Entries tagged with “Rooftop Curators” from Rooftop Films Blog

Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly is a film that is both serious and playful. The film tackles a sensitive racial political issue, namely the denial of the cultural identity of the Chinese minority in Indonesia, but is also filled with humorous and bizarre jokes and situations.

Edwin's film premiered November 2009 in Pusan's New Currents section, then went on to compete in Rotterdam's VPRO Tiger Awards Competition and there was honored with the FIPRESCI Award of the international film critics' jury.

Edwin (1978, Indonesia) studied graphic design in Surabaya and film in Jakarta. Besides short fiction, Edwin makes music videos and documentaries. In 2005 his film Kara, the Daughter of a Tree became the first Indonesian short film ever invited to the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes. For the IFFR, Edwin made the short film Hulahoop Soundings (2008), a kind of remake of Joel Coen's graduation film Soundings. Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly (2008) is his feature début.

Rooftop Films Summer Series screening date and location of Blind Pig: July 17, 2009, on the roof of the Old American Can Factory. Address: 232 3rd St. @ 3rd Ave. (Gowanus/Park Slope, Brooklyn). Doors open at 8:00pm. Live music at 8:30pm. Film at 9:00pm. BUY TICKETS.  

Now decades later, Wuytack returns to Venezuela as a working-class and artistic hero in this gorgeous and inspiring film. Featuring exciting material from his days an activist and touching footage from his return, the film has won numerous awards at European film festivals and competitions. Be the first to see it in the US! 

New York Underground Film Festival
April 2-8, 2008
@ Anthology Film Archives
www.nyuff.com
Tickets

March 27 @ 9:45pm
Selections from the 2007 NYUFF
@ IFC Center
Tickets



The New York Underground Film Festival, a venerable anti-establishmentarian institution, the godfather of all "Underground" film festivals, will be hosting its 15th and Final installation in April, and then doing what any good punk rocker should do: dying young and . . . re-establishing itself as year-round programming consortium called "Migrating Forms."

The NYUFF has always been a haven for strange and beautiful, shocking and revealing avant garde cinema, and is definitely a big inspiration for Rooftop. I'll certainly be out for many screenings, including films by the following Rooftop alums: Jim Finn, Jacqueline Goss, Patrick Jolley, Jeanne Liotta, Jennifer Matotek, Seth Price, Robert Todd, Keith Wilson, Bryan Boyce, Lyn Elliot, Kent Lambert, Darrin Martin, Eileen Maxson, Kelly Oliver, Keary Rosen, Shelly Silver, Jim Trainor, Cory Arcangel, Skizz Cyzyk, Joe Nanashe, Moira Tierney, and Aaron Valdez (film pictured).

Check back here to the Rooftop Films blog for some write-ups and reviews of films, and I hope to see you there!

A quick update in the ongoing saga of Benh Zeitlin and "Glory at Sea!" You can read the backstory here, here, and here. Very nice posts were also written by The Austin Chronicle, Slamdance, and Spout.

As I wrote earlier, Benh was unable to make it to very much at the festival, because of his car accident. But he did make it to the final screening of his film, and told me "I started weeping about 10 minutes into the film and didn't really stop, barely managed to answer any questions afterwards so the crew came up and filled in for me. It was a real release, a great feeling of closure on all this insanity and trauma."

Benh is now back in New York, and would still love it if any SXSW filmmakers wanted to send DVDs of their films for him to see, because he wasn't able to make the rounds at the festival. Please address them to:

Benh Zeitlin
43 South Calumet
Hastings NY 10706

News about Benh's insurance needs and a possible benefit screening are still to come. Stay tuned here.

A lot has been written about the South by Southwest Film Festival and their support of the Austin film community and the "Mumblecore" movement. Personally, I love the idea of indie filmmakers bonding, working together, supporting each other. You can say that the importance of the those scenes is blown out of proportion, and that might be true--the community is a bigger and more diverse than Austin and Mumblecore.

A look below at the Rooftop alums who are screening films at SXSW this year shows filmmakers from all around the country, and filmmakers working in a variety of genres and styles. (Racial diversity is another matter, something both Rooftop and SXSW work to address in our programming. Our overlapping lists, unfortunately, don't reflect this diversity). We're proud to see so many filmmakers we like screening at this excellent fest, and we're excited to get a chance to hang out again.

From March 7-12, Rooftop's staff will be down at SXSW, scouting for new films, supporting our alumnae filmmakers, and enjoying the cheap tacos and warm weather with our friends. In town will be Artistic Director Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Program Director Dan Nuxoll and Managing Director Genevieve DeLaurier. If you're in Austin, drop us a line so we can meet up.

sxsw AT rooftopfilms DOT com -- That email will reach all three of us.

At the top of our list here is Benh Zeitlin's "Glory at Sea" (pictured left). Rooftop gave a grant to support this film, so we're particularly proud of it. "Glory at Sea" is a retelling of the classic myth of Orpheus, who descended into Hades to rescue his lover. Originally, the film was going to be made in Greece, but when the Rooftop funding came through, Benh changed his plans. "Part of what drew me toward New Orleans was the populist attitude of my backers.  Imagining being on a roof and having a film that spoke to Americans about America, was something that got my insides moving, that got me realizing that the resurrection I wanted to tell was a story I had to tell in the states, in New Orleans."

The film is stunning, and everyone should go check it out. I'm heading to New Orleans for a cast and crew screening on March 6, and then rumbling over to Texas after what is sure to be a grand night in NOLA. I'll certainly write about those adventures soon.

In the meantime, go see the latest films from these Rooftop alums:

SHORTS
Glory at Sea Director: Benjamin Zeitlin
34 x 25 x 36 Director: Jesse Epstein
Upwards March Director/Writer: Kaveh Nabatian
Fish, But No Cigar Directors: Tara White and Lyn Elliot
Shut Eye Hotel Director/Writer: Bill Plympton
The Rambler Director: Calvin Reeder
LOVEolution Director: John Bryant
Let's Get Down to Brass Tacks Director/Writer: Aaron Katz

FEATURES
Woodpecker Director: Alex Karpovsky.
The Pleasure of Being Robbed Director: Josh Safdie.
Living with the Tudors Directors: Karen Guthrie & Nina Pope.
Intimidad Directors: David Redmon & Ashley Sabin.
Goliath Director: David Zellner.
The Marconi Bros. Director/writers: Marco Ricci, Michael Canzoniero.
The New Year Parade Director/writer: Tom Quinn.
Rainbow Around the Sun Directors: Kevin Ely and Beau Leland.
My Effortless Brilliance Director: Lynn Shelton. Starring: (Rooftop Alum) Calvin Reeder

Here at Rooftop Films, we're thrilled to collaborate with IFC.com to host short films on their website. We've always wanted to put shorts online, and IFC was the perfect platform for the type of creative, unique, daring short films we show, and exposes thousands of new viewers to these distinct movies.

IFC's Media Lab teamed up with Red Bull to create a new web series, and we think they'll come up with some pretty great content. The theme is "After Hours," but they're leaving it pretty open as to what that means to you. Could be late at night, could be after work, could be a universe that operates outside the confines of "hours." One thing they DON'T want is an ad for Red Bull. Make something original, make something cool, make something personal, entertaining and gripping from episode to episode, and you stand a shot. We think the winning entry will be something that will really fit with Rooftop's artistic mission, and that our filmmakers and audience would dig. It's a competition, so I hope all you readers and watchers and filmmakers will enter a chance to get paid to create short films online.

Contest instructions are at www.ifc.com/redbull/

You can enter up till March 31, 2008.

Rooftop alum Casimir Nozkowski has crafted a savvy little promo for the contest all about the nature of internet video. It's a great manifesto. Check it out below.

Rooftop Films is more than a film festival--we are a community, and we aim to provide more than just a screening for our filmmakers. Obviously, we want to have their films seen by new, large audiences at our shows, but we also want to help the films be seen elsewhere--at other festivals, on our TV show on Manhattan Neighborhood Network, online at IFC.com, in theaters, even at The Academy Awards. We want to help them distribute their films and earn a living, we want to help them make new films (see news about the Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund awardees below).

Along those lines, we are proud to be partnering with the Independent Feature Project (IFP), one of the country's leading support organizations for independent filmmakers. In September, during IFP's Market, we will be once again screening films from IFP's Labs (and maybe more).

Given the pivotal role that festivals play in launching emerging filmmakers, IFP's Rough Cut Labs are designed to assist in tackling the creative and technical challenges of completing projects before they are submitted to festivals. Led by seasoned independent producers, the Labs help independent filmmakers achieve the full potential of their material prior to industry exposure by providing four days of feedback and advice on the specific technical, creative and post-production issues such as editing, music selection and scoring, festival and press strategy, sales, marketing and distribution.

The program is open to all first-time, narrative & documentary feature filmmakers who have completed the majority of principal photography. As a commitment to diversity, IFP seeks to ensure that at least 50% of participating projects have an inclusive range of races, genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities and physical abilities in key creative positions.

Many Rooftop alums have come out of these Labs, including Todd Rohal ("The Guatemalan Handshake"), Kat Candler ("Roberta Wells"), Alex Karpovsky ("The Hole Story"), Eun-hee Cho ("Spin"), and Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund awardee PJ Raval ("Best Kept Secret"). The advice and support filmmakers receive in these labs is invaluable, and we highly recommend them.

The Documentary Rough Cut Lab (May 6 - 9, 2008) and Narrative Rough Cut Lab (June 10-13, 2008) are held in New York City.
Full criteria and on-line application available at www.ifp.org/labs

If you're applying, tell Milton Tabbot (documentary) and/or Amy Dotson (narrative) that you heard about it from Rooftop Films!

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."

Rooftop's core artistic staff (Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Dan Nuxoll and Genevieve DeLaurier) will be out in Park City this week, supporting our alumnae filmmakers (see below), scouting for new work, hanging out with filmmakers, festival programmers, funders and friends, and doing what we love best--watching great films. If you're going to be out there, drop us a line to say hi. Together, we'll get a low-alcohol beer, catch at 8:30am screening, or meet up on a line somewhere (tickets, party entrance, ski lift...)

If you're not going to be in Utah, we'll be posting reports to this blog all week long. Our aim is to report on the types of films we show: personal cinema, low-budget movies, maverick and truly independent work, films that show us "where you live and how you live" for people and communities world wide. We'll give you reviews and critiques, but also try to give you behind-the-scenes info we'll get from question and answer sessions and our own talks with filmmakers--the stuff you could only get at the festival. So come along to Park City with Rooftop, literally or bloggerly.

(P.S. Personally, I'm serious about the ski lift line: I always take a day for snowboarding, so email me or comment here if you want to ride.)

For the past three years, Rooftop Films has collaborated with the fine folks at the Rural Route Film Festival to bring a bit of pastoral cinema to the big city. Rural Route is going on tour now, and we highly recommend you check them out. Here are some early dates and descriptions:



Festival Director and Chicago Filmmakers will be present for Q&As!

"This year's "Rural Route Tour" program definitely leans towards the more artistic and documentary side, in a killer good way. We've got fun and serious pieces from all around the world. Arctic owls in Montana, Canadian riding lawnmower races, films about light pollution, a Ukrainian poetic peasant masterpiece, dancers in the snowy Norwegian tundra, plastic lawn deer lost in Brooklyn, a man's captivating search for his ancestors in Lithuania, and some good, 'ol banjo playin' at a Kentucky old folks home. Total running time is 97 minutes.

"Our "Go Organic!" program, originally screened at Anthology Film Archives in New York City, is a new component to the Rural Route tour that we consider absolutely essential. These films provide a refreshing education on the current state of agriculture, and point out positive sustainable and organic practices that you can take part in. The Meatrix and Frankensteer expose the ways of unethical farming, while others provide us with role models through CSAs, Cuban community, sustainable lemon farms, organic choices, and a new wave of female farmers leading the way. Includes Ladies of the Land, Academy Award Winner for Best Student Documentary. Total running time is 110 minutes."

Check their myspace for New Year dates coming up in places like Silver City, NM, San Francisco, CA, and Abingdon, VA.