Rooftop Co-Presents: Alumni at Tribeca Film Fest

It’s only April, but it’s already proving to be a great year for Rooftop Films alumni and Film Fund Grantees. As usual there are lots of great films on the Tribeca slate – from first time filmmakers to tried and true indie favorites. In partnership with Tribeca, Rooftop will be co-presenting two fantastic feature films: 2013 Rooftop Filmmakers Fund Grantee Five Star by Keith Miller, and Andrew T. Betzer’s Young Bodies Heal Quickly, featuring 2013 Grantee Kate Lyn Sheil.

We are always proud to see the continued success of the filmmakers we’ve shown, and it’s even more exciting when they’re screening right here in New York City. With so much to choose from we hope you’ll take a minute to check out these great films – but get your tickets soon, because they’ll be packing the house!

FIVE STAR, Keith Miller *Co-presented by Rooftop Films
2013 Rooftop Films Equipment Grant Recipient
Films shown at Rooftop: Prince / William, 2010 and Welcome To Pine Hill, 2012

After John’s absent father is struck by a stray bullet, Primo takes it upon himself to verse the young boy in the code of the streets—one founded on respect and upheld by fear. A member of the Bloods since the age of twelve—both in the film and in reality—the streets of Brooklyn are all Primo has ever known. While John questions whether or not to enter into this life, Primo must decide whether to leave it all behind as he vows to become a better husband and father. Set during those New York summer weeks where the stifling heat seems to encase everything, Five Star plunges into gang culture with searing intensity. Director Keith Miller observes the lives of these two men with a quiet yet pointed distance, carefully eschewing worn clichés through its unflinching focus. Distinctions between fiction and real life remain intentionally ambiguous, allowing the story of these two men to resonate beyond the streets, as they face the question of what it means to be a man.

SCREENING TIMES
THU 4/17 9:00 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 7
FRI 4/18 8:30 PMAMC Loews Village 7 – 3
MON 4/21 8:30 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 4
SAT 4/26 2:30 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 4

YOUNG BODIES HEAL QUICKLY, Andrew T. Betzer *Co-presented by Rooftop Films
Featuring Kate Lyn Sheil, Rooftop Filmmakers Fund Grantee for her upcoming film with Zachary Treitz, Men Go To Battle. Kate also starred in Rooftop alum Amy Seimetz’ Sun Don’t Shine (2012), Sophia Takal’s Green (2011), and has had quite the busy year!
Two brothers drift aimlessly through their summer days, trashing abandoned cars and playing with paintball guns, until the accidental death of a young woman forces them to make drastic decisions. With few options, the duo flees across state lines to dodge arrest and search for refuge. Poetic, funny, and poignant, this quietly mesmerizing film follows the brothers’ transitions from boys to men through an absorption of the world—good and bad—around them.

SCREENING TIMES
SAT 4/19 6:30 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 6
MON 4/21 7:00 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 5
WED 4/23 4:00 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 5
FRI 4/25 7:00 PMAMC Loews Village 7 – 2

Fishtail, Andrew Renzi
Films shown at Rooftop: The Fort 2012, and Karaoke!, 2013

The iconic voice and noble philosophies proffered by Harry Dean Stanton punctuate this authentic look at life on the edge of wilderness. Andrew Renzi makes his directorial debut with this glimpse into the rugged lives of the cowboys of Montana’s Fishtail Basin Ranch as they survive another calving season. Set to a seraphic score, this captivating, atmospheric documentary is a film, as Stanton would say, for “those of earth-born passion.”

SCREENING TIMES
THU 4/17 9:45 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 8
SAT 4/19 7:30 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 9
MON 4/21 7:00 PMAMC Loews Village 7 – 2
THU 4/24 6:30 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 6

LAND HO!,  Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz
Film Shown at Rooftop: Quiet City, 2008 and Cold Weather, 2011
The Odd Couple takes its show on the road in this charming tale of shy Colin and blowhard Mitch, two former brothers-in-law on a vacation to Iceland to liven up their retirement years. Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz paint a lively picture of the twilight years as these two colorful characters skip from visiting lighthouses to lighting spliffs across dramatic Icelandic vistas. Abandon any skepticism you may harbor about the exciting lives of traveling septuagenarians.

SCREENING TIMES
TUE 4/22 9:30 PMSVA Theater 1 Silas
FRI 4/25 3:00 PMAMC Loews Village 7 – 1

THE OVERNIGHTERS, Jesse Moss
2012 Film Fund Grantee for Reality Party
Film shown at Rooftop: Full Battle Rattle, 2011

After hydraulic fracturing uncovers a rich oil field in North Dakota, a small conservative town is tested as hordes of unemployed men pour into its borders. Desperate men find compassion and refuge in the form of a local pastor. However, the more responsibility he shoulders, the more everything threatens to come crumbling down. A film of dualities, this provocative modern-day parable by documentarian Jesse Moss challenges the very fabric of our society.

SCREENING TIMES
TUE 4/22 9:00 PMAMC Loews Village 7
WED 4/23 8:30 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea

70 Hester Street, Casimir Nozkowski
Films shown at Rooftop: Childhood Sale, 2013, Internet Celebrities: A Fare Slice, 2012 Pants Problem, 2009

A documentary about director Casimir Nozkowski’s childhood home and how much of the past he could still see in it after he left. His story becomes a universal story about all childhood homes and the past lives and legacies of old buildings making room for new ones.

SCREENING TIMES
5:30 PM – THU 4/17 AMC LOEWS VILLAGE 7 – 3
4:00 PM – SUN 4/20 AMC LOEWS VILLAGE 7 – 2
9:00 PM – THU 4/24 AMC LOEWS VILLAGE 7 – 1
2:30 PM – SUN 4/27 TRIBECA CINEMAS THEATER 2

A PLACE CALLED PLUTO, Steve James
Film shown at Rooftop: At The Death House Door, 2008

Greg O’Brien, long-time Cape Cod reporter and newspaperman, has been diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s. Acting on instinct and journalistic grit, Greg has decided to face down the disease and his imminent decline by writing frankly about the journey.

SCREENING TIMES
Screening in Shorts Program: Before Long
SAT 4/1912:00 PMAMC Loews Village 7 – 1
MON 4/21 1:00 PMAMC Loews Village 7 – 2
FRI 4/25 6:45 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 8
SUN 4/27 1:30 PMTribeca Cinemas Theater 1

THE SEARCH FOR GENERAL TSO, Ian Cheney
2009 Rooftop Films and Edgeworks Post Production Grant Recipient for The City Dark
Films shown at Rooftop: The City Dark, 2011 and King Corn, 2007

There are 50 thousand Chinese restaurants in the U.S., yet one dish in particular has conquered the American culinary landscape with a force befitting its military moniker: General Tso’s Chicken. Who was General Tso and how did this dish become so ubiquitous? Ian Cheney’s delightfully insightful documentary charts the history of Chinese Americans through the surprising origins of this sticky, sweet, just-spicyenough dish that we have adopted as our own.

SCREENING TIMES
SUN 4/20 3:30 PMSVA Theater 1 SilasA
MON 4/21 3:00 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 7
THU 4/24 9:00 PMBow Tie Cinemas Chelsea 7