Detroit Movie Palaces Home Page
A double feature on the opening weekend of the Detroit Film Theatre’s Winter 2013 season helped me better understand and appreciate how images are combined to create film and film-like experiences.
Archive for the ‘Documentaries’ Category
Collecting Images
Saturday, January 19th, 2013Finding Expression
Sunday, November 18th, 2012Detroit Movie Palaces Home Page
The printed word, the moving picture, the photograph, the sound of a voice—all modes of expression of reflections, feelings, observations.
Journey to Cinetopia
Saturday, June 2nd, 2012Detroit Movie Palaces Home Page
The energy of the inaugural Cinetopia International Film Festival was building to a high point at about 9 p.m. on Friday, June 1, 2012, as I listened to the final comments of Suzanne Lloyd, granddaughter of the famous silent film comedian Harold Lloyd.
Renewal
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012Detroit Movie Palaces Home Page
The 85th birthday is approaching for the Redford Theatre, the Michigan Theater, and the auditorium of the Detroit Institute of Arts that hosts the Detroit Film Theatre. All three theaters have taken on ambitious renewal projects that will make them more user-friendly, a term that probably wasn’t used when the buildings opened in 1927 and 1928.
Classic Cinema 2011
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012Detroit Movie Palaces Home Page
Many movie buffs consider 1939 to be Hollywood’s greatest year, with releases like Gone with the Wind, Stagecoach, and Wizard of Oz. But 1940 wasn’t too bad either, and in 2011, visitors to the Detroit Movie Palaces enjoyed some of the highlights of that release year.
Other Worlds
Thursday, October 6th, 2011Detroit Movie Palaces Home Page
A visit to the movies usually means about 90-120 minutes of a fictional story involving human beings playing characters other than themselves.
I took a break from that routine on Saturday, October 1, 2011, when I took in a unique double feature at the Detroit Film Theatre and the Redford Theatre. The DFT showed a gritty documentary about street life, while the Redford screened a collection of old cartoons.
Reflections on Animals
Thursday, July 14th, 2011Detroit Movie Palaces Home Page
In what were advertised as documentaries about animals, quite a bit was communicated about human beings. That was what many people took away from the screenings of Buck and Nénette at the Michigan Theater on July 11, 2011.
DFT Documentaries
Sunday, February 14th, 2010Detroit Movie Palaces Home Page
Before the screening of the documentary Mine at the Detroit Film Theatre on Feb. 6, 2010, the film’s producer, Erin Essenmacher, said that she didn’t want to say much because she wanted the movie to speak for itself.
Reeling On the River
Saturday, March 14th, 2009Detroit Movie Palaces Home Page
The first time that I heard of the Millers Creek Film Festival, it struck me as the perfect example of the Michigan Theater as a Public Access Movie Theater. Here were some local activists in the Ann Arbor area who took the initiative to create a film festival out of their special interest. And there was the Michigan, ever ready to play its role as a community meeting place.
Projections
Sunday, March 30th, 2008Detroit Movie Palaces Home Page
The blank film lay on the table in the Grand Foyer of the Michigan Theater, waiting for visitors to the 46th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival to mark up frames to produce a series of images that would later be projected on the main theater screen. A few feet away, some toy animals and a moveable projector awaited other filmgoers’ attempts at stop-motion animation.
