ROOFTOP FILMS

Youth Power
Friday, August 20, 2004
8:30 - Live Underground Hip-Hop from Africa
9:00 - Shorts films made by the next generation of filmmakers

At the River Project, Pier 26 at N. Moore Street, on the Hudson.
Dress warmly (it's cooler by the river than in the streets).
In the event of rain the show will be indoors and under tents at the same location.

Rooftop Films, The Global Action Project, Paper Tiger Television, Media Rights, the Learn Film Festival, and the Children's Media Project present Rooftop Films' annual Youth Power Program, an amazing night of major films made by minors. The availability of quality video technology and the work of wonderful educational organizations like those listed above has made it possible for children to begin learning the art and craft of filmmaking to a degree never before imaginable and has enabled young filmmakers to express themselves and examine their world in a medium previously available only to adult film professionals. The result is that youths can come to programs such as this one and see artistic representations of the world through the eyes of people with whom they share similar hopes, concerns, and anxieties. At the same time, adults can look at youth not as it was, not as they remember it, but as it is, here and now. Whereas an adult filmmaker can't help but saddle his stories of adolescence and childhood with some degree of nostalgia, a young videographer or animator can represent those most anxious and humiliating and exhilarating years of life without having to step back away from them. In our Youth Power program, Rooftop Films strives to show you those moments up close.

Co-curated by the Children's Media Project and the Hamptons International Youth Media Program, which presents beautiful, startling, hilarious animated works made by young filmmakers from across the country and selected by the Children's Media Project, including everything from delicate computer animation, gorgeous somber hand drawn works, bizarre claymation, and anarchic surreal comedy.

THE FILMS:

Holla Back Dubai (Global Action Project, 7:00) ***
Carrying on in the spirit of class pen pal projects but updated for the video age, a class of kids in Washington Heights send personal videos back and forth to a group of students in the United Arab Emirates. The Global Action Project worked with them to document the project.

Cloud Warriors (John and Henry Bergin, 12:00) *
A fantastical mix of animation and live action, imagined and written by little Henry and produced with help from dad.

Rebel (Lower East Side Girls Club, 7:00) ***
Stylish stop motion mania from the ladies of the LESGC.

The Werewolf (Andy Cahill, 2:49) **
Dark animated retelling of an ancient myth.

Fenced Out (Paper Tiger Television, 21:00)
The kids at Paper Tiger Television document the lives of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender teens of color who found refuge hanging out on the Christopher Street pier until they were displaced by New York's waterfront revitalization program. The kids themselves realize the need for rejuvenating land along the city's waterways but also wonder where to turn.

INTERMISSION

Five Cent Dime (Max Landman, 6:30) **
A surreal claymation meditation on commercialism and capitalism featuring a very hungry house.

The City without a Ghetto: Public Housing in New York City (CUP & City-as-School, 20:00)
In the spring of 2003, people from the Center for Urban Pedagogy and City-as-School looked into public housing in New York City. After visiting public housing developments, checking out government offices, and interviewing federal bureaucrats, tenant organizers, architects, ideologues, academics, and more, they made several films to communicate what they learned. These two, by Neil Condon and David Gonzalez, talk about the history of public housing and where it might be going.

Un Reflexion (Nate Ten, 3:14) **
A kinetic and explosive animated manifestation of youthful anxiety and depression.

The Smoke Has Cleared (Ali Yaremko, 2:20) **
Gorgeous, macabre stop-motion animation about mourning and loss.

Ergophobia (Brad Schaffer, 07:55) **
Wild tale of a procrastinator in peaceful Benton City whose laziness leads to the creation of a giant hybrid Crabduck that nearly destroys the little metropolis.

Puppets (Ken Roy: 4:55) **
Beautiful, peaceful CGI animation about an old man and his inspiring puppet plays.

THE MUSIC:
Nomadic Wax Presents: African Underground: Underground Hip-Hop from Africa featuring Meta: Hip-Hop/Reggae from Dakar, Senegal; Dola: Old School Hip-Hop from Tanzania; Chosan: Club Bangin Hip-Hop from Sierra Leone

with DJ Benny Beats

THE SPONSORS:
This show is sponsored in part by Philip Rosenberg. To make a tax-deductible donation to this show or to another, please visit www.rooftopfilms.com/donate.html.