"FILM AS A SUBVERSIVE ART: AMOS VOGEL AND CINEMA 16"

TUESDAY, JANUARY 29, 8PM
Rooftop Films & Stranger Than Fiction co-present
"Film as a Subversive Art: Amos Vogel and Cinema 16"
a feature-length documentary by Paul Cronin
at The IFC Center | Tickets

We at Rooftop Films are proud to be co-presenting this film because we certainly consider ourselves descendents of Amos Vogel's Cinema 16. I think one of the great legacies of Vogel's work was the way he and his compatriots placed a great social and moral significance on independent and experimental cinema. They recognized the power of motion pictures, and used film to challenge people's aesthetics, their values, their ways of thinking. This is something that we've always tried to do at Rooftop as well. And much the way that Cinema 16 was famous for showing varied programs short films, at Rooftop we also like to mix genres, styles and voices, programming around a central theme to encourage people to see new and unexpected films.

I know that Vogel wrote about the importance of the total immersion in the theater-going experience, so I hope he would approve of Rooftop's outdoor model. I think the key to Rooftop's success is that we get people to engage with cinema beyond the theater. They are watching films relevant to the very communities they are sitting in, which we hope gets them to engage with the issues and ideas presented in the film. I'm eager to ask Amos if he has any thoughts about Rooftop.

The bottom line is that Cinema 16, Rooftop Films and Stranger Than Fiction are all vital to the cultural dialogue in New York because we get people to come out to see challenging films they otherwise wouldn't see. So it's a thrill for us to all be working together on this presentation, and we hope you all come out and enjoy Paul Cronin's documentary "Film as a Subversive Art: Amos Vogel and Cinema 16."