Entries tagged with “Rooftop Music” from Rooftop Films Blog
On Thursday, June 11, Rooftop Films and The Fledgling Fund will present the fascinating documentary No Impact Man. The film is a local family drama with global implications, as the inspirational (and controversial) No Impact Man (and family) challenge themselves to make no environmental impact for one year. As part of Rooftop Films core goal to engage audiences in unique and interesting ways, Rooftop and The Fledgling Fund invite you to join the challenge.
THE SCREENING WILL GO ON RAIN OR SHINE, EITHER INDOORS OR OUT, SO GET YOUR TICKETS NOW.
All in attendance will be welcome at the after-party at Matchless Bar, with free drinks courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner.
THE SCREENING WILL GO ON RAIN OR SHINE, EITHER INDOORS OR OUT, SO GET YOUR TICKETS NOW.
All in attendance will be welcome at the after-party at Matchless Bar, with free drinks courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner.
Before and after the screening--rain or shine--the lawn (or auditorium) of Automotive High School will host a celebration of environmentally-friendly activities, as Rooftop Films and The Fledgling Fund utilize the screening of No Impact Man to engage audience members in making environmentally-friendly lifestyle commitments.
Just Food will get people involved in their "make bee keeping legal in NY campaign", the Greenmarket will do a local foods cooking demonstration, The NY Office of Recycling will do a "what can you recycle/what can you not recycle" game, the LES Ecology Center will demonstrate how to use a compost kit, Artistic Evolution will bring their "bike blender" to make environmentally friendly lemonade, and the students of Automotive High School will demonstrate their bio-diesel cars and distribute organic produce grown on school grounds. Audience members who make personal pledges to change aspects of their lifestyles will be entered into a raffle to win various prizes.
The Hungry March Band, New York's legendary political street brass march band, will help create a festive atmosphere as they perform in the anarchic style that has become their trademark.
This promises to be one of the most crucial Rooftop events ever, so come on by!
The pledges Rooftop, Fledgling and No Impact Man himself are asking you to make are:
1. Save the world by improving your diet. Really! All you have to do is stop eating beef. Worldwide, beef production contributes more substantially to climate change than the entire transportation sector. Plus, a diet with no or less beef is better for you. The carbon footprint of the average meat eater is about 1.5 tons of CO2 larger than that of a vegetarian. Cutting beef out of your diet will reduce your CO2 emissions by 2,400 pounds annually.
2. Get your drinking water for free. You can save money and your environment by giving up bottled water. The production of plastic water bottles together with the privatization of our drinking water is an environmental and social catastrophe. Bottled water costs more per gallon than gasoline. Plus, the health consequences of drinking water from plastic are not clear.
3. Observe an eco-sabbath. For one day or afternoon or even hour a week, don't buy anything, don't use any machines, don't switch on anything electric, don't cook, don't answer your phone, and, in general, don't use any resources. In other words, for this regular period, give yourself and the planet a break. Keep your regular eco-sabbath for a month. You'll find that the enforced downtime represents an improvement to your life. Every hour per week that you live no impact cuts your carbon emissions by .6% annually, commit to four hours per week that's 2.4%, do it for a whole day each week to cut your impact by 14.4% a year.
4. Tithe a fixed percentage of your income. Currently, many of our societal health and welfare services are tied to consumer spending which, in turn, depends upon planetary resource use. But the idea of buying stuff to help people is crazy, especially when you consider that our consumption is harming the habitat that we depend upon for our health, happiness and security. If you want to help, don't go shopping. Just help. Commit to tithing part of your income to the non-profits of your choice. If an average family contributes 1% ($502.33) of their annual income ($50,233) to an environmental non-profit, they could offset 40.7 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
5. Get there under your own steam. Commit to getting around by bike or by foot a certain number of days a month. Not only does this mean using fewer fossil fuels and creating less greenhouse gasses, it means you'll get good, healthy exercise and we'll all breathe fewer fumes. A city with pedestrian and bike traffic is a lot more pleasant to live in than a city filled with vehicles. If you can stay off the road just two days a week, you'll reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 1,590 pounds per year.
6. Commit to not wasting. Wasting resources costs the planet and your wallet. Don't overheat or overcool your home--a few degrees make a huge difference. Let your clothes hang dry instead of using the dryer. If your old cell phone works, consider not getting another. The list goes on and on. In the summer, for every degree above 72 F you set your thermostat, you save 120 pounds of CO2 emissions per year and if you wash your clothes with cold water you can cut your laundry energy use by up to 90%.
7. Build a community. Play charades. Have dinners with friends. Sing together. Enjoying each other costs the planet much less than enjoying its resources. Let's relearn to joke around and play in ways that cost nothing to our pocketbooks or our planet. It's hard to put an exact number to this but the benefits are priceless.
8. Take your principles to work. The old adage "the cost of doing business" can no longer hold true. We must act as though we care about the world at work as much as we do at home. A company CEO or a product designer has the power to make a gigantic difference through their business, and so do the rest of us. In commercial buildings lighting accounts for more than 40% of electrical energy use, a huge cause of greenhouse gas production. Ask your employer to consider installing motion and occupancy sensors, which can cut this use by 10%.
9. Dedicate a day's worth of TV viewing to eco-service each week. The average American watches four and a half hours of TV a day. Take one day off from the tube each week and joining with others to improve our planet. Voluntary eco-service is a great way to find community who support your values and a great way to learn about environmental issues and the quality of life issues that go along with them. Spend three fewer hours each day sitting in front of your plasma television and you will reduce your carbon emissions by 550 pounds each year.
10. Believe with all your heart that how you live your life makes a difference to all of us. We are all interconnected. We make a difference to each other on many different levels. Every step towards living a conscious life where we consider the consequences of our actions provides support to everyone else--whether you know it or not--who is trying to do the same thing. We are the masters of our destinies. Let's act as though it is so.
COME SEE NO IMPACT MAN AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR LIFE AND WORLD, WHILE HAVING FUN DOING IT.
Just Food will get people involved in their "make bee keeping legal in NY campaign", the Greenmarket will do a local foods cooking demonstration, The NY Office of Recycling will do a "what can you recycle/what can you not recycle" game, the LES Ecology Center will demonstrate how to use a compost kit, Artistic Evolution will bring their "bike blender" to make environmentally friendly lemonade, and the students of Automotive High School will demonstrate their bio-diesel cars and distribute organic produce grown on school grounds. Audience members who make personal pledges to change aspects of their lifestyles will be entered into a raffle to win various prizes.
The Hungry March Band, New York's legendary political street brass march band, will help create a festive atmosphere as they perform in the anarchic style that has become their trademark.
This promises to be one of the most crucial Rooftop events ever, so come on by!
The pledges Rooftop, Fledgling and No Impact Man himself are asking you to make are:
1. Save the world by improving your diet. Really! All you have to do is stop eating beef. Worldwide, beef production contributes more substantially to climate change than the entire transportation sector. Plus, a diet with no or less beef is better for you. The carbon footprint of the average meat eater is about 1.5 tons of CO2 larger than that of a vegetarian. Cutting beef out of your diet will reduce your CO2 emissions by 2,400 pounds annually.
2. Get your drinking water for free. You can save money and your environment by giving up bottled water. The production of plastic water bottles together with the privatization of our drinking water is an environmental and social catastrophe. Bottled water costs more per gallon than gasoline. Plus, the health consequences of drinking water from plastic are not clear.
3. Observe an eco-sabbath. For one day or afternoon or even hour a week, don't buy anything, don't use any machines, don't switch on anything electric, don't cook, don't answer your phone, and, in general, don't use any resources. In other words, for this regular period, give yourself and the planet a break. Keep your regular eco-sabbath for a month. You'll find that the enforced downtime represents an improvement to your life. Every hour per week that you live no impact cuts your carbon emissions by .6% annually, commit to four hours per week that's 2.4%, do it for a whole day each week to cut your impact by 14.4% a year.
4. Tithe a fixed percentage of your income. Currently, many of our societal health and welfare services are tied to consumer spending which, in turn, depends upon planetary resource use. But the idea of buying stuff to help people is crazy, especially when you consider that our consumption is harming the habitat that we depend upon for our health, happiness and security. If you want to help, don't go shopping. Just help. Commit to tithing part of your income to the non-profits of your choice. If an average family contributes 1% ($502.33) of their annual income ($50,233) to an environmental non-profit, they could offset 40.7 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
5. Get there under your own steam. Commit to getting around by bike or by foot a certain number of days a month. Not only does this mean using fewer fossil fuels and creating less greenhouse gasses, it means you'll get good, healthy exercise and we'll all breathe fewer fumes. A city with pedestrian and bike traffic is a lot more pleasant to live in than a city filled with vehicles. If you can stay off the road just two days a week, you'll reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 1,590 pounds per year.
6. Commit to not wasting. Wasting resources costs the planet and your wallet. Don't overheat or overcool your home--a few degrees make a huge difference. Let your clothes hang dry instead of using the dryer. If your old cell phone works, consider not getting another. The list goes on and on. In the summer, for every degree above 72 F you set your thermostat, you save 120 pounds of CO2 emissions per year and if you wash your clothes with cold water you can cut your laundry energy use by up to 90%.
7. Build a community. Play charades. Have dinners with friends. Sing together. Enjoying each other costs the planet much less than enjoying its resources. Let's relearn to joke around and play in ways that cost nothing to our pocketbooks or our planet. It's hard to put an exact number to this but the benefits are priceless.
8. Take your principles to work. The old adage "the cost of doing business" can no longer hold true. We must act as though we care about the world at work as much as we do at home. A company CEO or a product designer has the power to make a gigantic difference through their business, and so do the rest of us. In commercial buildings lighting accounts for more than 40% of electrical energy use, a huge cause of greenhouse gas production. Ask your employer to consider installing motion and occupancy sensors, which can cut this use by 10%.
9. Dedicate a day's worth of TV viewing to eco-service each week. The average American watches four and a half hours of TV a day. Take one day off from the tube each week and joining with others to improve our planet. Voluntary eco-service is a great way to find community who support your values and a great way to learn about environmental issues and the quality of life issues that go along with them. Spend three fewer hours each day sitting in front of your plasma television and you will reduce your carbon emissions by 550 pounds each year.
10. Believe with all your heart that how you live your life makes a difference to all of us. We are all interconnected. We make a difference to each other on many different levels. Every step towards living a conscious life where we consider the consequences of our actions provides support to everyone else--whether you know it or not--who is trying to do the same thing. We are the masters of our destinies. Let's act as though it is so.
COME SEE NO IMPACT MAN AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR LIFE AND WORLD, WHILE HAVING FUN DOING IT.
Venue: On the lawn of Automotive High School
Address: 50 Bedford Ave. @ North 13th St. (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
Directions: L to Bedford Ave. or G to Nassau Ave.
7:30: Eco Carnival: A celebration of environmentally-friendly activities, including bike blenders, raffles, prizes.
Address: 50 Bedford Ave. @ North 13th St. (Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
Directions: L to Bedford Ave. or G to Nassau Ave.
7:30: Eco Carnival: A celebration of environmentally-friendly activities, including bike blenders, raffles, prizes.
8:00: Sound Fix presents live music by The Hungry March Band.
9:00: Film
11:30-1:00: After-party: Free Radeberger Pilsner at Matchless
Tickets: $9 at the door or online at going.com
Presented in partnership with: The Fledgling Fund, Cinereach, New York magazine, IndiePix, Shooting People, Council Member David Yassky & Automotive High School
BUY TICKETS | PROGRAM NOTES | MAP | SOUND FIX | THE HUNGRY MARCH BAND | NO IMPACT MAN BLOG
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9:00: Film
11:30-1:00: After-party: Free Radeberger Pilsner at Matchless
Tickets: $9 at the door or online at going.com
Presented in partnership with: The Fledgling Fund, Cinereach, New York magazine, IndiePix, Shooting People, Council Member David Yassky & Automotive High School
BUY TICKETS | PROGRAM NOTES | MAP | SOUND FIX | THE HUNGRY MARCH BAND | NO IMPACT MAN BLOG
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
On Saturday, June 6, Rooftop Films will be screening Cory McAbee's new film Stingray Sam on the roof Brooklyn Tech High School. Get tickets now before it sells out.
Before the show, Rooftop's Danielle Kourtesis and Julia Friedman discussed the film with Cory. Here's the scoop:
ROOFTOP FILMS: Give a brief description of your film for those who haven't seen it yet.
CORY MCABEE: Stingray Sam is a musical sci-fi western. It's written and designed for screens of all sizes.
RF: The film references the classic good guy/bad guy dichotomy. What about this dynamic interests you?
CM: I was using classic Americana themes while drawing on today's modern American environment as a landscape. It's obvious who the heroes are and who the villain is, but at the same time my good guys are violent thieves and ex-convicts while my bad guy is sheltered and immature.
RF: The film has an underlying feminist commentary. With the future of genetic engineering and cloning, is it possible that we'll encounter "powerful, upper-class" men who will simply want to reproduce themselves? Just how sexist is our society?
CM: The upper-class has always wanted to reproduce itself. That's why it's a strict tradition in some countries to marry within ones own class. In the US we are much more sly when it comes to drawing such lines, but we do draw them. As to how sexist our society is that would depend on what you would use as a gauge. If you compare us to some countries we're doing pretty good. If you try to figure it out by looking at the publicized issues of modern American feminists, then you're looking at the upper class again. The focus is usually on female executives competing for money with male executives. You never hear about the single mothers working in diners without any benefits or struggling on welfare so they can raise their own kids. Looking at how we treat poor women is the best way to gauge how sexist our society is.
RF: In the late 1940's, 50's, and 60's, the genres of musical and western existed simultaneously, then both faded out. Why revive both, and why, using both a historical and cinematic perspective, combine the genres into one movie?
CM: I like musicals, with the exception of most of them. I think it's a genre that can still be explored. Westerns tend to reflect the styles and ideas of when they are made. The trend of the singing cowboy was huge in its day. There were a lot of them, but it's not part of today's collective conscious. It was the product of what we now view as a naïve America. The whole idea of a singing cowboy fits perfectly into what I was trying to do.
RF: Like other science-fiction comedies, Stingray Sam uses humor to examine current social and scientific topics and comments on what society might look like if the technology ran amok. Do you feel that technology such as cloning and genetic engineering represent a threat to future society?
CM: I'm pretty sure that some of their uses will.
RF: Are you a full-time filmmaker? If not, what else are you up to?
CM: Right now I'm scheduling Stingray Sam at festivals and accompanying it whenever I can. We're also setting up an online store for all of our past film and music releases. We have a lot of new music that we plan to release as well.
RF: What is your next project?
CM: I'm hoping my next film will be one that I've written and storyboarded called Werewolf Hunters of the Midwest. I also have a couple other screenplays. I'll have to wait and see what happens.
CORY MCABEE: Stingray Sam is a musical sci-fi western. It's written and designed for screens of all sizes.
RF: The film references the classic good guy/bad guy dichotomy. What about this dynamic interests you?
CM: I was using classic Americana themes while drawing on today's modern American environment as a landscape. It's obvious who the heroes are and who the villain is, but at the same time my good guys are violent thieves and ex-convicts while my bad guy is sheltered and immature.
RF: The film has an underlying feminist commentary. With the future of genetic engineering and cloning, is it possible that we'll encounter "powerful, upper-class" men who will simply want to reproduce themselves? Just how sexist is our society?
CM: The upper-class has always wanted to reproduce itself. That's why it's a strict tradition in some countries to marry within ones own class. In the US we are much more sly when it comes to drawing such lines, but we do draw them. As to how sexist our society is that would depend on what you would use as a gauge. If you compare us to some countries we're doing pretty good. If you try to figure it out by looking at the publicized issues of modern American feminists, then you're looking at the upper class again. The focus is usually on female executives competing for money with male executives. You never hear about the single mothers working in diners without any benefits or struggling on welfare so they can raise their own kids. Looking at how we treat poor women is the best way to gauge how sexist our society is.
RF: In the late 1940's, 50's, and 60's, the genres of musical and western existed simultaneously, then both faded out. Why revive both, and why, using both a historical and cinematic perspective, combine the genres into one movie?
CM: I like musicals, with the exception of most of them. I think it's a genre that can still be explored. Westerns tend to reflect the styles and ideas of when they are made. The trend of the singing cowboy was huge in its day. There were a lot of them, but it's not part of today's collective conscious. It was the product of what we now view as a naïve America. The whole idea of a singing cowboy fits perfectly into what I was trying to do.
RF: Like other science-fiction comedies, Stingray Sam uses humor to examine current social and scientific topics and comments on what society might look like if the technology ran amok. Do you feel that technology such as cloning and genetic engineering represent a threat to future society?
CM: I'm pretty sure that some of their uses will.
RF: Are you a full-time filmmaker? If not, what else are you up to?
CM: Right now I'm scheduling Stingray Sam at festivals and accompanying it whenever I can. We're also setting up an online store for all of our past film and music releases. We have a lot of new music that we plan to release as well.
RF: What is your next project?
CM: I'm hoping my next film will be one that I've written and storyboarded called Werewolf Hunters of the Midwest. I also have a couple other screenplays. I'll have to wait and see what happens.
See the entire Stingray Sam series at Rooftop Films on June 6. Tickets are going fast, so buy them online here.
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One of the most beautiful shows Rooftop Films ever hosted was our 2007 edition of Dark 'Toons. The astonishing animator Brent Green showed his films and played live music with Brooklyn locals The Quavers. They are a band whose sound and focus is very much in line with Rooftop--quiet and surprisingly intricate songs about drifting through specific landscapes. I'm a huge fan, and hope to have them back on the roof again.
Vincent Moon on Blogotheque's "Take Away Shows" created a wonderful video with the Quavers playing two songs while floating down the Gowanus Canal (just one block away from Rooftop headquarters). I think it's a fantastic and perfectly executed idea (having Brooklyn indie film legend Jem Cohen piloting the boat adds to the mystique). Watch the video (below) and read the exciting story here.
>
THE QUAVERS - Sea Won't Take Long
by lablogotheque
Props to Rooftop's Managing Director Genevieve DeLaurier for digging up this video.
Vincent Moon on Blogotheque's "Take Away Shows" created a wonderful video with the Quavers playing two songs while floating down the Gowanus Canal (just one block away from Rooftop headquarters). I think it's a fantastic and perfectly executed idea (having Brooklyn indie film legend Jem Cohen piloting the boat adds to the mystique). Watch the video (below) and read the exciting story here.
>
THE QUAVERS - Sea Won't Take Long
by lablogotheque
Props to Rooftop's Managing Director Genevieve DeLaurier for digging up this video.
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