The Way We Get By
Deeply philosophical, desperately inspiring, and darkly hilarious short films about the illogical lives we lead.

FRI., JULY 20, 2007
8:30 - Live Music by Marcellus Hall
9:00 - Movies Begin
11:30-1AM -After Party: Open Bar at Bar Matchless
(557 Manhattan Avenue @ Driggs)
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.

The Way We Get By
Life is not logical. There are times when a rain cloud seems to hover over your head for weeks at a time (Ce Que Je Suis). People you respect and love can frustrate you terribly (My Dad's Hair), and people you despise might succeed beyond belief (My Friends). And don't even try to understand the world's rationale when god and the devil start mixing things up, flinging elephants and Eiffel Towers at each other (Instinct).

And so we come up with ingenious, unexpected and illogical ways to get by. Some folks cling to cultish rituals -- such as British football fandom (Head Space). Others expel their heartbreak through personalized science fiction (The Writer) or displace their frustration in the unusually rehabilitative use of sex toys (Real Doll Doctor). Still others make their lives seemingly harder -- by living like hermits in the midst of big cities (Sonneman), by caring for the hopeless (Freebox & Sari's Mother) -- and find solace in lives of quiet love and devotion. This program of short films is deeply philosophical, desperately inspiring, and darkly hilarious. C'est la vie.

THE FILMS:
Ce Que Je Suis (Jons Clerte | France | 4:11)
An adorable animated musical number about a happy-go-lucky girl who can't seem to get out from under her personal rain cloud.

Afraid So (Jay Rosenblatt | San Francisco | 3:00)
Jay Rosenblatt constructs a philosophy of fatalism from a poem of rhetorical questions, answered with frightening found footage.

My Dad’s Hair (James Kenny | San Francisco | 4:45)
Why was it so messed up? A son studies insect evolution to search for answers in his own history with his father.

How to Cope with Depression (Lev | San Francisco | 2:00)
The Woody Allen of low-fi animation returns to Rooftop, as Lev imparts advice has received from people of many walks of life. I don't think he listened. (Part of Lev's series "The 7 Habits of Highly Negative People.")

Head Space (Yann Demange | United Kingdom | 3:00)
An ethnographic study of the rabid fans of England's Chelsea Football Club. As the film soberly advises, if you chant rhythmically for 90 minutes, "you’ll be out of your mind. And to go out of your mind, once a day, is incredibly useful."

Sonnemann
(Heidi Brandenburg & Mathew Orzel | United Kingdom | 10:19)
A documentary film that shows the life of a man who pursues his dream of living a life with nature, away from the conventions of Western society and his discontents with the modern world. This gorgeous film is an observational piece that explores the importance of finding happiness and reaching personal goals, no matter how they are perceived by the outside world.

Sari’s Mother (James Longley | Iraq | 21:00)
The Academy-Award nominated director of Iraq in Fragments tells the story of a mother in Iraq who tries to find medical care for her 10-year-old son Sari. He contracted AIDS during a blood transfusion and is tormented by pain and fatigue. The labyrinth of Iraqi health care is unfathomable, and Sari's mother gets sent around in circles. The war and the terror make it hard to determine who she can and cannot trust. But Sari's mother is convinced that her son deserves the best possible care, so she persists. That she commits so much of her soul to his care represents the antithesis of logic, and the definition of love.

First Firing (Kelly Oliver & Keary Rosen | Union, NJ | 2:38)
The inimitable Keary Rosen finds connections and correlations the rest of us would never consider, much to our delight. "Puppy dog tails to liver spots. After all that work I wasn't invited to the first firing"- K. Rosen

Real Doll Doctor (Nicholas Rucka | Portland, OR | 14:00)
An eerie factory constructs life-like sex dolls. A partially-crippled tattoo-artist brings them back to life.

My Friends (Lev | San Francisco | 2:20)
All of the filmmaker’s friends have very successful careers, but he swears he isn’t envious. (Part of Lev's series "Tales of Mere Existence II.")

Freebox (Shandor Garrison | Brooklyn | 23:00)
A troubled teenager experiments with the menacing power of HIV, while his unlikely mentor struggles to protect the boy and keep him from hurting others. This rich, realist film brilliantly explores the complex psychology of a young man who is both a victim and an aggressor, who rejects attachment with cliché disdain, but longs for a meaningful relationship.

The Writer (Carson D. Mell | Los Angeles | 4:00)
" The monsters of your fantasy are the women of my reality." An animated sci-fi writer explains the bitter origins of his novels.

Instinct (Rao Heidmets | Estonia | 10:00)
A fabulously weird animated retelling of the biblical creation myth, as god and the devil playfully compete to populate an Eden which teeters precariously in space.

Music: Marcellus Hall
If it's heart-wrenching, self-aware, wry tales of love and redemption you want, get in line. Marcellus Hall's new sound echoes his previous stints in both Railroad Jerk and White Hassle, but takes them to another level. A level where all other bands blush in embarrassment. This project takes the proverbial folk-garage genre by the horns and literally turns it on its head, or whatever.

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.