April 2-8: 15TH AND FINAL NYUFF

April 2-8: 15TH AND FINAL NYUFF

New York Underground Film FestivalApril 2-8, 2008@ Anthology Film Archiveswww.nyuff.com Tickets March 27 @ 9:45pm Selections from the 2007 NYUFF@ IFC CenterTickets The New York Underground Film Festival, a venerable anti-establishmentarian institution, the godfather of all “Underground” film festivals, will be hosting its 15th and Final installation in April, and then doing what any good […]

CHECK OUT HOW FAST ROOFTOP FILMS VOLUNTEERS ARRANGE CHAIRS

CHECK OUT HOW FAST ROOFTOP FILMS VOLUNTEERS ARRANGE CHAIRS

Rooftop volunteer extraordinaire Irwin Seow time-lapse documented Rooftop’s Manhattan closing night in Spetmeber. Check it out here 

CINEMA EYE AWARDS

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 […]

DVDs for GLORY AT SEA!

DVDs for GLORY AT SEA!

A quick update in the ongoing saga of Benh Zeitlin and “Glory at Sea!” You can read the backstory here, here, and here. Very nice posts were also written by The Austin Chronicle, Slamdance, and Spout. As I wrote earlier, Benh was unable to make it to very much at the festival, because of his […]

SXSW REVIEW: FICTION VS. NON-FICTION IN “WOODPECKER” AND OTHER FILMS

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 […]

“GLORY AT SEA” WINS SXSW WOLPHIN AWARD

“GLORY AT SEA” WINS SXSW WOLPHIN AWARD

Like the film itself, this story has (in its own way) a happy ending. As you probably read in my other posts below, Benh Zeitlin–the director of “Glory at Sea,” a miraculous short film that Rooftop co-funded–was in a brutal car accident the day of his first screening at SXSW. He’s doing much better now, […]

SXSW REVIEW: “MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY”

SXSW REVIEW: “MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY”

Is Barry Jenkins‘ “Medicine for Melancholy” the first African-American “Mumblecore” movie? Hell yeah! And, uh, maybe not. Jenkins’ engaging and entertaining low-budget love story certainly fits many of Mumblecore’s thematic ideas, and premiered at SXSW, the cauldron that supposedly brewed the movement. The film takes place over the course of one dreamy day, from the […]

ROOFTOP ALUM & SXSW FILMMAKER BENH ZEITLIN NEEDS YOUR HELP

ROOFTOP ALUM & SXSW FILMMAKER BENH ZEITLIN NEEDS YOUR HELP

GO SEE “GLORY AT SEA!” A few days ago, I posted below about “Glory at Sea!” a short film directed by Benh Zeitlin of Court 13 Productions. It’s a movie that Rooftop Films partially funded, and which is an amazing, uplifting, collaborative project, a mythical narrative about a community (set in post-Katrina New Orleans) coming […]

SXSW REVIEW: “THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED”

SXSW REVIEW: “THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED”

The pleasure of “The Pleasure of Being Robbed” is the joy of discovering a bag full of kittens (and watching them playfully flip through the air); the bliss of an unexpected overnight road trip with a friend; the warmth of a frolic with a polar bear. Josh Safdie’s film is filled with a carefree awkwardness, […]

SXSW REVIEW: A NECESSARY DEATH

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 […]

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