SXSW REVIEW THIRD WARD, TX
I walked over to the screening of Third Ward, TX, taking in some warm Texas atmosphere before checking out this lovely documentary. The Third Ward is a neighborhood in Houston that was historically populated by African-Americans. In the 1960s, the city ran a highway through the area, removing 30,000 people, isolating and dividing the area, […]
SXSW RECOMMENDATIONS
There are a few films I’ve already seen, and I highly recommend: King Corn (Aaron Woolf, Ian Cheney, Curt Ellis) The Prisoner (Michael Tucker & Petra Epperlein) Fish Kill Flea (Brian Cassidy, Aaron Hillis, Jennifer Loeber) When Adnan Comes Home (Andrew Berends) Kamp Katrina (David Redmon & Ashely Sabin) I plan on writing up a […]
SXSW 7AM
7am and I’m on my way to Austin, where it’s 82 degrees and there are about 82 films I want to see. I’ve only got so much time, though, so I’ve had to narrow it down a bit. The short list includes: Third Ward, TX (Andrew Garrison); Hard Road Home (Macky Alston / Andrea Meller); […]
ROOFTOP SHORTS: FRITZ DONNELLY’S HOW DRIVE THE CAR
ARTFUL POLITICAL DOC: LETTERS FROM BEIRUT
Letters from Beirut is a political documentary that owes more to Chris Marker than Michael Moore, and it’s worth seeking out. Thu. Mar 1, 2007, 9:00 pm at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, as part of Alwan’s New York Arab and South Asian Film Festival. Last week at Bluestockings Books, I attended a “Through The […]
ROOFTOP SHORTS: DAILY MONSTERS
Every day deserves its own demon, and Stefan G. Bucher has spawned a world full of them, which other net-trawlers have been happily embellishing and giving greater life to. Every day for 100 days, Bucher made a little ink splot on a piece of paper, then sketched a funny monster out of it, filming the […]
ONE RAT AND OTHER SHORTS COMING TO IFC
Oscar nominated shorts will be screening at the IFC Center starting this Friday, Feb. 16. Frankly, most of the live-action stuff that was nominated was a little schmaltzy–lots of children breaking the rules to do what’s right, saving their villages from the cynicism of the elders, etc. But the animation is generally pretty great and […]
RADIATION AND HALF COCKED SPECIAL SCREENINGS AND DVD RELEASE
“Hawley and Galinsky know how to make pictures that shudder with feeling.” –Manohla Dargis The classic underground Indie-Rock road movies Half-Cocked and Radiation are coming out on DVD this week and you should all come out to the special double-feature at the Anthology Film Archives tomorrow (Tuesday) night. Long-time Rooftop Films fans probably know a […]
ROOFTOP FILMS: SKIZZ CYCK’S MANAGER’S CORNER
In honor of the start of Spring Training, here is Skizz Cyzyk’s animation set to an infamous radio show featuring the foul-mouthed Orioles manager, Earl Weaver. There will not be many interviews like this one broadcast in 2007, but I bet that the obscenities directed at A-Rod this year will be a lot more profane […]
YUP, LUCAS IS CRAZY
Or at least Lucas has really, really bad taste–especially when his own films are concerned. This isn’t very indie-film of me to post, but the Hot Blog just posted this: George Lucas, giving the award to Sid Ganis, who was the in-house publicist on Star Wars: Episode Five – The Empire Strikes Back, said, “Sid […]