CINEMA EYE AWARDS
Last night I attended the inaugural Cinema Eye Honors, co-chaired by AJ Schnack and Thom Powers, produced by Danielle DiGiacomo, and presented by IndiePix at the IFC Center. I have never been a big fan of awards for art. I’m a big sports fan, and a competitive person, but I don’t judge success in anything […]
SXSW REVIEW: FICTION VS. NON-FICTION IN “WOODPECKER” AND OTHER FILMS
Late last night, after jumping from IFC’s My Morning Jacket / Yo La Tengo concert to the wide-open SXSW Closing Night party and finally onto Joel Heller‘s birthday, I wound up at the Magnolia diner, eating scrambled eggs and discussing scrambled documentaries. I was there with Dan Nuxoll from Rooftop, Joel, and Alex Karpovsky and […]
SXSW REVIEW: A NECESSARY DEATH
In a certain way, this entire review is a spoiler, so if you don’t want to know too much, skip my writings and go see the film. Herein, I don’t really tell you the plot–an exciting and gripping drama–but I do get at the essence of the film. I highly recommend it. In Daniel Stamm’s […]
SXSW REVIEW: AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR
Carroll Pickett was a minister in Huntsville, TX–a place best known for its many prisons and high number of executions–when two of his parishioners were taken hostage in an infamous prison riot in 1974. He was called in to try to broker peace, but his friends were eventually killed, and Pickett vowed to never return […]
ROOFTOP ALUM “FREEHELD” WINS AN OSCAR
I almost never agree with the Academy Awards, but 3 of the 4 nominees for Best Documentary Short Film played at Rooftop Films in 2007–Freeheld (Directed by Cynthia Wade), Salim Baba (Tim Sternberg) and Sari’s Mother (James Longley)–so you know I agreed with those choices. I’m thrilled that Brooklyn native Cynthia Wade (below, right) […]
IMPORTANT HEARING: SUPPORT FREE PUBLIC MEDIA
WE URGE YOU TO COME OUT AND SUPPORT MNN,PUBLIC ACCESS TV & COMMUNITY MEDIA THURS. FEB. 7th from 3-7pm! INFO Rooftop Films has a TV show on Manhattan Neighborhood Network, and the fate of our show, and of community media in New York City, is at stake. As you may know, MNN, the Public Access […]
FREE SCREENING – THIRD WARD, TX
Third Ward, TXa documentary about art, life and real estateDirected by Andrew GarrisonProduced by Nancy Bless & Noland WalkerFriday, Feb 1, 6:30pm@ Center for Architecture536 LaGuardia Place, NYCRSVP: www.aiany.com/calendar FREE Project Row Houses is the unlikely home of cutting-edge art and visionary thinking about inner-city renewal. Third Ward, TX introduces artists and neighbors who are […]
Sundance Review – CARL DEAL & TIA LESSIN’S “TROUBLE THE WATER”
There is no film I’m more pleased and proud to see here at Sundance than “Trouble the Water,” directed by Rooftop’s neighbors and friends Carl Deal and Tia Lessin. Dan and I first saw a rough cut of this film about a year ago and the material was so powerful and the story so compelling […]
Sundance Review – STACY PERALTA’S “MADE IN AMERICA”
“Made in America” is a radical film about the history of African-Americans in the infamous neighborhood of South Central, Los Angeles. The film outlines the early migrations of former slaves to Los Angeles, and discusses the post-WWII boom of skilled industrial careers which brought large numbers of blacks to LA for the first time. But […]
Sundance Review – KATRINA BROWNE’S “TRACES OF THE TRADE”
Katrina Browne can trace her family’s history back to the early American colonial days . . . back when they ran one of the largest slave trade operations in the world. What do you do with knowledge like that? It’s been at least 140 years since anyone in your family owned or traded other human […]