Rooftop

Duncan ( Holly Klein | 02:46 | Animation)



Nonchalant animated protagonists rhyme their way through a grade school episode of getting the hots for someone as geeky as you. And then it gets kinda randy.

Q&A

Rooftop Films: Tell us about your film:

Holly Klein: "Duncan" is a film I made back in 2000. It's the story of a boy who likes to knit. He likes girls, as well, and uses his passion for knitting to get the girl of his dreams.

RF: What animated shows or films did you like as a child?

HK: The earliest animation I liked was on "Sesame Street". I loved the Muppets, of course. I was never an animation fanatic, but I always loved watching cartoons on a Saturday morning while eating sugar cereal and searching for the prize in the cereal box. I loved Smurfs and Snorks and Gummi Bears and Shirt Tales. I appreciated the Warner Bros. and Disney cartoons, but I loved the most commercial stuff out there, as well as the advertising within those shows. Later, the best 30 minutes of my week as a 12 year old was PeeWee's Playhouse. I couldn't believe how amazing it was, and I loved everything about it. After that, I really lost interest in animation, until I started producing it myself.

RF: What inspired you to combine the style and look of children's animation with sexual innuendo?

HK: I'm an avid crafter. When I started animating, I started with clay but quickly went to mediums with which I was most comfortable. Because I've always been a sewer, fabric was a natural progression. As for the sexual innuendo, I've always wanted to make films that resonate with children and adults, and the subject of relationships is something all ages relate to. It's only the matter of sex that differentiates the ages, and by alluding to sex very slightly, I was able to entertain adults in what's a medium usually associated with childhood.

RF: Are you a full-time filmmaker? If not, what else are you up to?

HK: I would love to be a full-time filmmaker, but I'm not. I'm currently an Editor. I just finished up a job as 2nd Assistant Editor on the stop-motion feature animation "Coraline", due out Feb. 6th. I love the film, and it was such a great experience. Previous to that, I've directed, edited, and animated commercials and lots of children's TV in both London and New York.

RF: What is your current/next project?

HK: Since "Duncan", I've made 2 more films. In 2004 I made a 6 minute animation called "The Turn-Off" as part of a Master's Degree at the Royal College of Art in London. "The Turn-Off" is the story of Phoebe, a girl who is codependent with her television and one day turns him off. My most recent film is called "Maggie and Mildred", about the secret relationship between two girls. I finished "Maggie and Mildred" in 2008. It's made using a stitchery technique called counted cross stitch, and animated digitally. It's still making the festival circuit. I also started a blog to track my crafts, films, baking, and other weekly nonsense. You can see it at www.hollyklein.blogspot.com. I'm currently working on the script for my next animated film. It's going to be a Christmas film that I've been thinking about for many, many years.

RF: If you've been to a Rooftop show, how was the experience?

HK: Although I lived in New York for 10 years, I haven't been there for seven, so have not been to the roof. I hear it's an amazing venue, and am so proud of having seen Rooftop Films itself grow so substantially in the time I've been making films. It seems to be a great bunch of people who have the right idea about promoting films and filmmakers on a grass-roots level.

RF: What excites you about having your short film on Rooftop Films at IFC.com?

HK: I'm so excited to have my film on Rooftop at IFC. I love that, after 9 years, my film "Duncan" goes on to find new audiences.

I hope the audience responds to "Duncan" and can't wait to read any comments posted about the film!

"If I was Google, I would feel lonely. People come to me, ask questions, and leave me when they are done."

Kaz Nomura, aka PWRFL Power, is a vagabond musician who was born and raised in Japan. He studied music in Seattle and is known for his quirky lyrics and skilled Fahey-esque guitar playing. We spoke with Kaz via email about his upcoming travels, his blog, and the Google song.

Rooftop Films: How's Seattle treating you?

Kaz Nomura: Good! It's very mellow here and I am focused on writing lots of music. Usually in this time of the year it's gloomy out but surprisingly, it has been sunny for weeks.

RF: How was your short jaunt in Brooklyn?

KN: I loved it. I met a lot of great people I still keep in touch with. It was also nice to be able to visit cities nearby on the Chinatown bus.

RF: You move around a lot. Where are you headed next?

KN: My next destination is Tokyo. My plan is to spend March-September in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and the rest in Japan and Australia. I love meeting people and playing in different cities. I am solo, so it's easy to get around.

RF: Does moving inspire your creativity? Does your style change depending on where you're based?

KN: Certainly! Different culture/weather/people for sure inspires me to write different stuff. I change my guitar pretty often too. I bought 8 guitars and sold 7 already in this year. There is the best sounding position to each guitar and that also inspires me to write differently.

RF: Who are your favorite new artists?

KN: Oh man, so many, but a few of them made it to my top friends on Myspace ; ) Ed Askew, a NYC-based singer songwriter that has a release on ESP Disk in 70's, is amazing. I enjoy his honest songs. Cap Lori, a 17-years old singer songwriter out of Seattle, has amazing voice. we just started jamming and plan to record under "miin"i"s" (get it? Mean Eyes, but with "i"). Gabriel Mintz from Seattle is a character. He reminds me of John Lennon with a lot more humor.

RF: Can you recommend some Japanese music for me?

KN: Kaeru-san. That's it. He is a professor in anthropology that plays guitar and sings. His lyrics helps you find absolutely new perspectives on your life.

RF: Who are your influences?

KN: Elizabeth Cotten is my early influence. Songs with clear messages and logical-musical structure. When I write guitar parts, I always think of music of J.S Bach. My composition teacher at college was a hardcore Bach lover, that might be why. Listening to Bach's music is like being in an invisible music cathedral to me. While browsing recently, I realized how much I loved, and still love Joe Pass, a Jazz guitar legend. Very few can talk so strongly with solo guitar format.

So, Elizabeth Cotten, J.S Bach, and Joe Pass. Isn't this a great mix of musicians?

RF: Does improvisation figure into your playing? What other guitarists influence you in that respect?

KN: I don't improvise much in songs but often i draw ideas through improvising at home. Bill Frisell's country/americana harmony for sure influenced me alot.

RF: Your father is a musician- bass player- do you play together?

KN: Not much. He only played a little and I got too good to be playing with him!!!

RF: You have a unique sense of humor that informs your music. Your lyrics especially come off as tongue-and-cheek, but your music is so earnest. Are you looking to get a laugh?

KN: I never look to get a laugh but it's nice when people find my music funny and pay closer attentions. One thing I want to remind people is that this language isn't my 1st language, so even when I write serious but honest lyrics, people will still consider that as a joke or something. I have been "intentionally" writing some serious lyrics to see how people take it. It's a fine balance between two...

RF: Are you influenced by any comedians?

KN: I have watched a whole bunch of videos by The Whitest Kids You Know. I really like them. Their sketch comedies get very provocative sometimes, as you might know...

RF: You were in a band, and you've collaborated with a number of musicians. How is it different playing with a band and playing solo, do you prefer one over the other?

KN: It feels great to have a total control in making artistic decisions when I play solo. I love collaborating with others, they seem to stimulate different part of my brain I don't use when I am by myself. Over all, I prefer being solo though. It tends to be loud with other people involved and the most of music is too loud for me.

RF: How did you come up with the concept for your Google song?

KN: If I was Google, I would feel lonely. People come to me, ask questions, and leave me when they are done. I was dreaming something like that and decided to sing about it over a simple melody.

RF: What inspired you to start writing your blog Half Yogurt? What blogs do you like?

KN: I had been interested in writing and sharing them with people. I enjoy re-reading my posts as well. I spend more time walking around alone than most of people and see all those interesting things. So I bought a camera and immediately lost it! Don't worry though, I just ordered another one! I don't read other people's blogs much since i don't know how to find them. I would like to though.

RF: How was your experience playing at Rooftop Films?

KN: It was great! The rooftop setting was absolutely gorgeous and inspiring and i got to meet people I wouldn't normally meet at loft shows. I enjoyed various short films and can't wait to come back soon!

RF: What are some of your favorite films?

KN: I liked Control, which is about Ian Curtis of Joy Division. I have a club that watches cheesy movies exclusively and the last one we saw was August Rush, a story of an orphan that is a musical genius.

RF: Do you have any questions for our readers? We hope they'll post comments!

KN: Do you know blogs I should check out? Also, would it be possible to order a set of All Clad kitchenware on your credit card...? I am getting into cooking and I think it's very important to cook with the "right" pans and pots...

DIMMER (Talmage Cooley | 12:12 | Documentary)



Talmage Cooley's award-winning documentary short film presents a poignant and memorable snapshot of life within a gang of sight-impaired teenage boys who create their own world among the abandoned factories of Buffalo's rust belt.

Q&A

Rooftop Films: What was your inspiration?

Talmage Cooley: The band Interpol was looking for short film ideas they could commission to accompany the release of their album ANTICS. One of my best friends had been home to Buffalo, NY, for Thanksgiving and his cousin told him about this gang of blind teenage boys who were local legends for getting into trouble with the police. They had recently been arrested for taking turns riding a motorcycle down the street. So I sent the shortest treatment in history to Interpol. It read: "There is a gang of blind teenage boys in Buffalo, NY, who commit petty acts of criminality and teenage mayhem. We should make a film about them."

RF : Is there anything you'd like to share about the film that might not be immediately apparent (your conception of the film, backstory, production methods, etc.)?

TC: Interpol only had $1,000 to put into the production. I think they were really looking for very DIY type projects that somebody would put together on a laptop. And most of the ten films that were commissioned were like that. Some very cool stuff actually. Some animated, some collages. I wanted to do something with a bit more production value, so I called my friend Andy Spade, who likes to get involved with interesting art-oriented films, and he kicked in the money required to do the film properly. The film eventually was a finalist for the 2006 Academy Awards, which means it made it to the final 8, though it wasn't one of the four nominated films.

RF: Any interesting stories about the production? Any particular difficulties or serendipitous events or pleasant/unpleasant surprises?

TC: Projects like this seem to be all about managing the constant presence of both serendipity and disaster. Now that I've done a few films, maybe I'd say all film is like that. There are just too many variables, and complete control is pretty much impossible. The whole idea really came alive when I realized it was going to be a film not about blind teenage boys, but rather teenage boys in general -- the frustration, rebellion, adventure, hope, longing and all that. So that leads you to friendships, girls and vague conceptions about what life might hold in store for you. The shoot itself involved following the boys around Buffalo and just seeing what happened. They were breaking windows at the old train station in Buffalo one day, which is one of their favorite pastimes, when the guy who manages the property came over and after giving them a hard time. We talked and he asked if we wanted to see inside the station. He opened the door and then said just lock it behind you when you leave. Kind of hard to believe because inside that door was a massive beautiful turn of the century train station with a main hall as big as Grand Central's. We got some great stuff there. So that was serendipitous. Then on the way out they wanted to shoot a BB gun at a passing train, another pastime of theirs, when Mike got a call from his girlfriend breaking up with him. This created a new story line that in my mind really helped ground the film in what it means to be a teenager. It was like that day after day. We all felt like part of the gang and we just wandered around and did stuff.

RF: Why did you decide to shoot in black and white?

TC: It seemed obvious to me that since the boys can't see at all, the look of the film should be as minimal as possible, and definitely not in color. But not all black and black is created equal, there are lots of different ways to approach that. We found a book by a French photographer named Gilles Peress called "Telex Iran 1979", which is full of photos he sent from Tehran to Paris during the hostage crisis at the American Embassy. An incredible book actually. The photos have a slight green tint to the black and white, which gives them an exotic feel that amplifies the foreigness of the chaotic Iranian revolution Peress was shooting. We thought that direction would help support our intention that this is a very unique world the boys inhabit. Despite the very lo-fi nature of the shoot, I'm very proud of the final look of the film.

RF: How did you meet the boys?

TC: My best friend is from Buffalo, and his brother who still lives there tracked them down for us and helped us get their parents permission to shoot them. There was definitely some suspicion as to what we were up to, quite naturally. But when the film was finished and had done it's round of the festivals, we put it on iTunes and Apple gave a percentage of the revenue to the blind school that the boys went to. Everybody seems pretty happy about how it turned out.

RF: Why did you focus on Mike and Joey?

TC: Mike was kind of the ringleader and very personable, and Joey is his best friend, so that naturally led them to be the primary focus. Plus the other boys weren't available quite as much. I think the balance ended up working pretty well. For a 12 minute film, you really have to focus quickly. No meandering allowed.

RF: Are you a full-time filmmaker? If not, what else are you up to?

TC: Yes, I just finished my first feature, a satirical comedy called PATRIOTVILLE with Justin Long, Rob Corddry, Emmanuelle Chriqui and Keir O'Donnell. All about a young guy who goes to war with everyone in his bankrupt hometown over a plot to sell the town to an Indian casino. Should be released later this year.

RF: What is your current/next project?

TC: I'm writing a feature called GENIUS FACTORY, about a guy who discovers he is actually the product of a sperm bank stocked with the seed of Nobel Prize winners, and he sets out in search of his genius father. Based on true events, but very much a fictional drama/comedy.

RF: If you've been to a Rooftop show, how was the experience?

TC: I was in California when DIMMER screened at Rooftop, but I've been to other Rooftop screenings and I love them. That's my neighborhood in NYC and it seems a great way to integrate watching films into the city environment. Doesn't get any better. Watching films outside in such a magical place.

Wed. 2/04/09, 9pm on MNN, Ch. 67 & www.mnn.org
Found New York
Sometimes odd aspects of New York's diversity intrude into your daily life--a falcon, a movie shoot, an anti-baby guerrilla art action on a public bus. (The companion episode to next week's Found New York.) Films:
Bird Strikes (Chris Cassidy | Brooklyn | 7:00)
When technology and nature collide, Bob Leporati uses the ancient art of falconry to clear the runways of JFK.

Bodega (Casimir Nozkowski, Dallas Penn, Rafi Kam | Bronx | 4:00)
A humorous look at food culture in the South Bronx--"the poorest urban county in the country"--and the sociological effects of pork rinds and flavored "Quarter Water."

Buttons (Josh Safdie, Alex Kalman, Benny Safdie | New York | 9:00)
Josh, Benny and Alex roam the world with video cameras in hand, capturing loose, magical moments. They collect these instances like they are little buttons, so that is what they call them. Red Bucket's first feature film, The Pleasure of Being Robbed was selected for the 2008 Cannes Directors Fortnight and played at Rooftop Films in 2008.

There's Nothing You Can Do (Josh Safdie | New York | 3:58)
The next time you assume that guy on the bus is being a jerk, maybe you should take a closer look at the baby.

Rotating Mirror - Night Set (Gregory King | Brooklyn | 3:00)
A gorgeous film, set to music by Greg's band The Rachel's, which explores the unique visual poetry of the city, as a "Night Set" reinvents Greg's street and transforms his bedroom into a ghostly zoetrope.

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Watch Rooftop TV all winter long!
Episodes Wednesdays, 9pm, from 12/24/08-3/18/09
On MNN Ch. 67, and streaming live at www.mnn.org

Wed. 1/28/09, 9pm on MNN, Ch. 67 & www.mnn.org
Lost New York
The city reveals its secrets in little pockets of forgotten cultures, abandoned caverns, and ubiquitous hovels we try to ignore. (The companion episode to next week's Found New York.) Films:

Checkmate (Casimir Nozkowski, Dallas Penn, Rafi Kam | Brooklyn | 08:00)
Why are there always jewelry stores next to check-cashing spots? Why is there only 1 bank per 50,000 people living in Bushwick? Is it actually fun to make it rain on the streets of Brooklyn with real dollar bills? Dallas and Rafi take us around check-cashing joints in Brooklyn to answer these and other questions. Says Dallas: "You know you've made it when you go from check-cashing fees to ATM fees."

The Last Butcher in Little Italy (Laura Terruso | New York | 5:45)
Unlike most Italian Americans, Moe Albanese never left Little Italy. Born on Elizabeth Street in 1925, Moe grew up on this street and helped his parents run their small butcher shop. Today, this shop is the last that remains of Elizabeth Street's Italian American history. At eighty two, Moe is the shops only employee.

Covered Tracks (Nathan Kensinger | New York | 12:00)
An exploration of life and death underneath Manhattan, travelling through a 50 block-long train tunnel which was once an underground homeless city.

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Watch Rooftop TV all winter long!
Episodes Wednesdays, 9pm, from 12/24/08-3/18/09
On MNN Ch. 67, and streaming live at www.mnn.org

We have sad news. Rooftop's music partners at Sound Fix Records will be closing their bar and venue at the end of February. The Sound Fix Record Store will stay open.

Sound Fix has been consistently fighting with neighbors and the city over noise and other violations for a while now and was closed briefly last Spring. This time, they are forced to shut their doors permanently.

This is a real shame. Sound Fix was a fantastic (FREE) venue for music and comedy, and there's really nothing else like it in the city.

We hope you'll visit Sound Fix before it closes. This week's schedule is below.

January 28 8:00pm - Comedy Free Williamsburg
January 28 9:30pm - Totally J/K w. Joe and Noah
January 29 8:00pm - Big Terriffic w/ Max, Gabe & Jenny
January 30 8:00pm - Forewords
January 31 4:00pm - Loney Dear

CRACKBABY: FOLSOM STREET (Keith Wilson | 0:55 | Comedy)



The continuing adventures of one f***ed up looking doll. Directed by Keith Wilson.

Q&A

Rooftop Films: Where did you get the Crackbaby doll? Did it look like that when you found it or did you have to mess it around?

Keith Wilson: I was late arriving to the flea market in Concord, CA and only the trash from the day remained. One man's trash is another man's treasure, right? So I rummaged a bit and buried under a pile of unwanted, mangled and dirty Barbie-esque dolls was Crackbaby - the most unwanted of them all. She has always looked the way she does now....and she is beautiful.

RF: Does the Crackbaby Series take a specific stance on drug use?

KW: Yes. Without drugs these videos would not have been possible.

RF: Is there anything you'd like to share about the film that might not be immediately apparent (your conception of the film, backstory, production methods, etc.)?

KW: Yes, a lot of people think that Crackbaby does not have feelings too. Not true. So, please hold off on the nasty letters.

RF: Any interesting stories about the production? Any particular difficulties or serendipitous events or pleasant/unpleasant surprises?

KW: Believe it or not, the pair of gravity-challenged testicles seen in the first episode, Crackbaby Goes to the Folsom Street Fair, is not a prop.

RF: Are you a full-time filmmaker? If not, what else are you up to?

KW: Yes, one who clocks in a lot of unpaid overtime. Also in my final year of the MFA film program at the University of Texas-Austin where I teach production and documentary filmmaking.

RF: What is your current/next project?

KW: I just finished a short experimental documentary, NINE.5, about the mysterious disappearance of 9.5mm film, the world's first home movie guage. Also, shooting an hour long documentary about Savannah, GA called SHRUMP that observes race, class, landscape, myth and southern history through the eyes of one cute lil' shrimp. Current non-film projects include a series of books documenting my current home town of Austin, TX the way that Ed Ruscha did with Los Angeles and a video installation about the suburban frontier.

RF: If you've been to a Rooftop show, how was the experience?

KW: Not living in New York, I've only been to two Rooftop screenings. Both were completely super duper, but one in particular was memorable. My film, DON'T YOU BRING ME DOWN, which features a nearly naked yours truly channeling Christina Aguilera, was projected onto a huge screen on a rooftop in Brooklyn. It was weird and awesome. If I lived in NYC I would go to Rooftop shows all the time fo sho!

RF: What excites you about having your short film on Rooftop Films at IFC.com?

KW: To know that a discarded, uneducated, unloved baby doll could scratch and crawl her way out from under a pile of unwanted Barbie dolls and emerge a Rooftop IFC star gives me hope. Long live the American Dream!

Watch more Crackbaby videos HERE.

In my last post, about The Yes Men Fix the World , I wrote about the more obvious manipulations in documentary filmmaking, acknowledging that every documentary contains subjective choices. Lee Chung-ryoul's wonderful film Old Partner contains more traditional manipulations. The film observes a 79-year-old Korean farmer, his wife, and the ox they've had for 40 years, and from a jumbled (and essentially banal) year in their life, the director crafts a narrative with multiple levels of significance, but with the simplicity, charm and clear emotional arc of a children's book.

During the film, the central trinity--father, mother, and (surrogate child) ox--get progressively old and feeble, struggling to maintain their way of life, or finally change it, or lastly leave it. One friend jokes that the farmer's ox is better than a son, because he never left the farm. But the wife nags her husband to ditch the ox for a tractor, as many neighbors have done. She's left feeding the ox, doing extra work because the ox is slow. Sometimes playfully, sometimes with bitter cruelty, the wife keeps up a constant nag: "I won't live," she complains, "unless that ox dies."

The farmer stages protests that he wastes less of the crop by working slowly, and that food harvested by ox tastes better, because there are no chemicals on the land. But it's clear that the real issue between husband and wife is not merely about practicality, but tradition--she is embarrassed by the old ox, and wants a more modern life; he is as wed to his old ways as he is to his wife, and takes pride in his grueling labors.

Sitting on their porch in the rain, her eating, him with his head down on his folded arms, the wife gripes that the farmer loves the ox more than he loves her. He doesn't look up, barely grumbling a response. But a second later, when the ox moans, his head jerks up that direction. It's a telling and comic moment, but is that actually how it played out in real life? Was she really saying just that at that instant, did the ox really interrupt, did the farmer really look at the ox? Or was it all done with clever editing? Hard to say, but the point is rather irrelevant: whether it's chance that the director happened upon such a concise explication or whether he crafted it in post, the director believes from the totality of his observances that this moment is somehow representative, true. It works for me.

A trip to the city by ox-cart offers some light-hearted contrasts--the ox in a parking lot full of cars, protesters chanting, "Stop the Korea-USA Free Trade Agreement! Here come the mad cows," just as our sober old ox passes by. A sympathetic neighbor comments that "the ox found the right master, and the master found the right ox," but later the wife argues the opposite, that she and the ox led a tragic life for having lucked into living with such a hard-driving, stubborn man. The ox expresses no opinion.

But the film does imply an oxen ideology. When a new young ox comes along, the old ox is seen looking on with what could only be described as jealousy. When a man offers a pittance to buy the ox ("When do cow dealers ever say anything good about a cow," the wife mocks), the ox looks hurt. And when the ox is near death, a sequence of shots shows a tear in the eye of the farmer, then his wife, and then the ox. Of course animals do have feelings, but the concise way the filmmaker crafts the shots and edits anthropomorphizes the beast to explicate the emotions. In Old Partner, the manipulations forge a film that is sweet, witty, poignant and noble.

*All quotations are paraphrased to the best of my dark-theater notetaking and, in this instance, translation from Korean to English.

- Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Founder & Artistic Director of Rooftop Films