Rupert Murray’s The End of the Line explores the devastating impact of overfishing on our oceans. Based on a book by journalist Charles Clover, the chilling documentary proposes that without the appropriate action, we may see the end of seafood by the year 2048. Flavorpill spoke with Murray about the impact of Clover’s work, public responsibility, and what he hopes audiences will learn from his film. New Yorkers Note: The End of the Line will be screening at Rooftop Films on Governor’s Island on September 4th at 8 p.m. Read More »
Alejandro Adams is a film critic and director. Canary, his second feature film following 2008′s Around the Bay, is a futuristic satire that portrays a world in which organ harvesting has become a mainstream, commercial industry. It pushes boundaries in form and content, leaving the audience contemplating not just the future of the industrialized world, but the present. Note: Rooftop Films is screening Canary tonight at the Old American Can Factory.
Flavorpill: Tell us about your film:
Alejandro Adams: Canary is a sci-fi thriller about organ trafficking. It’s everything you’d expect a sci-fi thriller to be, except that I couldn’t afford Nicolas Cage. Read More »
Michael Paul Stephenson had his acting debut at the tender age of ten, when he was cast as the child star of the 1990 cinematic train wreck known as Troll 2. Years later, Troll 2 has become an underground, cult phenomenon acknowledged by most as “the worst movie ever made.” Stephenson, who is now a director, writer, and producer, decided to explore the unexpected popularity of Troll 2 in his first feature-length documentary, Best Worst Movie.
Note: Rooftop Films is screening Troll 2 tonight and Best Worst Movie tomorrow evening. You can buy a combo ticket that will get you admission to both films. Read More »
Acclaimed for his short films, Austin-based emerging filmmaker Ben Steinbauer is currently touring the festival circuit with his first feature Winnebago Man, a documentary that seeks to get to the heart of Jack Rebney, the most famous man you’ve never heard of thanks to YouTube and a series of hilarious Winnebago sales video outtakes. A “sneak preview” of the film — which morphs into a character study of a man who feels himself pitted against his own ironic celebrity — screens as part of The Rooftop Films Summer Series tomorrow night. To help spark your interest Rooftop’s Music and Outreach Manager Danielle Kourtesis sat down with Steinbauer to find out what we can expect other than swear words. Read More »
The New York Underground Film Festival went six feet under in 2008, concluding a fifteen year run. In part, the festival chose to close because the programmers thought the idea of “underground” cinema wasn’t relevant to what they wanted to do, and they were looking to re-brand. Perhaps the need and appeal of the underground is played out, what with luxury condos surrounding the festival’s home at Anthology Film Archives, other “underground” film festivals coming and going around the world, and the rise of online video that allows any amateur or avant-gardist to be seen by millions. (NYUFF smartly embraced YouTube in its infancy with a round-robin slam called “Tube Time” and, before that, “Google Me This”). Read More »
After wading through 39 comments from you guys naming newish bands who we should check out, the music fiends at Flavorpill HQ have done some careful listening and we’ve picked out a lucky winner. Not only will you score a pair of season passes to Rooftop Film’s upcoming Summer Series, you’ll also be able to brag to your friends that you’ve got amazing taste. So with no further ado, Alyssa, come on down and collect your prize for turning us on to *Like Bells. Actually, not really; we’ll drop you an email now with the deets on collecting your spoils. Thanks to everyone for playing and we hope to see you at a Rooftop event this summer!
* If you live in NYC this Ohio-based band is playing The Delancey on May 29; check ‘em out.
In her final post from SXSW 2009 (no we promise — no more until next year) Danielle Kourtesis, the Music and Outreach Manager for Rooftop Films reveals a few of the bands that have dominated her iPod since she got back from Austin. She’s also offering one lucky Flavorwire reader a pair of passes for Rooftop Film’s upcoming Summer Series. Read More »
Danielle Kourtesis is the Music and Outreach Manager for Rooftop Films; look for a few final SXSW posts from her over the coming days, and then we promise not to talk about it anymore — until next year.
After breakfast in a small downtown diner, where I overheard some record executives speaking enthusiastically, if somewhat confusedly, about Twitter, I walked over to the Red Eyed Fly to catch the end of Imaad Wasif’s set. Just voice and guitar, Imaad played to an intimate crowd of about sixty attentive audience members. The Los Angeles-based artist has a brooding, effeminate voice that juxtaposes nicely against his more rough, and distorted guitar sound. Though I only caught the tail end of his set, he was certainly one of the highlights of the day.
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Mark Elijah Rosenberg is the Founder and Artistic Director of Rooftop Films; click here for all of his coverage from this year’s SXSW Festival.
Back from Austin, TX and the SXSW Film and Music festival, more has changed than the weather and the rate of films I’m watching per day (from 4 to 5 a day in Austin to 10 to 12 here in New York City during Rooftop’s main programming season). I had a fantastic festival, and it’s always hard to leave the good times behind. Still, there’s something unpleasantly cathartic about air travel. I didn’t want to leave, but after airport drudgery, I’m glad to be home. Now my hometown, New York, feels like an urban space where here and there someone planted a tree, maybe laid down a park. Meanwhile, Austin feels like scrubland, where sidewalks and houses fight to stay rooted. In NYC, nature feels unnatural. But it feels like home. See you next year, Austin!
Mark Elijah Rosenberg is the Founder and Artistic Director of Rooftop Films; look for a few more reviews from him and the rest of the Rooftop crew to trickle in today.
“It takes courage to tell someone you love them,” says Shelly, the lead (Stella Schnabel) in Ry Russo-Young’s second feature film, You Wont Miss Me. It also takes courage to be loved, as the disturbed young Shelly discovers within the push and pull of her downtown dropout artist scene. With a jet-setting mother and a big house in the country, we know Shelly comes from a certain set of privileges; but with a shrink who callously has seen her problems before and with a set of friends who pride themselves in grubby authenticity, Shelly also comes with a certain set of emotional baggage — designer baggage, intentionally scuffed, the zippers busted, the fabric frayed, emotions spilling out in a dysfunctional display.
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