A 2024 MICHIGAN NOTABLE BOOK

Winner of a 2023 Michigan State History Award

Shortlisted for the 2023 Alice Award

“Frank Uhle’s Cinema Ann Arbor is a whopping big gift – to historians, archivists and film lovers of every shape. Mind-bogglingly comprehensive, it is also deeply emotional for all the lucky folks, like me, who wandered through Ann Arbor’s magical portal into a life in the movies. Priceless, delightful, and necessary.”

—Lawrence Kasdan, writer, producer, and filmmaker

“Somewhere between the Golden Age of Hollywood and the dawn of the VHS tape, a new creature was born: the film buff. He lived and thrived in special environments, notably on campus, where the rise of college film societies in the 1960s and ’70s became nothing less than a revolution — a redefinition of how movies were shown, experienced, and loved. Cinema Ann Arbor is a brilliantly reported, infectiously written piece of cultural history that tells the story of how one small Midwestern city, and the university it anchored, became to the college film society what Florence was to the Renaissance. It’s the story of how movies once thrived in dark and mossy places, and of the one-man-band curators and exhibitors who made it all possible, driven by a monk-like devotion. Frank Uhle has captured the moment when cinema became, for a new generation, a kind of religion, with its own rituals and sacred texts and a spirit of exploratory mystery that has all but vanished from the culture.”

—Owen Gleiberman, chief film critic, Variety

“An invaluable and brilliantly detailed history of a unique regional film culture that touched the world, continuing to influence the lives of those who’ve been a part of it in any way. An absolute joy to read.” 

—Elliot Wilhelm, Curator of Film, Detroit Institute of Arts

“Peek inside the robust legacy of student-powered cinema groups that enriched the cultural scene both on campus and off. This enthralling saga recounts the dynamic moxie, gutsy programming, lucrative operations, and many colorful characters that sustained Ann Arbor’s incredibly rich cinema culture for nearly a century.”

—Leslie Raymond, director, the Ann Arbor Film Festival

“Frank Uhle’s deeply researched and spectacularly informative book is an essential read for all movie lovers. Seeing thought-provoking art films on the U of M campus before the advent of videotapes, DVDs & streaming was always a special event for me, and Cinema Ann Arbor perfectly captures the pioneering spirit of film presenters who kept me spellbound in the dark.”

—Martin Bandyke, morning drive host on ann arbor’s 107one.

“Longtime Ann Arborite and confirmed cinephile Frank Uhle leaves no stone unturned in this impressively researched and seemingly comprehensive local history. Copiously illustrated with page after page of rare documents and never-before-seen photographs, Cinema Ann Arbor is the culmination of years of research and numerous interviews with participants. An enjoyable read with cameos by Robert Altman, Ken Burns, Frank Capra, Maya Deren, Sam Fuller, Molly Haskell, Pauline Kael, Harold Lloyd, Lou Reed, Andy Warhol, and a number of others you might not have guessed played roles in the rich and varied history of film culture in Ann Arbor, Michigan.” 

—Matthew Solomon, associate professor, University of Michigan Department of Film, Television, and Media

“When I was an undergraduate at Michigan in the eighties, I knew I was lucky, in a vague sort of way, to have at my fingertips the Michigan CinemaGuide, which gave paragraph-long synopses on the two dozen-or so movies showing all across campus most nights. We took in The Graduate at the Law School, Fiddler on the Roof at Hillel, and Stop Making Sense at the Michigan Theater – which played like a concert. We watched experimental Andy Warhol projects, risque off-color films, Monty Python’s entire canon, and even childhood favorites like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – not to mention The Big Chill with an in-person introduction by Lawrence Kasdan himself. The range was breathtaking. If we didn’t bring beer, it was only because someone had blown their assignment. But I had no idea all this was unique to Ann Arbor, that it was home to arguably the first and best film society in the country – and that it wouldn’t last. In Cinema Ann Arbor, Frank Uhle takes us behind the curtain of this magical world, and explains how it started – in 1932, when the “talkies” were just starting, amazingly – the people that drove it, how its rich culture attracted legends to introduce their works, and launched more than a few high-profile careers – and why it faded. But it’s Uhle’s stories, tales of the many eccentric personalities you just couldn’t make up, that kept me reading. If you love movies, history, campus life, or just a good, original yarn, you’ll love Cinema Ann Arbor.”

—John U. Bacon, bestselling author, The Great Halifax Explosion

The book documents an important time in the culture of movie-going, but it’s also his way of passing on an art form that shouldn’t be lost. Movies are meant to be a group experience, seen in a theater. It’s why we linger and talk about it with a friend or a stranger after the lights come up, not quite wanting to break the spell the experience has cast on us. Frank Uhle’s book “Cinema Ann Arbor – How Campus Rebels Formed a Singular Film Culture” is a must for cinema lovers.

—Current Magazine

Cinema Ann Arbor is beautifully designed and presented. Uhle’s absorbing narrative is abundantly illustrated with more than 400 images. If you’re a fan of mid-20th century art and culture — and especially filmmaking — you’ll lose yourself for hours at a time in the worlds he explores and exposes here.

—Mike Stax, Ugly Things Magazine

Uhle’s book details the history of the student film movement at the University of Michigan and how it spilled over into the rest of Ann Arbor, spawning the Ann Arbor Film Festival.

—Lansing City Pulse