Take a walk beyond traditional filmmaking and into the world of interactive video art and video mapping. Our journey will go behind the scenes on how this artist’s projects were created from concept to execution. Discover more about the strange world of video beyond the rectangular screen.

About Martin Thoburn: Martin is a local animator and artist working in a variety of different media. He has produced and directed several short films, both animated and live action. Determined not to be confined to any one medium, Martin continually explores photography, live video mixing, design, collage, animation and motion graphics. Working with both modern and antique technologies sometimes in tandem, his work explores the uniqueness of the medium, technology, and/or tool. He is involved with YPSI24 and the Ann Arbor Film Festival and you can follow him on Twitter @duiceburger, or visit martin-thoburn.com.

Ever wonder what goes into creating a film score? Participants in this hands-on workshop will work with local musician/electronica artist Jared Van Eck to explore the musical elements and cues that go into composing a film score. We will be making multitrack recordings using AADL’s music tools. No experience with music and recording necessary, but it could help. By the end, you will have co-produced a short score!

Jared Van Eck has been making music since childhood, focusing mostly on electronic music for the last 15 years. He was recognized by Current Magazine's Reader's Choice Awards as the local DJ/Electronica Artist of the year in 2014.

It’s the Future today! October 21, 2015 is the day Marty McFly visits in Back to the Future 2. Let’s take a detailed look at what they thought today would be like 30 years ago, and see what they missed, and what they nailed. READ MY FAX!

About Eli Neiburger: Eli is Deputy Director at the Ann Arbor District Library and has given lots of talks across the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, but this is his very first talk that’s not about libraries! You may have seen him leading the Nintendoland Family Band at the Water Hill Music Festival. You can follow him on Twitter at @ulotrichous.

Actress, writer, and producer Cindy Williams is one of the most recognizable names and faces of 1970s & 1980s television.

Best known for her starring role in the hit TV show "Laverne and Shirley," she also had lead roles in such iconic films such as "American Graffiti" and Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation."

While millions have been entertained by her good-natured personality and comic antics, she has rarely spoken about her life in entertainment, and how she came to star in one of the most popular shows of all time.

In this special event at the Downtown Library, Cindy was joined by local radio personality Lucy Ann Lance to discuss her life, career and new book Shirley, I Jest!: A Storied Life. In this hilarious and heartfelt book, she shares some of her most memorable stories including her role as Shirley Feeney in the iconic TV show "Laverne & Shirley." She shares stories of her experiences in her personal life (growing up in a blue-collar family) and show business as well as her encounters with entertainment legends such as Gene Kelly, Lucille Ball, Little Richard, Cary Grant, Jim Morrison, Ron Howard, and many more. Of course, she also talks about her professional partnership and personal relationship with her co-star and friend Penny Marshall.

Here in Ann Arbor, watching outdoor movies at festivals is a way of life in the summertime. But how did we get here? What is the history of Michigan outdoor film venues? And why are drive-ins so scarce?

Revisit a part of Michigan History as Martin Bandyke, morning host on Ann Arbor's 107one, interviews Harry Skrdla about his new book Michigan's Drive-In Theaters and the history of these Michigan outdoor film venues. Michigan's Drive-In Theaters is a nostalgic depiction of the state's outdoor theaters from the pinnacle of their popularity to their downfall, and the subsequent resurgence of interest in the remaining theaters through more than 200 vintage images.

Harry Skrdla is an engineer and a historic-preservation consultant based in Ann Arbor who as contributed to the preservation and restoration of a number of noteworthy structures, including the ornate 1920s movie palace the Fox Theatre in Detroit, one of the last of its kind in America. The initial preservation of the Fox Theatre was overseen by Skrdla and fellow theatre historian, Greg Bellamy.

In this episode, AADL Talks to Jose Mojica. Jose Mojica is the author of The Slasher of Flopsville and the writer, owner and director of iFilmFlops, an independent film producer based in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Jose's work can be described as humor horror. Here Jose talks about his creative path, how a technical writer came to write about monsters, what it's like to make films as a family, and why he creates family-friendly suspense.

Martin talks to playwright, essayist, and critic James Harvey about his new book Watching Them Be: Star Presence on the Screen from Garbo to Balthazar. With great perception and insight, Harvey explores how charisma is created in the movies, writing about Greta Garbo, Robert De Niro, Charles Laughton, John Wayne and many other stars, concluding with a strikingly moving passage about director Robert Bresson’s masterpiece Au Hasard Balthazar, whose star is a donkey! Hopwood Award winner James Harvey, who graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master’s Degree in English, has written a deeply personal and extraordinarily compelling account of the films that have changed his life and will also change yours. The interview was recorded on September 24, 2014.

In this episode, Martin talks to New York Time culture reporter Dave Itzkoff about his new book Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies. "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more!" Those words, spoken by the unhinged television anchorman named Howared Beale, the 'mad prophet of the airwaves,' took America by storm in 1976, when Network because a sensation. With a superb cast (William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch and Robert Duvall) directed by Sidney Lumet, the film won four Academy Awards and indelibly shaped how we think about corporate and media power.

Itzkoff's fascinating book recounts the incredible story of how Network made it to the screen, and gives us an in-depth view of the man responsible for the film, the uncompromising screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky.

In this episode, Gerald H. Hoag, former manager of both the Majestic Theatre and the Michigan Theatre, talks about the early theaters in Ann Arbor and some of the early stars and most popular films to come to town. Host Ted Trost mentions the Ann Arbor Film Festival and the Ann Arbor Art Fairs. Footage includes a street performer at the Art Fair and the University of Michigan Marching Band.

Directed by Dale Throneberry
Created by Jeff Werner
Executive producer: Catherine Anderson
Graphic artist Eric Anderson
Sponsored by the Ann Arbor Public Library, with help from the Ann Arbor Sesquicentennial Commission and the University of Michigan Speech Department.

In this episode, Martin talks to Broadway theater producer Vivek Tiwary about his latest project, a graphic novel entitled The Fifth Beatle, which recently reached the #1 spot on the New York Times best-sellers list. The Fifth Beatle tells the story of Brian Epstein, the Liverpool record shop owner who discovered and then managed the Beatles from 1961 until his untimely death in 1967. Tiwary will also write and produce a feature film based on his book, due out in 2015.