Independent Film Festival Ypsilanti Returns With a Full Slate
When Martin Thoburn and Donald Harrison launched the Independent Film Festival Ypsilanti (iFFY) in 2020, they offered cinema fans socially distanced, drive-in-style screenings and a momentary reprieve from the pandemic, which had shuttered movie theaters across the country.
Three years later—and one year after finding a new home at the Riverside Arts Center—iFFY is solidifying its spot on the local film scene with an ambitious scope and schedule, running April 19-23.
"There's also double the amount of programming. An extra day-and-a-half," said Micah Vanderhoof, iFFY operations manager and a University of Michigan alum with a bachelor's degree in screen arts and cultures who previously worked as a programmer for the Portland International Film Festival.
"Michigan-ish," a competitive program of a dozen short films produced in and around the region, kicks off the fest on Wednesday, April 19 at 7:30 pm, followed by an after-party at Ziggy's featuring DJ sets and decorations by House of Jealous Lovers.
For his "Michigan-ish" entry, Saline's Mike Ambs offers an atmospheric and elegant single-shot short, Falling Forward Into an Unknown and Dangerous Future, inspired by the 2022 conversation between two Google employees and a seemingly sentient AI. Ambs used the transcript from the AI's side of the conversation for his film, which questions the impact of artificial intelligence on society.
Ambs has used AI to help streamline the film-production process and said, "It has been helpful," but his tone becomes concerned when pondering the world his young daughter will grow up in. He thinks the public has the potential to be profoundly affected by AI and should also have a say in the implementation of the emerging technology.
"I just don't think these decisions should be happening behind closed doors at companies who have the potential for tremendous profit to grab hold of by being the first and the fastest," Ambs said. He cites the rushed release of Chat GPT-4 and the revelation Microsoft recently laid off the company's entire AI Ethics and Society team as potentially problematic as we continue to fall forward into that Unknown and Dangerous Future.
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