Welcome to the Inaugural Vidlings & Tapeheads Film Festival!

Welcome to the inaugural Vidlings & Tapeheads Film Festival! V&T is dedicated to promoting unconventional narrative film. We love films with a unique voice that tell stories in an unusual way, experiment with the medium, or sincerely explore eclectic subject matter and themes. We encourage and celebrate subversiveness, innovative use of materials and budget, and quirky independent work that doesn’t fit comfortably within any one genre.

This year’s fest features nine live music performances, an art exhibition, and of course, a lot of films—forty-three to be exact! It’s all happening at Ant Hall & Ghost Light in Hamtramck, MI on July 7th & 8th, 2017, and we’re capping the weekend with a filmmaker and VIP-only Award Ceremony Brunch & Excursion on Sunday the 9th!

V&T films are often weird, cult, or niche, but they’re not random. We’re passionate about films that make the strange familiar and the familiar strange while telling a story. We connect with characters who are outsiders and dreamers— both in front of and behind the camera. And though filmmaking is a collaborative effort, we have an unabashed appreciation of the auteur. We love the the absurd humor and magical realism of Terry Gilliam and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the irreverent sincerity and dysfunctional iconoclasm of John Waters and Jane Campion, the uncanny cleverness and dark mystery of Davids Cronenberg and Lynch, the tactile humanity and visceral goofiness of Jan Švankmajer and Stephen Chow, the timeless avant-garde dreamscapes of Maya Deren and Slavko Vorkapić, and the haunting beauty and moral ambiguity of Hayao Miyazaki.

We believe that filmmaking should be accessible to all and that content transcends medium. We’re open to all projects whether they were shot on VHS, Super-8, an HD DSLR, 35mm, an old cell phone, or a 5K Red Scarlet. In fact, we have a special place in our hearts for so- called obsolete tech.

We’ve done our best to curate a diverse and engaging program with a progressive group of unconventional filmmakers, musicians, and artists from Michigan and around the world. We strive to be inclusive and welcome people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, nationalities, creeds, orientations, and walks of life to be part of this and future years of the fest!

VTFF2017