Summer is fast approaching and we are very excited to share with you all the feature films we are screening this summer. This year we’re bringing bigger and more enhanced events to you.
Our full slate includes thrilling documentaries about urban dirt-bikers (12 O’Clock Boys), dangerous ex-lovers (Belleville Baby) and environmentalist pornographers (Fuck for Forest); innovative works by daring young filmmakers (i hate myself : ), Elena, The Dirties); and sneak previews of the most exciting festival hits of the year, including wildly unpredictable comedies (Frances Ha, Crystal Fairy, Newlyweeds, The Kings of Summer) as well as powerful independent dramas (Drinking Buddies, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints).
You can see all these films for only $65 through Kickstarter! Don’t miss out on these amazing screenings happening this summer at Rooftop. Become a member today.
Rooftop Films 2013 Summer Series Feature Films Line-up
12 O’Clock Boys (Dir. Lotfy Nathan) NY Premiere
Part of Rooftop’s SXSW weekend
Thirteen-year-old Pug wants nothing more than to join the 12 O’Clock Boys, the notorious Baltimore dirt bike pack, in this exciting and unusual tale about coming of age in urban America.
Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories.
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints (Dir. David Lowery) Special Sneak Preview
“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” tells the tale of an outlaw who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife and the daughter he has never met. Courtesy of IFC Films.
Awful Nice (Dir. Todd Sklar) NY Premiere
Part of Rooftop’s SXSW weekend
Estranged brothers Jim and Dave must travel to Branson together when their father dies and leaves them the family lake home. A series of hilarious mishaps and costly misadventures follow as they attempt to restore the house and rebuild their relationship.
Belleville Baby (Dir. Mia Engberg) NY Premiere
A long distance call from a long lost lover makes her reminisce about their common past. She remembers the spring when they met in Paris, the riots, the vespa and the cat named Baby. A film about love, time and things that got lost along the way.
Bending Steel (Dir. David Carroll, produced by Ryan Scafuro)
A remarkable and intimate documentary exploring the lost art of the oldetime strongman, and one man’s struggle to overcome limitations of body and mind.
Brasslands (Dir. Meerkat Media Collective) NY Premiere
Presented by Rooftop Films and Arts Brookfield
An eccentric New York band, a tiny Balkan village, and half a million fans transcend borders at the world’s largest trumpet festival.
Brothers Hypnotic (Dir. Reuben Atlas) NY Premiere
Screening presented with Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Forest City Ratner
Brotherhood, whether biological or ideological, is never easy. “Brothers Hypnotic” is a coming-of-age story—for eight young men, and for an ideal.
The Central Park Five (Dir. Sarah Burns, Ken Burns, Dave McMahon)
Screening presented with the Ford Foundation and Friends of Dag Hammarksold Plaza
Set against a backdrop of a decaying city beset by violence and racial tension, “The Central Park Five” tells the story of how five lives were upended by the rush to judgment by police, a sensationalist media and a devastating miscarriage of justice. Courtesy of Florentine Films.
Crystal Fairy (Sebastián Silva) Special Sneak Preview
Presented by Rooftop Films and indieWIRE
A hilariously unpredictable comedy about a self-involved young American searching for a secret hallucinogenic cactus in the desert of Chile. Courtesy of IFC Films.
Cutie and the Boxer (Dir. Zachary Heinzerling) Special Sneak Preview
This candid New York love story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of renowned “boxing” painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko. Anxious to shed her role of assistant to her overbearing husband, Noriko seeks an identity of her own. Courtesy of RADiUs-TWC.
Domestic (Dir. Adrian Sitaru) NY Premiere
Presented with Socrates Sculpture Park.
Wonderfully surreal, painfully real, this is the story of children, adults and animals who live together trying to have a better life, but sometimes death comes unexpectedly. In the bittersweet comedy “Domestic” it is all about us, people who eat the animals that they love and the animals that love people unconditionally.
The Dirties (Dir. Matt Johnson) NY Premiere
Matt and Owen are best friends, who are constantly bullied by a group they call The Dirties. When an assignment goes awry, the friends hatch a plan to enact revenge on their high school tormentors.
Drinking Buddies (Dir. Joe Swanberg) NY Premiere
Presented in partnership with BAMcinemaFest
Luke and Kate are co-workers at a Chicago brewery where they spend their days drinking and flirting. They’re perfect for each other, except that they’re both in relationships. But you know what makes the line between “friends” and “more than friends” really blurry? Beer. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Elena (Dir. Petra Costa) NY Premiere
Part of Rooftop’s SXSW weekend
Intimate in style, “Elena” delves into the abyss of one family’s drama, revealing at once the inspiration that can be born from tragedy.
The Expedition to the End of the World (Dir. Daniel Dencik) NY Premiere
“The Expedition to the End of the World” is a film about the origins of the world, the end of human civilisation, and life on earth once we’re gone. A road movie into unknown regions of the globe and mind – on an Arctic schooner heavily armed with art and science bound for the most spectacular nature of Northeast Greenland. Manmade speed and efficiency confront the power of ice, but no matter how far we travel, and how hard we try to find answers, the ultimate confrontation is with ourselves and our transience as a species.
Frances Ha (Dir. Noah Baumbach) Special Sneak Preview
Frances wants so much more than she has, but lives her life with unaccountable joy and lightness. “Frances Ha” is a modern comic fable in which Noah Baumbach explores New York, friendship, class, ambition, failure, and redemption. Courtesy of IFC Films.
Fuck for Forest (Dir. Michal Marczak) NY Premiere
Berlin’s Fuck for Forest is one of the world’s most bizarre charities: based on the idea that sex can change the world, the NGO raises money for their environmental cause by selling home-made erotic films on the Internet.
The Genius of Marian (Dir. Banker White)
Screening presented with the Ford Foundation and Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
An intimate family portrait that explores the tragedy of Alzheimer’s disease, the power of art and the meaning of family. The Genius of Marian follows Pam White in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease as her son, the filmmaker, documents her struggle to hang on to a sense of self.
i hate myself : ) (Dir. Joanna Arnow) NY Premiere
Nebbishy filmmaker Joanna Arnow documents her yearlong relationship with racially charged poet-provocateur James Kepple. What starts out as an uncomfortably intimate portrait of a messed up relationship and protracted mid-twenties adolescence, quickly turns into a complex commentary on societal repression, female sexuality and self-confrontation through art.
The Kings of Summer (Dir. Jordan Vogt-Roberts) New York Special Screening
“The Kings of Summer” is a unique coming-of-age comedy about three teenage friends – Joe, Patrick and the eccentric and unpredictable Biaggio – who, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land. Courtesy of CBS Films.
Newlyweeds (Dir. Shaka King) Special Sneak Preview
Brooklyn residents Lyle and Nina blaze away the stress of living in New York City, but what should be a match made in stoner heaven turns into a love triangle gone awry. Courtesy of Phase 4 Films.
North of South, West of East (Dir. Meredith Danluck) NY Premiere
Screening presented with Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Forest City Ratner
“North of South, West of East” takes a scrupulous look at the American Dream through Hollywood tropes and conventional cinema. Working with a narrative structure this four-part 85 minute film takes the chronic existential crisis that is the American identity and turns it inside out, laying the typical components of comedy, thrill, violence, love and death (the ultimate reinvention) neatly side by side.
Our Nixon (Dir. Penny Lane and Brian L. Frye) Sneak Preview
Presented with Socrates Sculpture Park.
Newly uncovered Super 8 home movies filmed by Richard Nixon’s closest aides – and fellow Watergate conspirators – offer an intimate and surprising new glimpse into his presidency. Courtesy of Cinedigm.
Short Term 12 (Dir. Destin Cretton) Special Sneak Preview
Presented in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
“Short Term 12” follows Grace (Brie Larson), a young supervisor at a foster-care facility, as she looks after the teens in her charge and reckons with her own troubled past. Courtesy of Cinedigm.
Tiger Tail in Blue (Dir. Frank V. Ross)
“Tiger Tail in Blue” is about a young married couple, Christopher & Melody, that work opposite schedules to remain financially afloat as Chris bangs out his first novel while working nights as a waiter. Never seeing each other is taking its toll, as the two rarely get a chance to engage one another. Chris finds the attention he craves in the past and Brandy, a saucy co-worker.
Towheads (Dir. Shannon Plumb) Special Sneak Preview
A harried New York mother struggling as an artist searches for a happy (if slightly unhinged) hybrid of the two. In her debut feature, Shannon Plumb’s charming Chaplin-like characters light up the screen with visual playfulness.
Twenty Feet From Stardom (Dir. Morgan Neville) Special Sneak Preview
Presented in partnership with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Meet the unsung heroes behind the greatest music of our time. Courtesy of RADiUS-TWC.
WILLIAM AND THE WINDMILL (Dir. Ben Nabors)
Screening presented with the Ford Foundation and Friends of Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
Despite unbelievable circumstances, young Malawian William Kamkwamba builds a power-generating windmill from scraps parts, effectively rescuing his family from famine and poverty. This feature-length documentary tells the story of a unique individual whose incredible invention sets in motion a series of events that will forever change his life