-Ko by Keita Kurosaka; a trio of live multimedia performances by electronic artist collective Telcosystems; an afternoon of student films; and a night of short films written about in the new book Radical Light, about San Francisco’s found footage film movement, including films by Bruce Conner, Greta Snider, Michael Wallin and Julie Murray.

Plus, there are several panel discussions, midnight movies Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch and Daft Punk’s Electroma, and a morning family films screening. And there’s a new 16mm print of Stan Brakhage‘s 1997 film Yggdrasill: Whose Roots Are Stars in the Human Mind.

Lastly, tons of Underground Film Journal faves have films in the fest, including Deborah Stratman, Kent Lambert, Bryan Boyce, Matt McCormick, Laida Lerxtundi, Jodie Mack, Lewis Klahr, Ben Russell and more.

Below is the full festival lineup. However, for more info, please visit the official Ann Arbor Film Festival website, which has tons of great information on all films screening.

March 22

8:15 p.m.: “Opening Night Screening”
Ray’s Birds, dir. Deborah Stratman
Il Capo, dir. Yuri Ancarani
Schlaf (Sleep), dir. Claudius Gentinetta, Frank Braun
House Bunny, dir. Gina Kamentsky
Grandpa’s Wet Dream, dir. Chihiro Amemiya
Sharp Edge Blunt, dir. Leighton Pierce
The Florestine Collection, dir. Helen Hill, Paul Gailiunas

March 23

12:30 p.m.: “Juror Presentation: Vanessa Renwick” (All films directed by Renwick)
Toxic Shock
Britton, South Dakota
Crowdog
The Yodeling Lesson
Richart
9 is a secret
Portrait #1: Cascadia Terminal
Portrait #2: Trojan
Woodswoman
Mighty Tacoma

3:00 p.m.: “Student Film Showcase”
Protocol of a Person, dir. Walter Lowe III
Three Pilots, dir. Phillip Leaman
White Box, dir. Zachary Blosser
Couch, dir. Aaron Brown
Perception, dir. Andrew Reaume
Humane Society, dir. Zeke Burhans
Motorcycles, Travel & Family, dir. Jordan Zielke
Paint, dir. Chad Dougherty
Untitled, dir. John Inwood
Feedback, dir. Jamie Surgener
It Was Romance, dir. Brian Carbine, Zachary Blosser
Eli Dayton, dir. Stewart Smith
Vismic Rhythm, dir. Steve Smith

5:00 p.m.: “Amplitude & Scale: Music Videos”
LASTED (Benoit Pioulard), dir. Josh Lowman, Rinee Shah
Classically Trained (Clavius Crates ft. Silas Green), dir. Peter Dean
Choke, dir. Michelle Latimer
Ah! (Oval), dir. Darko Dragicevic
Kill Your Co-Workers (Flying Lotus), dir. Mike Winkelmann
Snow Globe (Roommate), dir. Kent Lambert
The Ghost Inside (Broken Bells), dir. Bryan Boyce, Matt McCormick
I Say Fever (Ramona Falls), dir. Stefan Nadelman
We’re Mostly Made of Water (Kid Sam), dir. Sherwin Akbarzadeh
Red Ford Radio (U.S. Girls), dir. Jacqueline Castel, Preston Spurlock

7:00 p.m.: “Sonic Acts: Modulating the Human Sensory Apparatus”
Space-Modulation, dir. Bart Vegter
Opus 3, dir. Pierre Hébert
Black & Light, dir. Pierre Rovere
Razor Blades, dir. Paul Sharits
Dresden Dynamo, dir. Lis Rhodes
Feld (Granular-Synthesis, dir. Kurt Hentschlager & Ulf Langheinrich)
Parties visible et invisible d’un ensemble sous tension, dir. Emmanuel LeFrant
Careless Reef Part 3, dir. Gerard Holthuis, dir.

7:15 p.m.: “Love’s Secret Domain”
V Našich Kinech Uvidíte (Coming To This Theater), dir. Ryusuke Ito
Four Seasons, dir. Keren Cytter
Hand Soap, dir. Kei Oyama
Tears Cannot Restore Her, Therefore I Weep, dir. Jennifer Reeder
Turkish Delight, dir. Basma Alsharif
Home Movie, dir. Braden King
These Hammers Don’t Hurt Us, dir. Michael Robinson
(If I Can Sing a Song About) Ligatures, dir. Abigail Child

9:15 p.m.: “Heaps, Layers, Curls”
Hepworth, dir. Alexis Bravos
Place for Landing, dir. Shambhavi Kaul
Ghost Algebra, dir. Janie Geiser
Little Brother, dir. Callum Cooper
Cry When it Happens (Llora Cuando Te Pase), dir. Laida Lertxundi
Drifter, dir. Timoleon Wilkins
New Year Sun, dir. Jonathan Schwartz

9:30 p.m.: The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, dir. Marie Losier. A portrait of industrial music pioneer Genesis P-Orridge and his late wife, Lady Jaye, who subjected themselves to an art project in which they attempted to become a singular pandrogenous entity, Breyer P-Orridge.

March 24

12:30 p.m.: “Juror Presenation: Stephen Connolly” (All films directed by Connolly)
the reading room
Film for Tom
The Whale
Great American Desert
Más Se Perdió (we lost more)
Two Coronations

3:15 p.m.: “New Directions in Documentary: Panel 1”
Free panel discussion.

5:00 p.m.: Utopia in Four Movements, dir. Sam Green. A “live documentary” performance detailing man’s attempts to build perfect societies, including the development of a language to end all war, a portrait of an American exile in Cuba and a massive mall in China.

7:00 p.m.: Ben Rivers: “Slow Action” (A trilogy of films by Rivers)
Ah, Liberty!
I Know Where I’m Going
Slow Action

7:15 p.m.: “Out Night: LGBT Films”
For the Lucky and the Strong, dir. Kim Sheppard
Last Address, dir. Ira Sachs
Fish Fillet, dir. Hae Ran Kim
Olivia, dir. Sarah Louise Wilson
Fredagsbarn (Friday’s Child), dir. Tom Kietz
Figs in Motion, dir. aAron Munson, Trevor Anderson
The Armoire, dir. Jamie Travis
Covered, dir. John Greyson

9:15 p.m.: “Always Elsewhere”
You Can See The Sun In Late December, dir. Sasha Waters Freyer
Immokalee, My Home, dir. Kevin T. Allen, Jen Heuson
Castaic Lake, dir. Brigid McCaffrey
Forsaken, dir. James Sansing
While You Were Sleeping, dir. Mary Helena Clark

9:30 p.m.: Telcosystems: “Live Multimedia Performance”
Scape_Time (Telcosystems, 2006)
LOUDTHINGS (Telcosystems, 2008)
Mortals Electric (Telcosystems, 2008-11)

March 25

12:30 p.m.: “Juror Presentation: Rebecca Meyers” (All films directed by Meyers)
glow in the dark (january-june)
things we want to see
lions and tigers and bears
night side
blue mantle

3:00 p.m.: “Wang Bing: Artist Talk”
Skype conversation with Wang Bing, a leading artist of the new Chinese documentary movement.

5:00 p.m.: “New Directions in Documentary: Panel 2”
Free panel discussion.

7:00 p.m.: Midori-Ko, dir. Keita Kurosaka. In this animated feature, a female scientist discovers a mysterious creature that looks like a plant, but behaves like an animal.

7:15 p.m.: “Vanishing (Remaining)”
Anne Truitt, Working, dir. Jem Cohen
Rayning, dir. Robert Todd
Broad Channel, dir. Sarah J. Christman
Artifact #1, dir. Doug Goodwin
Get Out of the Car, dir. Thom Andersen

9:15 p.m.: “Duke & Battersby Retrospective” (All films directed by Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby)
Being Fucked Up
Songs of Praise for the Heart Beyond Cure
Beauty Plus Pity
Lesser Apes

9:30 p.m.: “Animated Splendor”
FRAMES, dir. Martin Thoburn, Matti Adoma
The Undertaker & The Dog, dir. Shin Hashimoto
A Family Portrait, dir. Joseph Pierce
Coalition of the Willing, dir. Knife Party
Bedtime Story, dir. Ben Bruhmuller
The Eagleman Stag, dir. Mikey Please
LGFUAD, dir. Kelsey Stark
THE EXTERNAL WORLD, dir. David OReilly
Post-Haste Perennial Pattern, dir. Jodie Mack
Victoria, George, Edward & Thatcher, dir. Callum Cooper
Heliotropes, dir. Michael Langan
The Wonder Hospital, dir. Beomsik Shimbe Shim

11:59 p.m.: Daft Punk’s Electroma, dir. Daft Punk. Two robots go on a road trip in order to find their humanity.

March 26

11:15 a.m.: “Safe As Milk (Ages 6+)”
Playtime, dir. Steven Woloshen
The Death of an Insect (Erään hyönteisen tuho), dir. Pekka Veikkolainen, Hannes Vartiainen
Accumulonimbus, dir. Andy Kennedy
Denmark, dir. Daniel Fickle
The Mechanism of Spring, dir. Atsushi Wada
Washes, dir. Norbert Shieh
Esterhazy, dir. Izabela Plucinska

12:00 p.m.: “Radical Light: Found Footage Films 1978-1998”
Futility, dir. Greta Snider
Noema, dir. Scott Stark
Conscious, dir. Julie Murray
Tuning the Sleeping Machine, dir. David Sherman
Thine Inward Looking Eyes, dir. Thad Povey
Valse Triste, dir. Bruce Conner
Decodings, dir. Michael Wallin

1:00 p.m.: “Time and the Other”
Woman Waiting, dir. Antoine Bourges
Non-Aryan, dir. Abraham Ravett
Aliki, dir. Richard Wiebe
Arsenic, dir. Robert Todd
Berlin Tracks 18h00-20h00, dir. Shiloh Cinquemani
Compositions in Departure, dir. Vincent Goudreau, Javier Martinez

2:00 p.m.: Disorder, dir. Huang Weikai. This documentary depicts the chaotic nature of life in the major cities in modern China.
Screening with:
The Sole of the Foot, dir. Robert Fenz

3:30 p.m.: “Waves and Particles”
…These Blazeing Starrs, dir. Deborah Stratman
Cinematographie, dir. Philipp Fleischmann
Point Line Plane (for PP), dir. Simon Payne
Compline, dir. Nathaniel Dorsky
Cosmic Alchemy, dir. Lawrence Jordan

4:30 p.m.: You Are Here, dir. Daniel Cockburn. A group of disconnected tales about people stuck in bizarre social experiments of their own making.

7:00 p.m.: Nostalgia for the Light, dir. Patricio Guzmán. This poetic documentary chronicles the devastating effect Pinochet’s regime had on Chile.
Screening with:
Yggdrasill: Whose Roots Are Stars in the Human Mind, dir. Stan Brakhage

7:15 p.m.: “Hidden Inverse”
In a Pig’s Eye, dir. Atsushi Wada
Horse Glue, dir. Stephen Irwin
I Touched Her Legs, dir. Eva Marie Rødbro
Nulepsy, dir. Jessica Sarah Rinland
A Thousand Julys, dir. Lewis Klahr
Pink, dir. Soon-Mi Yoo
Beneath Your Skin of Deep Hollow, dir. Malena Szlam
Jan Villa, dir. Natasha Mendonca

9:15 p.m.: “Sam Green Retrospective” (All films directed by Green)
Rainbow Man/John 3:16
N-Judah 5:30
Pie Fight ’69
Clear Glasses
The Fabulous Stains: Behind the Movie
lot 63, grave C

9:30 p.m.: “A Vessel Redreamt”
Atlantiques, dir. Mati Diop
Miramare, dir. Michaela Müller
Protopartículas (Protoparticles), dir. Chema García Ibarra
28.IV.81 (Descending Figures), dir. Christopher Harris
It, Heat, Hit, dir. Laure Prouvost
Trypps #7 (Badlands), dir. Ben Russell
Devil’s Gate, dir. Laura Kraning
In The Absence of Light, Darkness Prevails, dir. Fern Silva

11:59 p.m.: Dead Man, dir. Jim Jarmusch. Johnny Depp stars as an accountant in the Old West who must go on the run after committing murder.

March 27

12:00 p.m.: “What The Hell Was That?”
Guest presentations of challenging films from the 49th AAFF. UM SAC prof. Dan Herbert moderates. This is a FREE event.

1:00 p.m.: “Dream Unveiled”
Crosswalk, dir. Jeanne Liotta
Vargtimmen – After a Scene by Ingmar Bergman, dir. Georg Tiller
Make It New, John, dir. Duncan Campbell

1:30 p.m.: Psychohydrography, dir. Peter Bo Rappmund. An epic depiction of the flow of water, mountain to aqueduct, city to sea.
Screening with:
Sea Salt Flower (Fleur de sel), dir. Rose Lowder
Sun Garden (Jardin du soleil), dir. Rose Lowder
Marsh Garden (Jardins du marais), dir. Rose Lowder

2:59 p.m.: Foreign Parts, dir. J.P. Sniadecki, Véréna Paravel. A documentary profile of the automobile scrappers who live in Willets Point, Queens, NY.

3:30 p.m.: “Strange Attractors”
The Delian Mode, dir. Kara Blake
lungful lustre, dir. Becky Ip
Little Fissures, dir. Sheri Wills
Shoals, dir. Melika Bass

6:00 p.m.: “Award Program One”

8:00 p.m.: “Award Program Two”