Arts & Culture

The 49th annual Ann Arbor Film Festival kicks off Tuesday, March 22 at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor.

It's the longest running independent and experimental film festival in the country.  

So while you won’t see a George Clooney flick at the festival, you could catch a documentary about industrial music, or a two minute short about London street life filmed using an iPhone.

Its all about ringtones.     

The Associated Press reports the U.S Supreme Court won't get involved in a fight between Eminem's former production company and Universal Music Group over downloads of the rapper's songs and ringtones.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Universal Music Group. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said F.B.T. Productions LLC's contract entitled Eminem and his producers to a 50-50 split with Universal for recordings licensed to digital distributors such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes.

The record label had paid F.B.T. and Eminem 12 percent of sales, the agreed-upon rate for physical albums. F.B.T. discovered Eminem in 1995 before he signed in 1998 with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records. Universal's Interscope Records distributes Aftermath recordings. The case is Aftermath Records v. F.B.T. Productions, LLC, 10-768.

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Hundreds of Detroiters are expected to get together on Sunday. Their goal? To kick an evil red dwarf out of the city.

Yep, you read that right.

Arts advocates were in Lansing this week, but not to protest Governor Rick Snyder’s budget proposal. They were there to talk about how the arts can help re-invent Michigan.

Ken Fisher is president of the University Musical Society. He says he has faith in Governor Snyder's commitment to the arts:

"He supported music and culture in Ann Arbor, he’s got kids that play the trumpet, and I just hope he’ll see the opportunity that the arts have to really be a partner to his plan."

Snyder’s budget proposal calls for no cuts to current state arts funding.