ROOFTOP WEEKEND RECAP - July 11-12
TWO MORE SOLD-OUT SHOWS

By Rooftop Films on 07/13/2008

Diverse crowds flock to Rooftop

FRIDAY
This past weekend at Rooftop Films highlighted why diversity matters, and how much fun it is when it works. Friday, we were back on the roof of El Museo Del Barrio, in East Harlem. In 2007, Rooftop hosted the first ever public screenings on the roof, and this year, even though the museum is closed for renovations, we'll be hosting three screenings on their gorgeous roof, overlooking Central Park on 104th Street and 5th Ave.

Friday's show began with a brilliant performance by Yerbabuena. It can be hard to create a full sound when on you're on the roof of the tallest building around, but this local Puerto Rican band has a dozen members and it felt like the whole city had to be catching their infectious rhythms and astounding harmonics. Singing in Spanish and English, the dynamic lead singer had the aisles packed with both devoted and newly converted fans, dancing and singing along.

We showed two 40-minute documentaries about the melancholy joy of life in contemporary Latin America. The first was Alguna Triseteza, a heartbreaking and gorgeous film essay about the Peruvian psyche, mixing pride and defeatism, a devotion to hard-work and a pervading sense of futility, a joy in little pleasures and a dream for a eventual moment of glory. That film contrasted rather remarkably with La Corona, the Academy-Award nominated documentary about a beauty pageant in a women's prison in Colombia--a remarkably upbeat and celebratory film, given the women's circumstances.

Following the screening, at the reception with free drinks courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner , I had the pleasure of talking to local City Council Member Melissa Mark Viverito , who has helped support Rooftop Films through The Manhattan Delegation, and who had been sitting in the front row, singing along to Yerbabuena and cheering along the pageant contestants. I was also approached by people from Peru and Colombia, who had loved the screening. It's such a thrill when we can bring out such mixed crowds, to sing and dance, watch movies and share cultures, and down a beer together afterward.

UP WITH ME--Trailer

The next Rooftop Films screenings at El Museo will be on August 8 and September 6. Rooftop's August/July schedule will be officially announced next week, but I can tell you that the August show will be Up With Me, a really stunning narrative film set in the neighborhood, written by and starring local teenagers. That promises to be an amazing show, as last year we screened a local film--Hard Road Home--and the enthusiasm of the local audience was over-whelming.

SATURDAY
On the roof of our home base, The Old American Can Factory, in Gowanus, Brooklyn, we presented the New York premiere of Michael Chandler's documentary Knee Deep, a continuation of Rooftop Films and XO Projects' INDUSTRIANCE series--programs about the changing landscape in industry, architecture, agriculture, and the ways these changes affect individual lives. Knee Deep is the true story of a young man, Josh Osborne, who shot his own mother when she tried to sell the family farm. That's obviously a pretty extreme reaction to real estate development, but perhaps an understandable one, and the power of the film is that as an audience member, I think you come to sympathize with Josh. There's not a lot of farming in Brooklyn, but unscrupulous development has certainly put an end to myriad manufacturing jobs, and forced thousands of people from their family homes. So while the film is a unique look at small town, rural life, and a fascinating and surprisingly fun personal story, it's also a film with themes that are relevant here in New York City.

One could tell that this crowd was pretty mixed, too, with folks from NYC and from New England. One audience member remarked during the Q & A that you could tell who the Mainers in the crowd were by who laughed at the line about "Skitters," a line my city mind didn't quite grasp, but which refers to a rig used in Maine to move logs. Another New Yorker asked how the film had been received in the Maine, and Chandler said screenings there have been packed and DVD sales have been brisk. So it was another night of harmony, delight, and discourse, as a strange but identifiable slice of country life came to the city at Rooftop Films.

P.S. If that kind of interaction intrigues you, come check out the July 18 Rural Route Films program of short films highlighting the rougher side of rural life.

* * *
Join Rooftop Films on www.twitter.com/rooftopfilms for live updates from the shows. Updates about tickets, the weather, filmmaker attendance, after-parties, and the vibe on the scene.