SXSW 7AM
7am and I’m on my way to Austin, where it’s 82 degrees and there are about 82 films I want to see. I’ve only got so much time, though, so I’ve had to narrow it down a bit. The short list includes: Third Ward, TX (Andrew Garrison); Hard Road Home (Macky Alston / Andrea Meller); […]
ROOFTOP SHORTS: FRITZ DONNELLY’S HOW DRIVE THE CAR
ARTFUL POLITICAL DOC: LETTERS FROM BEIRUT
Letters from Beirut is a political documentary that owes more to Chris Marker than Michael Moore, and it’s worth seeking out. Thu. Mar 1, 2007, 9:00 pm at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, as part of Alwan’s New York Arab and South Asian Film Festival. Last week at Bluestockings Books, I attended a “Through The […]
ROOFTOP SHORTS: DAILY MONSTERS
Every day deserves its own demon, and Stefan G. Bucher has spawned a world full of them, which other net-trawlers have been happily embellishing and giving greater life to. Every day for 100 days, Bucher made a little ink splot on a piece of paper, then sketched a funny monster out of it, filming the […]
ONE RAT AND OTHER SHORTS COMING TO IFC
Oscar nominated shorts will be screening at the IFC Center starting this Friday, Feb. 16. Frankly, most of the live-action stuff that was nominated was a little schmaltzy–lots of children breaking the rules to do what’s right, saving their villages from the cynicism of the elders, etc. But the animation is generally pretty great and […]
RADIATION AND HALF COCKED SPECIAL SCREENINGS AND DVD RELEASE
“Hawley and Galinsky know how to make pictures that shudder with feeling.” –Manohla Dargis The classic underground Indie-Rock road movies Half-Cocked and Radiation are coming out on DVD this week and you should all come out to the special double-feature at the Anthology Film Archives tomorrow (Tuesday) night. Long-time Rooftop Films fans probably know a […]
ROOFTOP FILMS: SKIZZ CYCK’S MANAGER’S CORNER
In honor of the start of Spring Training, here is Skizz Cyzyk’s animation set to an infamous radio show featuring the foul-mouthed Orioles manager, Earl Weaver. There will not be many interviews like this one broadcast in 2007, but I bet that the obscenities directed at A-Rod this year will be a lot more profane […]
YUP, LUCAS IS CRAZY
Or at least Lucas has really, really bad taste–especially when his own films are concerned. This isn’t very indie-film of me to post, but the Hot Blog just posted this: George Lucas, giving the award to Sid Ganis, who was the in-house publicist on Star Wars: Episode Five – The Empire Strikes Back, said, “Sid […]
THE PRISONER AT STRANGER THAN FICTION
Daniel Gold and Judith Helfand’s Everything’s Cool and Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein’s The Prisoner: Or, How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair will be playing as part of Thom Powers’ Stranger Than Fiction series later this month at IFC. I haven’t seen Everything’s Cool yet, but Mark an I both got a sneak […]
ROOFTOP SHORTS: KATHY HUANG’S NIGHT VISIONS
A short, melancholy portrait of Blake Roberts, an Iraq vet just back from the war. Honest and direct, he shared with Kathy tales of daily life in the barracks as well as intimate, tragic moments. Though Blake does not question the motives of the U.S. government in Iraq or the missions he completed, he nevertheless […]