Earth Day Show at the Kiehl's Flagship Store in the East Village! DATE: Thursday, April 20th, 2006 TIME: 8:00-10:00 WHERE: 109 3rd Avenue Between 13th & 14th Streets, (212) 677-3171 COST: Free! WHAT: Fun Earth Day films, plus free drinks, snacks and Kiehl's gift bags for EVERYONE!
On Thursday, April 20th, Rooftop Films returns to the Flagship Store of our beloved partners at Kiehl's. We had a great time doing a show there in December as hundreds came out for free holiday films, drinks, snacks and Kiehl's gift bags. This time around we will be showing short films to celebrate Earth Day. But these aren't boring advocacy videos or lectures about aerosol cans—rather, these are movies that will show all of us bleary eyed city slickers of the exhilarating beauty and value of natural design and the hilarious and destructive consequences of messing with Mother Nature. These films will introduce you to a man inspired to tears by the miraculous complexity of insect-eating plants and also tell the story of a guy who has killed his share of insects and is beginning to have regrets later in life. Best of all, these are works that will remind you of the simple pleasure of running as fast and as long as you can through the woods, across deserts and over hills.
WESTLESS AMERICAN (ERIK NELSON | U.S. NATIONAL PARKS | 5:05)
An exhilarating document of one nature nut's manic shirtless sprint through each of the great national parks of North America.
ROTATION (ERIN HUDSON | PALO ALTO, CA | 3:00)
Every filmmaker who has ever driven along 580 past the windmills at the Altamont Pass outside San Francisco has wanted to put them in a movie; now someone has.
NATURE'S BLUEPRINTS (MIKE SEELY | 10:00)
Director of Hush (Rooftop 7/9/04). Architect Eugene Tsui plumbs the depths of nature's wisdom seeking inspiration for his architectural designs. Nature's Blueprints takes you on a trip to the edges of Tsui's imagination. His fantastic structures provoke questions about the future of our built environments and our relationship to the natural world.
NUTRIA (TED GESING | NEW YORK, NY | 13:30)
Man battles rodent in a struggle for dominance in the Louisiana Bayou in this quirky, comic documentary about the scourge of an imported, disgusting water rat. This film asks the questions, "What is nutria, and would you eat one?"
THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE FINE (ROB TYLER, ADRIENNE LEVERETTE & ERIC SCHOPMEYER | PORTLAND, OR | 9:20)
Mike Wilder says that if you cut off a leaf from a Drosera Nitidula, lay it in the soil, and give it water and light, an exact clone of the original plant will grow back in its place. In this way is our world amazing and unique. The Portland, Oregon-based film collective Archipelago returns to Rooftop with a stunning documentary about a passionate and thoughtful bio-collector.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE INSECTS GONE? (LEE KERN, ENGLAND, 3:00)
One of Lee's hilarious three minute slots originally produced to be shown after the Channel Four evening news in the UK, Where Have All the Insects Gone tells the story of Lee's destructive childhood escapades, many of which involved tormenting the local insects that once populated his sleepy suburb outside of London. Looking back, Lee wonders where all the fireflies are and whether or not he played a hand in destroying his beloved, creepy-crawly playthings.
SOUTH CENTRAL FARMERS (ROSS GUIDICI | LOS ANGELES, CA | 7:11)
350 low-income families farm 14 acres of land in South Central Los Angeles in order to feed their families and stay off welfare. Now, a wealthy land developer has acquired this property and is threatening to kick the farmers out. This is the story of their passion and struggle to survive.
Movies for Kids in Brooklyn!
(Adults will enjoy them too) Animation, comedy, quirky documentaries, and more.
WHEN: Saturday, April 8, 3:30pm WHERE: Neighborhood Playspace in Christ Church (326 Clinton St. at Kane St., Cobble Hill, Brooklyn). Click for a MAP amd to get directions from Google Maps. For subway directions, visit hopstop.com. COST: $5
All ages welcome, great entertainment for toddlers, pre-teens, and adults alike. Refreshments available. One hour of films.
LIST OF FILMS: Bathtime in Clerkenwell (Alesky Budovsky | 4:00)
An irresistable music video for an infectious song by (The Real) Tuesday Weld. Black and white birds shoot out of cuckoo clocks and spread into the town of Clerkenwell, angering sleeping residents and cuckoo kings and cops to the bouncy rhythm of a chopped up old groove.
Crazy Eyes Dolphin vs The Mad Cows
(Ian Stewart | Providence, RI | 5:40)
A sobering animated expose about how Mad Cow Disease is now killing dolphins. Via karate.
The Noodle Man (Bert Shapiro | 6:00)
From Shapiro¨s ěHand and Eyeî series, a collection of documentaries about modern artisans, comes this portrait of a toothless old man and the dazzling process of making an extraordinary amount of noodles.
Call of the Wild (Julia Sarcone-Roach | Brooklyn, NY | 8:00)
A hallucinogenic menagerie of flying cats and line-dancing bats populate the brilliantly colorful imagination of this RISD animator. Sarcone-Roach creates a Dr. Seussian zoo hopped up on goofballs going about their business and making prank calls, too.
Cats and Pants (Jennifer Matotek | Oakville, Ontario | 1:05)
Sure, it seems simple. But which is which?
Life (Mo Willems | New York, NY | 7:00)
A hilariously pessimistic—yet exhilaratingly fast-paced—animated interpretation of the violence of evolution. Courtesy of Square Footage Films.
Banana Muffin (Rueben Maness | 4:00)
If you missed last night's local news never fear, it's rebroacast here—and, for that matter, it's tonight's broadcast too.
Animation Station (Zzalgernon | Glendale, CA | 3:00)
Southern California video nut ZZalgern0n helped a class of 3rd graders to make a series of bizarre flash animations and then arranged them into short film form, accompanied by the frantic strings of a Bernard Hermann score.
Fetch (Nina Paley | Brooklyn, NY | 4:30)
A banana-shaped man and his bean-shaped dog take a metaphysical romp through an animated Escher-esque world.
Lesson One
(Courtney Booker & Greg Rozum | San Francisco, CA | 2:00)
One boy¨s about to get even and if he has to spend the summer in the dojo smashing snack foods to bits so be it.
Red Things (Max Porter | Providence, RI | 9:40)
Red rover, red rover, let red things come over. This animation is about a melancholy and magical moment, when a tree became a magnet for firetrucks, valentines, and one particular color in the rainbow. There's something haunting about the tree's desperate neediness, and something satisfying in the appreciation of beauty in just one color. Courtesy of Chaise 2 DVD
The Bullies
(Courtney Booker & Greg Rozum | San Francisco, CA | 2:00)
The second installment of Booker and Rozum's brilliant and beautifully animated karate series, our young nerdly hero Roger's world of swift chops and kicks is thrown into chaos because, as he explains, "quite frankly, one punm... one more pummel is one pummel too many [sic]."
Monkey Vs. Robot (Nate Pommer | Brooklyn, NY | 2:00)
Featuring music by James Kochalka Superstar.
