Cultural historian and author Frank Uhle will be joined in conversation with local filmmaker/educator/historian Danny Plotnick to talk about his new book Cinema Ann Arbor. The book offers a first-hand, in-depth look at the history of film-watching and film-making in the college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan and uncovers unexpected and essential stories of the university’s film societies and the campus rebels who ran them. Uhle introduces readers to unforgettable people—nonconformists, artists and nerds, from the Weather Underground to the Velvet Underground—who composed the magnificence of Ann Arbor’s twentieth-century film scene.

Following the conversation, Uhle will present a 40-minute film program including work by Jay Cassidy (editor of American Hustle); George Manupelli (founder of the Ann Arbor Film Festival); Pat Oleszko (beloved festival performance artist); Mary Cybulski and John Tintori (she a script supervisor for Ang Lee; he the editor of Eight Men Out); Danny Plotnick (Skate Witches, and author of Super-8, an illustrated history); and Andrew Lugg (filmmaker/philosophy professor). The experimental shorts will be intercut with oddities and extras including snippets of film used to promote campus screenings, audience-created work from the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and pre-show informational reels. These works have been digitally transferred from original 16mm and 8mm prints, many for the first time, for Uhle's book tour film program.