The University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies (CJS) owns a record: It has sponsored the longest-running Japanese film series in the world.

That's not a surprise considering CJS is also one of the original Japanese studies programs in the U.S. and the oldest interdisciplinary center, founded in 1947.

While CJS records indicate the film series started in 1975, the center has screened Japanese films since the 1960s. The tradition continues in the "Winter 2026 Japanese Film Series: Comedy" at the State Theater, from January 22 to April 16. All the showings are free.

Check out trailers and descriptions of the films in CJS's winter series—plus two more films of Japanese origin that will be at the Michigan Theater as part of another ongoing series.

If you're an Ann Arbor District Library cardholder, you receive a weekly email newsletter listing news, upcoming events, and a slew of recommendations from the catalog. Those recs are also available at aadl.org/reviews, and we're always happy to make suggestions for books, audiobooks, streamable content in the catalog, DVDs, board games, tools, etc., if you visit us at the branches.

But our 2025 Staff Picks allow the AADL crew to go beyond the library catalog—and the calendar year.

We don't limit our year in review to things that came out in 2025 or items that can be checked out from AADL; the staff comments on whatever favorite media and events they experienced this year, no matter when or where they originated. Maybe a favorite album of 2025 came out in 1973, or the best book someone read this year is so old that it's out of copyright. It's all good, and it all counts.

Here are the categories of AADL's 2025 Staff Picks:

➥ AADL 2025 Staff Picks: Homepage
➥ AADL 2025 Staff Picks: Words
➥ AADL 2025 Staff Picks: Audio
➥ AADL 2025 Staff Picks: Pulp Life
 

AADL 2025 STAFF PICS: SCREENS
TV, movies, DVDs, video games, YouTube, streaming, etc.

Andrew Rogers was an improviser. Not in a strict jazz sense, but as someone who accompanied silent films without sheet music, much of what he played was composed spontaneously in response to what was happening on screen.

“The thing about doing silent films," he told Pulp in 2023 for an article about theater organs, "I’ve got the outline in my head, and I’ve got the certain themes, but how I knit it together each time I play it could be different. If I played a film for you now and then played it for you tomorrow, it wouldn’t be exactly the same.”

Rogers was the lead organist at the Michigan Theater, where he had performed since 2008 in addition to other vintage movie houses in the state and elsewhere. He died on November 13. Rodgers was 74 years old. You can read his obituary here.

There will be a memorial concert at the Michigan Theater on December 4, according to Rogers' friend Maria Calabrese, though it's not currently listed on the Marquee Arts website.

You can read Marquee Arts' lovely remembrance of Rogers here, and listen to a short remembrance of him on WEMU. (Update: MLive published a long story about Rogers on November 19.)

Below, you can watch Rogers' virtual concert at the Michigan Theater for Memorial Day 2020, and read his bio:

While the events and people who inspired Andy Kirshner’s latest film, Sex Radical, might date back more than 125 years, the University of Michigan professor and filmmaker said its subjects of freedom of expression and women’s rights feel as relevant now as they did then.

Exploring turn-of-the-20th-century American history through the words of little-known feminist, spiritualist, and sex educator Ida Craddock, Kirshner said the documentary-style drama illuminates a message that feels appropriate for current times amid a backdrop of lawmakers seeking to ban books and mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in school.

“Even though it's a film that's set in the past, I feel like it's very much resonant with the present,” said Kirshner, who is a joint professor emeritus with the School of Music, Theatre & Dance and the Stamps School of Art and Design. “It was a different time, but some of the same cultural conflicts about separation between church and state and about gender roles are kind of the same struggles in a lot of ways.”

Press Release

The film Resilience Revealed: Ann Arbor's Disability Legacy, of Zach Damon Productions, has won a prestigious Award of Merit from The Accolade Global Film Competition. The award was given for Zach Damon's exciting documentary, Resilience Revealed, which highlights the role Ann Arbor has played in the world of accessibility and disability activism. Resilience Revealed features interviews with Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor, Ann Arbor City Councilmember Ayesha Ghazi Edwin, Michigan Supreme Court Justice Richard Bernstein, Disability Network executive director Alex Gossage, and other advocates.

“Ann Arbor has long been a beacon for disability rights,” says Damon. “This film aims to honor that legacy.”

Dead media is alive and well in my house.

My husband, Brian, and I have an affinity for various types of discontinued and outdated media from the 1970s and 1980s. It’s everything from 8-tracks and LaserDiscs to VHS tapes and retro video game consoles.

There’s something fun about revisiting old media from your childhood or experimenting with now-obsolete technology that was popular before you were born.

I want to highlight some of my old media as a way to celebrate Dead Media Day, which is October 12 at Ann Arbor District Library’s downtown location.

The inaugural event pays homage to retro media, entertainment, and ephemera, and features vendors selling vintage and rare items.

It will also have exhibits, hands-on demonstrations, and crafts for fans who want to step back in time and honor all things old and once forgotten.

Here’s a look at five types of dead media that continue to thrive in the Stratton household.

A new “live media festival” in Ypsilanti aims to expand the conversation on what media is, with live experimental works in audio, video, projection, and expanded cinema that goes beyond traditional film.

Those attending the first Media Live Ypsi live performance festival on October 10 and 11 can expect everything from Bring Your Own Beamer projection art displays to a half dozen “durational artists” each delivering their own three-hour sets of storytelling and other nonlinear performances that could incorporate audience participation.

It’s all intended to shake up how people perceive the “live” performance, Media Live Ypsi co-organizer Abhishek Narula said, while emphasizing the need to be present to truly experience the media being displayed.

"I think a lot of art today is experienced online—on Instagram, on YouTube, and all that,” said Narula. “It's hard to sort of document; it's hard to capture these things. We really want to have that experience for the people that are in Ann Arbor and Ypsi and to bring people together. I think post-pandemic, people have been interacting online, and we still sort of live most of our worlds online. So, we're trying to break that a little bit by providing the live experiences where you sort of have to be there.”

Burnout Society Film Club (BSFC) members are advocates of the B-flick, the cult classic, the lost gem, and they show their love at a free monthly screening event called 8 Ball Movie Night.

What started as an indoor gathering at The Blind Pig's basement bar, The 8 Ball Saloon, morphed into an outdoor event during the warmer months of COVID. But BSFC didn't return to a strictly indoor schedule for its movie night after vaccinations opened up the world again, and the group continues to show VHS-era and old-timey flicks outside when the weather allows.

The last outdoor event of 2025—now on the patio outside The Blind Pig rather than on the roof—is scheduled for Tuesday, September 30, at 8:30 pm. Dubbed as "A Future Cop Double Feature," this edition of the 8 Ball Movie Night features films by two '80s and '90s action megastars: Sylvester Stallone and Rutger Hauer.

Here's the info listed on the FB event page:

A roundup of recent Washtenaw County arts and culture stories from local media outlets Life in Michigan, WEMU, Concentrate, Current, Ann Arbor Observer, WCBN, The Sun New Times, The Saline Post, and Ann Arbor City Lifestyle.