Relentless Warrior: Al Wheeler - Ann Arbor's First Black Mayor

"It's been 50 years since Al Wheeler’s historic campaign for Mayor of the City of Ann Arbor. 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of his death. Relentless Warrior lifts up little-known facts of Dr. Wheeler’s amazing saga.  From humble beginnings to a whirlwind tour of top educational institutions, we share how Professor Wheeler shaped and shared a life of firsts with his equally impressive wife, Emma, and their accomplished family.

Room for Change: Ann Arbor's Fair Housing Protests in the 1960s

"In the early 1960s, Ann Arbor neighborhoods were still mostly segregated. Racially restrictive housing covenants, realtors, banks, and landlords quietly worked to keep African Americans confined to only certain parts of the city. Hundreds of individuals and groups, including the NAACP, CORE, churches, and student groups began picketing, marching, and organizing sit-ins in protest. This film presents some of their stories." - Filmmaker Jennifer Howard

Branching Narratives: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of the Tappan Oak

In this short documentary, filmmaker Jen Proctor tells the story of the Tappan Oak, a tree that predated white settlement in Ann Arbor and the campus that grew up around it, and the human actions that marked its last decades of life.

From Filmmaker Jen Proctor:

This film represents both singular and collective stories. A lone undergraduate student communes with a tree to help him feel connected to a college campus from which he felt alienated. A professor collaborates with students to create a sense of belonging to Michigan’s natural environment. A society of students fosters belonging by performing a ritual around the tree to induct members into their community. In creating belonging for a select few, however, the society excludes and demeans others who similarly seek to belong. An activist collective responds by effecting change over decades to create spaces for belonging for all people on the campus.

All of these stories bear a relationship to the great oak, an unwitting but central figure in their narratives.