THIS WEEK FROM ROOFTOP FILMS: FLOODTIDE, NYARMA AND POLAR EXPLORER, KICKSTARTER FILM FESTIVAL, THE TIGHTROPE
Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. At Rooftop, they have been getting ready for four amazing shows coming up this week. Tomorrow, They’ll be showing a special cinematic remix of Floodtide, filmed during the Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea, (conceived by the artist Swoon), and screened with a live score by the band Dark Dark Dark. Cool down on Thursday with Nyarma and Polar Explorer, two exquisite films filled with the howling wilderness of the Russian frontier. On Friday they’re presenting the First Annual Kickstarter Film Festival, an evening celebrating projects supported by the new crowd-source funding website Kickstarter.com. And finally, on Saturday, they have Nuria Ibanez’s lyrical documentary The Tightrope, about a Mexican circus teetering on the brink of extintion.
Wednesday, July 7th
FLOOD TIDE: REMIXED – FREE SHOW
It was the summer the gas stations closed. The summer they played music in the old mill. The summer they left. Flood Tide tells the story of four musicians who craft extraordinary boats out of whatever junk they can find and set out for open water. A remixed version of the film — accompanied by a live musical score by chamber folk sextet Dark Dark Dark — will open Rooftop Films’ series at Socrates Sculpture Park on July 7th.
Blurring the line between fact and fiction, Flood Tide was shot on the Hudson River during the real-life art-raft project The Swimming Cities of the Switchback Sea, a concept dreamed-up by the artist Swoon and built by an eclectic group of artists and performers. In the summer of 2008 the crew built and floated seven large, boat-sculptures down the Hudson River. Director Todd Chandler, cinematographer Ava Berkofsky and collaborators from the bands Dark Dark Dark and Fall Harbor made a film along the surreal voyage.
http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/44-flood-tide-remixed
WHERE:
On the grass along the water at Socrates Sculpture Park
3134 Vernon Blvd. (Long Island City, Queens)
WHEN:
7:00 Doors Open
7:30 Live Music by Dark Dark Dark
8:30 Film Begins
10:00 Q and A
Thursday, July 8th
NYARMA AND POLAR EXPLORER
NY Premiere! Two exquisite films from the cold edges of the vast Russian frontier, from the hardscrabble life of nomadic reindeer herders to the dangerous life of arctic bear researchers.
http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/22-nyarma-and-polar-explorer
WHERE:
Roof of Brooklyn Technical High School
29 Fort Greene Place (Fort Greene, Brooklyn) G to Fulton, C to Lafayette, 2,3,4,5 to Nevins or B,M,Q, R to Dekalb
WHEN:
8:00 Doors Open
8:30 Live music by Sunset
9:00 Films begin
The Films:
NYARMA (Edgar Bartenev | Russia | 40 min.) Having screened Edgar Bartenev’s short film Yaptic Hasse at Rooftop in 2008, we are thrilled to welcome him back with this fabulous follow-up film. Once again documenting a family of nomadic Nenets who live in the Siberian tundra, Bartenev’s grand cinematography immerses us in the gorgeous and harsh scenery, while the intimacy of his familial inspection introduces us to the minute details of their remote life.
POLAR EXPLORER (Nikolay Volkov | Russia | 39 min.) Tomash Petrovsky is an arctic explorer, fascinated by the hypnotic power of the shifting ice, drawn to the dynamic wasteland that surrounds the eerie power of the magnetic pole. This delicately-constructed film explores the subtle delights of polar life: watching adorable bear cubs frolic in the floes, the important scientific research they are conducting, and, of course, the all-consuming beauty of the white landscape, breaking apart spectacularly under the red-painted jaws of their ship or the immense pressure of unthinkable amounts of ice. When the huskies begin to fight, like canaries in a coalmine, they indicate to the crew that trouble is afoot. But there’s little they can do when those breathtaking ice movements scatter their camp, sinking Petrovsky’s own home and nearly killing him. But as Russian polar explorers, Petrovsky and his crew demonstrate the unbelievably stoic determination that is the key emotion explored in this daring documentary.
Friday, July 9th
KICKSTARTER FILM FESTIVAL
Rooftop Films joins forces with Kickstarter to present a selection of film, video and art projects supported on the new crowd-source funding website Kickstarter.com. Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors, and in the last year hundreds of filmmakers, musicians, artists and organizations have made use of their unique services to get their projects started and finished. Based around the idea that a good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide, Kickstarter is spearheading a revolution in creative fundraising, helping artists build their own supportive communities.
The festival will feature 90 minutes of film and video from a dozen Kickstarter projects, including feature films, stop-motion animation, documentaries, art, and dance. All of them amazing. There’s much more than film, though. We’re lucky enough to have a handful of Kickstarter food projects serving as vendors for the event. They’ll be selling things like artisanal sodas, homemade ice cream, amazing pies, fresh vegetables from urban farms, delicious cakes, and more. It’s going to be delicious. There will also be music! Before the screening enjoy the amazing Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band, the focus of the Kickstarter-funded Brasslands documentary. Watch the project video for more.
http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/23-kickstarter-film-festival
WHERE:
On the roof of The Old American Can Factory
232 3rd St at 3rd Ave. (Gowanus/Park Slope, Brooklyn)
F/G to Carroll St. or M/R to Union
WHEN:
8:00 Doors Open
8:30 Live Music by Zlatne Uste Balkan Brass Band
9:00 Films Begin
11:30 Reception in Courtyard
Saturday, July 10th
THE TIGHTROPE
Sneak Preview! A lyrical documentary about small town Mexican circus, balancing precariously on the brink of disappearance.
Filmmaker Nuria Ibanez has pointed out that in cinema, as in the circus, there has always been a divide between “the machine of dreams and the mirror of reality,” between fiction/fantasy and documentary/reality. Ibanez, trained as a screenwriter, expertly melds the two forms in her stunning debut film, The Tightrope. With a deft eye for symbolic details, a remarkable gift for artistically representing key story points, and the ability to quietly build narrative tension, Ibanez has crafted a realist documentary that feels like a dreamy fiction.
http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/24-the-tightrope
WHERE:
On the roof of El Museo Del Barrio
1230 5th Ave. at 104th St. (East Harlem) New York, NY 10029
6 to 103rd St. or 2/3 to 110th St.
WHEN:
8:00 Doors Open
8:30 Live Music by Rana Santacruz
9:00 Film Begins
11:30 After-party on the roof: Open bar courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner
