Avant-Garde and Proud: Ann Arbor Film Festival Celebrates 25 Years of Out Night
How two Ann Arbor advocates built a lasting queer film tradition
Long before queer stories found a home on streaming platforms, the Ann Arbor Film Festival was screening them. Its 64th edition runs March 24-29, and this year brings a landmark: the 25th anniversary of Out Night, the festival's dedicated LGBTQ+ program.
The festival, the oldest experimental film competition in the world, has served as an early launchpad for filmmakers including George Lucas, Brian De Palma and lesbian experimental cinema pioneer Barbara Hammer. Films that win certain awards become eligible for Oscar nominations, making it one of the few Academy Award-qualifying festivals in the country.
Pioneering LGBTQ+ advocates Keith Orr and his husband Martin Contreras have been part of Out Night since the beginning, when it was called Girls Out Night. Former owners of venerable Ann Arbor gay bar Aut, the pair sponsor the Aut Film Award for best LGBTQ+ film.
Contreras said the original Out Night was the brainchild of former executive director Chrisstina Hamilton, who invited them to help get it off the ground. They recruited several members of the gay business community to raise money.
"Every director since has been really committed to making Out Night an important part of the festival," Orr told Pride Source. "By doing that, it means we're able to introduce a community to it that otherwise might not go to the film festival."
Now retired, Orr and Contreras are focused on making sure the Aut Film award outlasts them. They started an endowment in 2019 after selling the Aut Bar and reached their goal of $15,000 this year to fund the annual award. Thanks to the endowment, Orr said, the award will continue in perpetuity.
"We would put in money when we could," Orr said. "We would get on stage and ask people to donate. We started telling our family members in lieu of gifts for Christmas and birthdays to send a check to the film festival instead."
A special program on Sunday, March 29 celebrates the anniversary with a retrospective curated by Abigail Knox, who wrote her Columbia College thesis on LGBTQ+ experimental film. The program revisits six past award-winning films, including works by Deborah Strutt, Kristin Pepe, Monica Tullia Nolan and Barbara Hammer.
Thursday's Out Night competition features new work exploring identity, family expectations, chosen community, aging and grief. Highlights across the week include "Barbara Forever," Brydie O'Connor's documentary portrait of Barbara Hammer; "Adam's Apple," a documentary focused on a young adult trans person; and "TheyDream," a Sundance award-winning animated feature about family, loss and coming out.
Sunday's program also includes "Tank Fairy," a Frameline and SXSW award-winning short directed by Erich Rettstadt about a lonely young dreamer who gets a visit from a glittery, gas-delivering fairy godmother.
"The films that are submitted always speak to the times we live in," Contreras said. "The films recently all speak to the attack on the trans community — and rightfully so — bringing attention to gender fluidity."
Festival director Leslie Raymond, who has led the organization since 2013, said LGBTQ+ perspectives aren't limited to Out Night.
"We make sure there's representation across the other 12 shorts in competition programs," Raymond said. "What we don't want to do is sequester it off and say 'this is different.'"
Orr said the Aut Film award has created a lasting legacy in experimental film because no other festival focuses specifically on experimental LGBTQ+ work.
For Orr, though, that legacy is about more than funding.
"Nobody's getting rich in experimental film. Most are artists with a commitment to what they're doing. Whatever happens in the experimental world eventually becomes a part of our larger world."
Visit aafilmfest.org for the complete schedule and detailed information.
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