Saturday, May 1
Rooftop Films and UnionDocs presents
STRONGMAN
Director Zachary Levy will be present for a May Day discussion on fair wages for independent filmmakers, and getting paid for making art.
Venue: UnionDocs
Address: 322 UNION AVE, Williamsburg,
Date: Saturday, May 1st at 7:30pm
Tickets: Suggested $9 donation
Strongman (USA, 2009, 113 minutes)
One of our favorite films from Rooftop Summer Series 2009 is screening tonight at Union Docs in Williamsburg and we highly recommend you go check it out and meet filmmaker Zach Levy. One of the most poignant and hauntingly original American documentaries in years, Strongman tells the up-close-and-personal story of Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun, who can lift dump trucks and bend pennies with his bare hands, but who struggles to transcend his chaotic New Jersey home life and the toll of his slowly-but-surely advancing age. Years in the making and assembled with rare skill and intelligence, Strongman is tender and tough, comic and tragic, simple and endlessly rich – a Fellini-esque testament (in the best sense) to the unlimited possibilities of independent, nonfiction filmmaking and the most hypnotic example of the Maysles-style “direct cinema” tradition in years. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Slamdance Festival and a smash at the South-by-Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.
Funded in large part by the success of a DIY start-up project, Levy never gave up on this film which took ten years to complete. Read about his story here.
“A strange and strangely beautiful film…” -Variety
“A startlingly, emotionally intimate study.” Chris Kaltenbach, The Baltimore Sun
“Breaks new ground in its approach…a true respect not only for its subject but for the documentary form.”– Ross Kauffman (Born Into Brothels)
“A phenomenal film, profoundly touch and honest… the debut of a new important American documentary filmmaker.”– Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo)