INDUSTRIANCE(TM): Fish Kill Flea
Feature documentary directed by Brian Cassidy, Aaron Hillis, Jennifer Loeber

A stylized, witty and heartbreaking portrait of a once thriving mall in upstate New York that is now home to little more than a ragtag flea market, living proof that the American Dream is in perpetual decay.

***BUY TICKETS*** | ***WATCH THE TRAILER***
SAT., July 21, 2007
8:30PM - Light.Work.Mood.Disorder -
Live music and film by Anthony Burr & Jennifer Reeves (details)
9:00PM - Presentation by Interboro Partners, in association with The Center for Urban Pedagogy. (details)
9:15PM - Fish Kill Flea

On the roof of The Old American Can Factory
CLICK for DIRECTIONS
232 Third Street @ Third Avenue
Gowanus, Brooklyn (Between Carroll gardens and Park Slope)
In the event of rain the show is indoors at the same location.
Tickets -$8 at the door or $5 online HERE with code: RFJULY
Presented in partnership with - IFC.com, New York magazine &
XØ Projects, Inc, The Reeler, The Center for Urban Pedagogy and Interboro Partners
This screening is part of INDUSTRIANCE(TM). (details)

Fish Kill Flea
(Brian Cassidy, Aaron Hillis , Jennifer Loeber | New York | 56 min)

The Filmmakers will be present for the screening, and a Q and A after the film. Prior to the screening, The Center for Urban Pedagogy and Interboro Partners will co-present a panel on the attempted rejuvenation of the Fishkill mall with Interboro Partners.

In the small New York town of Fishkill, the Dutchess Shopping Mall had been an epicenter of both commerce and community in the 1970's. But as the laws of American capitalism perpetuate, newer retail stores and shinier malls stole its crowds and rendered it obsolete without much fanfare. After the worn-down mall closed for business in the '90s, the empty shell began to serve a new function to the people of the surrounding area. An oddly vibrant flea market sprung up inside and along the edges of the mall's skeleton, filled with crafts, antiques, hardware, specialty foods, heavy metal memorabilia, and lots and lots of junk.

For much of the week, the former grounds of the Dutchess remained just one of the many dilapidated eyesores that litters the country like a loose network of graveyards. But on weekends, it was suddenly populated by a diverse collection of eccentric vendors and meandering bargain hunters, selling their wares or browsing through its unexpected hodgepodge of Nazi paraphernalia , bongs, and ratty old Cabbage Patch Kids.

Cassidy, Hillis and Loeber began shooting Fish Kill Flea to sustain the memory of the flea market and the unusual neighborhood it had created out of dead space, but they learned that the mall would soon be demolished to make room for yet another corporate home-improvement store -- the third of its franchise within 12 miles. The vendors and customers were inevitably going to scatter and this unique subculture would be erased forever, thus creating a fascinating paradox: the flea market would expire, destroyed by the disposability of our fast-food culture... yet it never could have existed without the mall's death in the first place.

It's a sad fact of life that this cannibalistic cycle is destined to repeat itself forever. Understanding that, what can we say is legitimately worth preserving? What defines a landmark? And who earns the right to answer these questions? Considering the joys, amenities and special moments the mall once offered, is it all that strange to eulogize "The Great Palace of Commerce?"

Get more info at www.fishkillflea.com

Prior to the feature film:
8:30 PM - Light.Work.Mood.Disorder
Film artist Jennifer Reeves and musician Anthony Burr collaborated to make this live film and music performance, which mixes and subverts symbols of science, industry, medicine and illness. Multiple screens and live music immerse the audience in intense color, rhythmic molecular forms and textures, and morphing frequencies. Sound and image are broken down to the particle: the single frame, the digital sample. 16mm 20th century educational films are literally sewn together with melted down pharmaceuticals affixed directly to the film. The projector acts as a microscope examining crystallized antibiotics, heart, and mood medications, forming a concentrated fusion with pulsating electronics and live multi-tonal bass clarinet. Illustrations of brain dendrites, synapses, waveforms and assembly lines personify the movement of frequencies and light that envelop the audience. This associative meditation on invention and manufacture, illness and industrialized medicine, creates a bold impression of the century of celluloid.

9:00 PM - In the Meantime, Life with Landbanking
A slide presentation by Daniel D'Oca of Interboro Partners, in association with The Center for Urban Pedagogy.
Interboro Partners is a New York-based research and design group. Its subject is the extraordinary, exciting complexity of the contemporary city, which it engages in writing, teaching, and professional practice. Interboro Partners is Tobias Armborst, Daniel D'Oca, and Georgeen Theodore. Daniel D'Oca will be speaking about In the Meantime, Life with Landbanking, Interboro's award-winning proposal to re-imagine the Dutchess Mall in Fishkill, NY.

The Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) makes educational projects about places and how they change. Their projects bring together art and design professionals - artists, graphic designers, architects, urban planners - with community-based advocates and researchers - organizers, government officials, academics, service-providers and policymakers. These partners work with CUP staff to create projects ranging from high school curricula to educational exhibitions.

Their work grows from a belief that the power of imagination is central to the practice of democracy, and that the work of governing must engage the dreams and visions of citizens. CUP believes in the legibility of the world around us. What can we learn by investigation? By learning how to investigate, we train ourselves to change what we see.

Rooftop Films is presenting this event in partnership with The Reeler.
The Reeler is an acclaimed Web site covering the latest in New York City film news and culture, from the art house to the red carpet. The site reports from numerous premieres, festivals and special screenings while bringing in-depth features and breaking news to readers 24/7. Editor S.T. VanAirsdale recently launched the weekly news and interview show ReelerTV as well as a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive NYC cinema calendar; visit TheReeler.com for more information and to join the site's mailing list.

The Reeler is absolutely our favorite film news website and the first thing we read every morning, and so we are thrilled to be presenting this great program with them. Check out their fantastic website and find out EVERYTHING there is to know about film in New York.

Seriously, they cover everything.



INDUSTRIANCE (TM) is an ongoing series of programs about the changing industrial landscape in urban and rural America and beyond. Performances, films, exhibitions and discussions explore the manufacturing and related sectors of our economy and society, examining the impact of a globalized economy, aging infrastructure and property development on the lives and places where things were or are still being made.