Rooftop Shots
Friday, September 3, 2004
8:30 - Live indie-pop by The Natural History
9:00 - The sharpest short films from Rooftop '04
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 is indoors and under tents at the same location.
Rooftop Shots
The Summer Series 2004 has been incredible for Rooftop Films, thanks to you, our audience, to our staff, volunteers and hosts, and to the filmmakers. You came with us to five locations throughout the lower half of the city—The Old American Can Factory (Gowanus, Brooklyn), the Lunatarium (Dumbo, Brooklyn), Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (Lower East Side, Manhattan), the River Project (Tribeca, Manhattan), and on Governors Island. You've joined us for thirteen shows with themes ranging from "Rural Route Films" to "New York Non-Fiction," from "Sketches, Scratches and Cartoons" to "Un-American Films." You watched home movies, political movies, irreverent movies, first films by teenagers and the latest films from veteran indie pros. In the summer of 2004, Rooftop Films screened 140 films to over 4,000 people. Whew.
Tonight, our closing night, we present a joyous, whirlwind recap. Here is a show that is stunning and fun. A show that will make you tap your feet, hold your sides, wipe your eyes. A show that represents the diversity of our programming and acts as a coherent whole. We are celebrating the short film as a genre—films we call "shots" because they hit you with the speed of a smile and the power of a pistol. Films defined not by their length, but by their intensity and individuality.
Because in a program with this many subjects and styles, the one common thread that weaves them all together is simply that each has one single thread. Each of these films focuses on a single idea and pursues it with fervor. The struggle for individuality—a shoot out in a locked room; a song to separate yourself from the crowd; being the last person in the world doing what you do—is what binds these films together and what makes them unique. So whether you are watching a call to help orphans in Africa, a filmmaker's memory of their father or grandfather, or a bunch of birdies, kitties and ogres singing and dancing, we hope these films will inspire you. Yes, you.
THE FILMS:
Handgun (Sam Crees & Alex Minnick, 0:50)
Shown at: Sketches, Scratches and Cartoons (07/23/04)
In a dreary apartment within a world of pure inchoate and incomprehensible drama, a homunculus stares down destiny, and destiny wins.
Bathtime in Clerkenwell (Alesky Budovsky, 4:00) * Sketches, Scratches and Cartoons (07/23/04)
An irresistible music video for an infectious song by (The Real) Tuesday Weld. Black and white birds shoot out of cuckoo clocks and spread into the town of Clerkenwell, angering sleeping residents, cuckoo kings and cops to the bouncy rhythm of a chopped up old groove.
Richard's Cash Register (Lev, 1:00) Home Movies (06/25/04)
Lev mopes and plots to meet pretty girls at work.
Appointment with Mr. Roberts (Bert Shapiro, 5:00) New York Non-Fiction (07/16/04)
Nowadays, with Rogaine, Propecia and fancy surgeries, the days of the toupee may be numbered. But as with many dying crafts, there's more lyricism in a handmade hairpiece than in anything Pfizer can make. Plus funny shots of combing a dummy's head.
My Father's Lunch (Tony Mendoza, 7:00) ** Home Movies (06/25/04)
Tony's father proves that you can stake a claim to individuality by doing the same thing every day for 25 years. Some of the great moments in videography come about when you set off to record a ritual that hasn't changed in decades only to find that you have recorded an epochal shift and that nothing will ever be as it was. And then you have to go to McDonald's.
Taperecording (Benning Puren, 6:00) Home Movies (06/25/04)
Benning's grandmother explains the last bits of meaningful communication between herself and her dying husband of 50 years.
Like Twenty Impossibles (Annemarie Jacir, 17:00) Undocumented (08/13/04)
Using a neo-realist narrative style in the vein of the new Iranian masters, Annemarie Jacir tells an all-too-true story of Palestinan film crew stopped at an Israeli checkpoint in Palestine.
I Promise Africa (Jerry Henry, 2:30)*** Home Movies (06/25/04)
A sweet short song of regret dedicated to a very troubled place, putting real faces on the statistics of the AIDS pandemic.
The Beautiful and the Fine (Rob Tyler, Adrienne Leverette and Eric Schopmeyer. 9:00) Home Movies (06/25/04)
Mike Wilder says that if you cut off a leaf from a Drosera Nitidula, lay it in the soil, and give it water and light, an exact clone of the original plant will grow back in its place. In this way is our world amazing and unique. The Portland, Oregon, film collective Archipelago returns to Rooftop (A Thing Of Wonder, 6/18/04) with a stunning documentary about a passionate and thoughtful bio-collector.
INTERMISSION
Filibuster (Matt Lenski, 1:00) Home Movies (06/25/04)
Richard Simmons and a battalion of fatties sweat to the oldies. By oldies, we mean a Sonic Youth song from the early nineties.
Down (excerpt) (Vipal Monga / Tai Jimenez, 8:00) New York Non-Fiction (07/16/04)
You can dance for yourself, you can dance for the camera, you can dance because you feel the subway moving, and you can dance for the little old Chinese lady who pretended not to pay attention.
Fischerchicks (Susan Buice & Arin Crumley, 4:00) *** Hi-lo (07/09/04)
Everyone daydreams about starring in their favorite band's music video, this time the dream is accompanied by a couple of super cute little birdies. Awww.
Cats and Pants (Jennifer Matotek, 1:00) This is what we mean by short films (06/18/04)
Sure, it seems simple. But which is which?
Mr. Smile (Fran Krause, 8:15) * Sketches, Scratches and Cartoons (07/23/04)
Simply and strangely drawn, the world created by Fran Krause draws from the tropes of B-movie horror films, classic children's animation and especially Charles Laughton's Night of the Hunter. But even if you get the references you'll never guess what will happen next in Mr. Smile, as creepy smiley-faces, brain-damaged monkeys, shrunken roosters, denture stealing squirrels and robotic old men gather together for an unlikely party.
Caius (Marco Piano, 8:00)
An innocent man calmly recounts how a spiral of violence unfolded around him unwittingly.
Funny Guy (Stephen Collins, 2:00)
An innocent man creates a spiral of comic violence around him unwittingly. This is the latest short film from the only man to have a movie screened at Rooftop Films in each of our eight years, starring Flatnap Studios regular John Merriman. Steve is currently in pre-production for a feature, an expanded version of the film Gretchen and the Night Danger (Rooftop 07/25/03).
The Conversation (Mallory Whitelaw, 2:30) Sketches, Scratches and Cartoons (07/23/04)
Two little animated fuzzballs get trapped in a cinematic vortex in which space and identity are mutable, time is repeating and the only sound present is a conversation between Jimmy Stewart and Tom Helmore that folds back on itself and repeats, forever and ever.
The Times I Smoked Pot (Lev, 1:00) Home Movies (06/25/04)
An animated biography of a kid who smoked a little marijuana in his life.
Fantasy Tales of Friendship (Colin Hargraves, 3:30) This is what we mean by short films (06/18/04)
[Dramatic preview voice]: One ogre... one unicorn... battling boredom... Gang life may destroy them... Their only hope... to break out of the valley... is break-dancing.
Devil's Teeth (Roger Teich, 8:30) www.devlisteeth.com Open Views (08/06/04)
A Rooftop Films co-production. A film about Ron Elliot, the only sea urchin diver who works the Farallon Islands off San Francisco, even though he regularly encounters enormous sharks. With a grant from the Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund, Roger Teich constructed an underwater helmet camera using a black and white surveillance video lens and cable so Ron can use his hands freely while the footage records the eerie underwater world, at the margins of grace and terror.
THE MUSIC
"These kids are going to save rock n' roll!"
- an anonymous fan at a bar in the East Village.
NYC's The Natural History play pop that's both rhythmic, energetic, and melodic. Being influenced by such groups as XTC, Kinks, and E. Costello and The Attractions the band is able to put their own current spin on a classic genre. (www.thenaturalhistory.com)
