Roof Garden Rendez Vous in Montreal Thursday, September 1st, 2005 7:00 - Live music 8:00 - Eclectic environmental short films In the Tele universite de l'Universite du Quebec Rooftop Garden 4750 rue Henri Julien in Montreal Tickets are $5.00 Canadian and are available at the door Dress warmly (it can get chilly on the roof) In the event of rain, the show will be indoors at the same location Roof Garden Rendez Vous in Montreal One of the highlights of our winter was our trip to snowy Montreal in February. The air outside was frigid, but the crowd inside was warm and welcoming and we have been thinking about going back up north ever since. On September 1st we finally get to return, as Rooftop Films is travelling to Montreal with another program of wild, intelligent short films from all over the world. But this time it is even better, as the weather is warmer and we will be screening outdoors, on the roof of the Tele universite, nestled within Alternative's and Santropol Roulant's terrace garden. Since the screening will be taking place in a garden on an urban rooftop, we have put together a program of films that feature novel perspectives on contemporary environmental issues. But though the program is socially and environmentally conscious, it is first and foremost fun, and though it will include serious personal documentaries, it will also feature wild and hilarious animation, extraordinary experimental installations, shirtless men running through rainforests, ducklings jumping out of trees, frogs being flushed down toilets, buildings built like bugs, robots conquering the world, babys blowing up the world, and existential declarations by francophone crabs. This will be our first screening on a roof in a foreign land, and we couldn't be more excited about it. The Films: La Revolution des Crabes (Arthur De Pins / Paris / 4:50) A charming French animation about a race of shellfish that have collectively internalized the concept of being trapped in a shell. Westless American (Erik Nelson / New York, NY / 5:05) An exhilarating document of one nature nut's manic shirtless sprint through all the great national parks of North America. Curated by the Rural Route Film Festival The Bear Hunter (Mary Robertson / Northeastern Pennsylvania Woods / 12:00) The story of a deer hunter who has never shot a bear in all his 45 years of hunting, but has always wanted to. When he finally does, though, his reaction is surprisingly melancholy. Ride of the Mergansers (Steve Furman / Circle Pines, MN / 11:00) The Hooded Merganser is a rare and reclusive duck found only in North America. Every spring, in the Great Lakes region, the wary hen lays and incubates her eggs in a nest high in the trees. Just 24 hours after hatching, the tiny ducklings must make the perilous leap to the water below to begin life in the wild. This age-old rite is rarely observed by humans. But now, thanks to the determination of a visionary first-time filmmaker, this hidden drama is brought to the screen. www.rideofthemergansers.com Painter of the Land (Joel Fendelman / Lacoste, France / 8:00) A lovely quiet documentary about the beauty and tragedy of farming: the farmer describes watching the most spectacular cherry crops destroyed in a 5-minute hailstorm and pruning an olive branch to let a new one grow. All Right (Aleesa Cohene / Toronto / 7:00) Carving her surgically precise editing knife into the flaccid arguments of Canadian immigration policy and reassessing vintage training videos, broadcast voices and homegrown horror fantasies. www.vtape.org The Stork (Nina Paley / New York, NY / 4:30) . . . is the bird of war. A cheery animated film about babies, bombs and suburban blight. Courtesy of Square Footage Films Here After (Patrick Jolly, Rebecca Trost, Inger Lise Hansen / Ireland and Germany / 12:00) In 2004, the city of Dublin decided that the giant Ballymun housing projects were so wrought with violence, poverty and decay, that there was no hope in saving them. Over 30,000 people were relocated to new, smaller scale housing, and the giants were torn down. But before their final destruction, the city commissioned works of art to document their existence. This beautiful experimental film gives life to the detritus, with crashing mattresses, imploding couches, dancing floor tiles and more. With a combination of stop-motion animation and live action destruction, the directors cast a somber horror-film tone and the sense that the buildings long for their people. Frog (Chris Conforti / New York, NY / 3:54) A frantic four minutes in the life of one very unfortunate frog on the run from the madness of suburban sprawl. Courtesy of Square Footage Films Atlas Gets a Drink (Mike Overbeck / New York, NY / 3:30) A farcical animated vision of the breakdown of the laws of nature in which cows consume rabbits, killer whales brandish hatchets and the French rush into war. Courtesy of Square Footage Films Communications Factory (Jen Sachs / Los Angeles / 6:30) The irony of our modern communication technology is that in a world of cell-phones and email, face to face interactions are becoming a thing of the past. At the communications factory, one man creates a new, more basic use for a microchip, refracting a rainbow of light as a romantic beacon. Nature's Blueprints (Mike Seely / Berkeley, CA / 10:00) Director of Hush (Rooftop 7/9/04). Architect Eugene Tsui plumbs the depths of nature's wisdom seeking inspiration for his architectural designs. Nature's Blueprints takes you on a trip to the edges of Tsui's imagination. His fantastic structures provoke questions about the future of our built environments and our relationship to the natural world. Curated by the hi-lo Film Festival The Fan and the Flower (Bill Plympton / New York, NY / 7:00) A strangely optimistic animated vision of the potential for peace and prosperity and the possibility of a beneficent marriage between nature and technology. The newest animated short from 'toon master Bill Plympton features the voice of Paul Giamatti (Sideways, American Splendor) and tells the story of an unlikely and tragically unconsummated love affair between a house plant and a lighting fixture. Courtesy of Square Footage Films