Industriance™Shorts: Disaster Management
The Space Age goes terribly wrong

***BUY TICKETS***
SAT., JUNE 16, 2007
8:30 - Live Music by Zeke Healey (click for details)
9:00 - Movies Begin
11-1AM -FREE Wine reception in the courtyard,
Courtesy of Beaujolais and licensedtochill.org.

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: RFJUNE
Presented in partnership with - IFC.com, New York magazine &
XØ Projects, Inc

Technology is supposed to make our lives easier. Our growing understanding of biology leads to health breakthroughs that extend life and eliminate stress. Innovations in construction allow us to populate previously uninhabitable areas and explore new frontiers. Ubiquitous video cameras, widespread TV distribution, and massive computer storage mean that no moments of life need go unrecorded, nothing forgotten or lost.

Only it never works out that way. Medical "improvements" take over our lives (Metalosis Meligna) and human psychology runs amok (Joe: Body Electric). The places we inhabit become poisonous (Toxic Brooklyn) and the machines we build revolt (Lost Cargo). Worldwide images in every home lead to domestic stagnation (Message for the Neighbors) and the collection of all recorded media leads to a collective memory loss (Dear Bill Gates).

Fortunately, as long as we're still alive, observing man's misguided progress tends to be more amusing than alarming. In this program of films which splits atomic particles and unsuspecting gerbils with equal aplomb,
crazy cartoons, comic documentaries and fantastical fiction demonstrates some rather riotous disaster management.

Professor Nieto: Carlitopolis (Luis Nieto | Colombia | 3:30)
We all know that gerbils procreate quickly. Nieto has found a way to make these resilient little critters replicate even faster.

Joe: Body Electric (Jack Beck | Rochester, NY | 11:20)
Joe the Electric Eel teaches us about our own worst impulses. Walt Whitman's love for human individuality crashes into Stanley Milgram's exploration of human being's inability to disobey orders in this deftly thought provoking collage of educational films.

Toxic Brooklyn (Trace Crutchfield & Vice: VBS TV | Brooklyn | 7:00)
Real estate agents will tell you that Williamsburg is one of the hottest and most active neighborhoods in the country. But environmental scientists and unhealthy residents will also tell you that Williamsburg is pretty “hot,” if not downright radioactive.
**This film is part of a 7-part series about the North Brooklyn environment. Watch them all at VBS.tv.

Atomium in/out (Marie-Francois Plissart | Belgium | 24:00)
Built for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair, the 335-foot tall Atomium statue represents a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. As a monument to modernity's understanding of the micro and macro worlds, it had become one of Belgium's greatest tourist attraction. This gorgeously dislocating documentary chronicles the Atomium's major renovations.

Profession Nieto: Far West (Luis Nieto | Colombia | 4:00)
Nieto returns with a new way to make animation quick, easy and painless. Just keep your thumb out of the frame.

Dear Bill Gates (Sarah J. Christman | Philadelphia, PA | 16:46)
A simple correspondence evolves into a poetic visual essay that draws unexpected connections among mining, memory and Microsoft.

Metalosis Meligna (Floris Kaayk | The Netherlands | 7:26)
A sobering documentary about the bionic man.

Energie! (Thorsten Fleisch | Germany | 5:03)
TV screen comes alive with all types of energy.

Message for the Neighbors (Pritt Tender | Estonia | 11:00)
In this charming animation, a little box of a TV-set repairman realizes that it is the world that needs to be repaired.

Postman (Mischa Rozema & Postpanic | The Netherlands | 1:45)
In the post-panic world, there will be no need to worry about things like nuclear fallout. Just wait till you see why..

THE MUSIC:

Rooftop Artistic Director Mark Rosenberg met Zeke when he was performing in the subway years ago and Zeke has been gracious enough to bring his folksy acoustic guitar blues back time and again. His beautiful music is always welcome on the roof.