Freep Film Festival 2023 Sunday highlights: Detroit's churches, AAPI series and more
The final day of the Freep Film Festival includes two more films in the Asian American Pacific Islander series, a set of short films that examine the divisions in our society, documentaries about Detroit's churches and a Detroit native who made a mark on the New York arts scene in the 1980s.
Find information on tickets, Sunday's schedule and films to stream at home at freepfestival.com.
'Shorts #3: Divided We Fall'
Whether we’re arguing over media bias, fighting for a favorite politician or battling over social injustices, it often feels as if America — indeed the world — is a nearly constant state of conflict. And it seems the friction has only risen in recent years. These shorts explore how we’ve reached a place of strife and disunity and what it feels like to live amidst the tumult.
After the films: Nancy Kaffer, Free Press editorial page editor, talks with the filmmakers.
2 p.m. Sunday, Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts
More: Freep Film Festival opens with screening of documentary 'Coldwater Kitchen'
More: Best Photos from the 2023 Freep Film Festival
'Wisdom Gone Wild'
In a reflection on mortality and transformation, Rea Tajiri partners with her mother, Rose Tajiri Noda, to create a film about the final 16 years of Rose’s life as a person living with dementia. Together, they nurture their connection through listening, art and music. Rose performs songs from her youth, providing the soundtrack for time travel, as we witness her evolution across nine decades of living. Weaving between past and present, parenting and being parented, “Wisdom Gone Wild” reflects on the unreliability of memory and the desire to reinvent one’s own life when memories fail us.
After the film: Detroit-based documentary filmmaker and producer Razi Jafri talks with director Rea Tajiri in a prerecorded conversation.
Noon Sunday, Detroit Historical Museum
Detroit: The City of Churches
Detroit, at one time, had more churches per square mile than any other city in the country, serving a population of multiple nationalities and many faiths. Through interviews with 17 different spiritual leaders of some of Detroit’s most historic churches, viewers of “Detroit: The City of Churches” can gain a deeper understanding of the role spirituality plays in Detroit’s rich, diverse history.
After the film: Neal Rubin, a columnist at the Detroit Free Press, talks with director Keith Famie.
2 p.m. Sunday, Michigan Science Center (IMAX)
'Make Me Famous'
An investigation into the life and death(?) of Detroit-born artist, Edward Brezinski, a charismatic Lower East Side painter on the fringe of success, who thwarted his career with antics that roiled NYC's art elite. This madcap romp starts in Detroit as the filmmakers investigate what happened to Brezinksi, who changed his name from Brzezinski after moving to New York. The trail takes them to the South of France in an intimate look at the art world's attitude towards success and failure, fame and fortune, notoriety and erasure. Michigan premiere.
After the film: Kathy Kieliszewski, Freep Film Festival artistic director, talks with filmmakers Brian Vincent and Heather Spore.
3 p.m. Sunday, Michigan Science Center
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Freep Film Fest Sunday highlights: Detroit's churches, AAPI series
