Dan Asher: Near Life Experience
Feature Length documentary by Stephanie Schwam
Three years in the life of the high-functioning autistic artist Dan Asher, his rants and raves, his postures and funks, as he goes about the Herculean task of mounting his next New York gallery show.

Tickets
Friday, August 31st, 2007
8:30 - Live Music
9:00 - Movies Begin
11:30-1AM -After Party: Open Bar at Bar Matchless
Courtesy of Dewar's Scotch Whisky and Martin Miller's Gin

On the lawn of Automotive High School
CLICK for DIRECTIONS
50 Bedford Ave, between N. 12th and Lorimer, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
In the event of rain the show is indoors at the same location.

Book Drive at All Automotive Shows:

Donate your old books to the Automotive library! Details HERE

Tickets -$8 at the door or online HERE
Ticket include FREE open bar at Bar Matchless

Presented in partnership with - IFC.com, New York magazine & Automotive High School.

Dan Asher: Near Life Experience
(Stephanie Schwam| New York| 1:15:00)

Dan is a picture-perfect example of the eccentric artist: wild-eyed, bushy-haired, given to flights of fancy, prone to bouts of depression. But upon closer inspection, what one finds is a man in a constant state of conflict with his surroundings, able to communicate best by means of his art.

Dan is autistic. Dan is manic-depressive and bipolar. Different doctors say different things. He is a magnificent pain and has the biggest heart of anyone you know. Unable or unwilling to hold down a regular job, Dan barely scrapes by on his art sales, and has been doing so for over 30 years - by the skin of his teeth.

In the 1970’s he haunted the CBGB punk scene. In the 1980’s he circled Soho. In the '90’s he explored the world, from Antarctica to Mongolia and back. Over the course of his career, Dan has made and squandered fortunes, always returning to the knife's edge of creditors and eviction notices as though to a state of rest.

Near Life Experience takes the viewer on the rollercoaster ride that is Dan's existence. The film begins with the inception of his latest project, a photographic exploration of Backyard Wrestling, where amateur fanatics beat themselves bloody in the ring. It ends with the last minute demise of his long-awaited solo show -- another opportunity squandered by Dan's inability to interact with the world in an “appropriate” way– and then he surprises us again by parlaying that disaster into something even better.

--From Independentfeatures.com

Preceded by:
Ciguia (Alberto Gonzalez Vazquez| Spain | 2:15)
A clever short animation about a man who may be a surgeon, may be a musician, or may merely be attempting to seduce you over dinner. Regardless, you needn't worry about his tremor.

Supposed To (Aleesa Cohene| Canada | 7:00)
TV movies, refracted and recut, holding up a mirror to our daily lives, and smashing through it.


Book Drive for Automotive High School
As part of the their ongoing efforts to improve the educational environment for their students, this year Automotive High School is making efforts to substantially expand their library. Of course, the most important thing in the library is the books, so if you want to help out a public high school that is chronically short of funding, drop off your old books at any Rooftop show at Automotive High and they will be added to the library's collection. Pretty much any and every book is useful, but remember that these are high school students, so your graduate school text books might not be that useful to them! But novels, age-appropriate textbooks, non-fiction and historical books and just about everything else is very useful and would be much appreciated.