Film And Video :Blogs

Over 2,500 artists each year submit work to the Ann Arbor Film Festival, a venue where the dime turns on provocative indie and experimental fare. Our pow wow pick of the week is the fest's executive director Donald Harrison, who'll be addressing the film industry vs. film as an art, and regional notions of a creativity crisis.

Banks and offices are the buzz-kill of downtowns. Know why? Urban documentary filmmaker Kirk Westphal, founder of Westphal Associates, gives his view on this and other reasons why folks will do a hard stop and head no further down the block.

Rob Cleveland knows what it takes to build something out of nothing. A former auto biz writer, he not only grew ICON Creative Technologies Group into a successful 30 person firm, he recently opened the Grange Kitchen in downtown Ann Arbor. Rob believes in the value of tax incentives, and explains how they'll help Michigan develop much-needed entrepreneurs like himself.