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Animation
INTERVIEW WITH HOLLY KLEIN
DIRECTOR OF "DUNCAN"
By Rooftop Films on 02/10/2009
Filed under: Animation, Rooftop News, Watch Short FilmsDuncan ( Holly Klein | 02:46 | Animation) callBrightcove(5724142001, 594, 445, "#ffffff"); 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... MORE »
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MORE ROOFTOP ALUMS
AMONG THE SUNDANCE SHORTS
By Rooftop Films on 12/09/2008
Filed under: Animation, Documentary, Rooftop Filmmakers, Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund, Rooftop NewsLast week we listed the Rooftop alums showing features at Sundance in January, but there are also a bunch of short films playing that were made by filmmakers who have shown films at Rooftop previously. Hopefully we will see you all out in Park City in January. "I Am So Proud Of You," Director: Don Hertzfeldt. Dark family secrets cast a shadow over Bill's recovery; in this second chapter to Don Hertzfeldt's 'Everything will be OK'. (Winner of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Grand Jury Prize, U.S.). We gave a Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund grant to Don for I... MORE »
INTERVIEW WITH JIM AND DIANE DOWNER,
DIRECTORS OF "COMPOST"
By Rooftop Films on 12/03/2008
Filed under: Animation, Environmental Films, Watch Short FilmscallBrightcove(1873835557, 594, 445,"#ffffff");The music of flowers, bugs and leaves. Q&A Rooftop Films: Tell us about your film. Jim Downer: Animators have been making synesthetic films for years--visually interpreting sound. In this realm Compost is nothing new. At its core it's an experimental film made with sticks and leaves. On another level, through the symbolism provided by nature's cycles Compost represents continual change through rebirth and decomposition. The film includes the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and other conditions through quick successive interchanges of subject matter. RF: What was your inspiration? JD: Found animation--multiples--easily accessible everyday objects. While food shopping... MORE »
AN EVENING WITH DON HERTZFELDT!
WED., NOV. 19TH AT THE IFC CENTER.
By Rooftop Films on 11/17/2008
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Drama, Home Movies, Personal Narrative, Rooftop Filmmakers, Rooftop Filmmakers' FundAN EVENING WITH DON HERTZFELDT:Wednesday, November 19 at 7:00, 9:15 and 11:15pm at IFC Center. Don Hertzfedlt comes to New York's IFC Center on Wednesday, November 19th to present three screenings of his work. The highlight of the program is the New York premiere of I AM SO PROUD OF YOU, the sequel to his Sundance winning short Everything Will Be Ok. I AM SO PROUD OF YOU was funded in part by the Rooftop Filmmakers Fund. Tickets are on sale now and quickly selling out - $15 general admission/$12 for IFC Center members. You can purchase tickets on... MORE »
INTERVIEW WITH BECKY JAMES,
DIRECTOR OF "SNAKE"
By Rooftop Films on 11/13/2008
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Rooftop Filmmakers, Watch Short FilmscallBrightcove(1634709670, 594, 445, "#ffffff");Deceptively playful, Snake is a film about stubbornness in the face of change. Rooftop Films: What was your inspiration? Becky James: I wanted to make something about growing up and I was kind of feeling like people were forcing me into situations that made me have to change. And then I knocked out nine teeth falling down the stairs. So I had the premise and then I just figured out each scene as I wrapped up the previous one. Animating by hand is so slow that you have lots of time to get to know the character... MORE »
INTERVIEW WITH ETHAN CLARKE
DIRECTOR OF "PRINCESS"
By Rooftop Films on 11/03/2008
Filed under: Animation, Animation, Rooftop Filmmakers, Rooftop News, Rooftop News, Watch Short Films, Watch Short FilmsPRINCESS (Ethan Clarke | 7:05 | Animation) callBrightcove(1683793530, 594, 445, "#ffffff");A likely story of an unbreakable friendship between a woman and her cat. We need them. Do they really need us? Q&A Rooftop Films: Tell us about your film: What was your inspiration? Ethan Clarke: I attempted to write 'Princess' after reading a blurb in the newspaper about an old woman who was found dead in her apartment. The police discovered several bite marks on her that they concluded were from her cat. Her cat was found emaciated but still alive. The whole story fleshed itself out immediately in my... MORE »
INTERVIEW WITH ETHAN CLARKE
DIRECTOR OF "PRINCESS"
By Rooftop Films on 11/03/2008
Filed under: Animation, Animation, Rooftop Filmmakers, Rooftop News, Rooftop News, Watch Short Films, Watch Short FilmsPRINCESS (Ethan Clarke | 7:05 | Animation) callBrightcove(1683793530, 594, 445, "#ffffff");A likely story of an unbreakable friendship between a woman and her cat. We need them. Do they really need us? Q&A Rooftop Films: Tell us about your film: What was your inspiration? Ethan Clarke: I attempted to write 'Princess' after reading a blurb in the newspaper about an old woman who was found dead in her apartment. The police discovered several bite marks on her that they concluded were from her cat. Her cat was found emaciated but still alive. The whole story fleshed itself out immediately in my... MORE »
INTERVIEW WITH SAM MORRISON
DIRECTOR OF "ROCKET SCIENCE!"
By Rooftop Films on 10/23/2008
Filed under: Animation, Rooftop Filmmakers, Watch Short FilmsROCKET SCIENCE!(Sam Morrison | 14:58 | Animation-Comedy) callBrightcove(1745049826, 594, 445, "#ffffff");When mystery comes calling at Grime City, captain Jack Hersey is forced to confront his darkest fear--people from out of town. Q&A Rooftop Films: Tell us about your film. Sam Morrison: My film is called Rocket Science! and it's part B-Movie homage and part contemporary satire. RT: What was your inspiration? SM: Narratively, fantastic genre movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Incredible Shrinking Man. My co- writer and I loved the aesthetic and the fact that, often because budgets were tight, other-worldly stories had to be conveyed... MORE »
BRENT GREEN WITH DREW & THE MEDICINAL PEN
AT THE STONE (NYC) ON TUE. OCT. 14
By Rooftop Films on 10/13/2008
Filed under: Animation, Home Movies, Rooftop Filmmakers, Rooftop Music, Watch Short FilmsRooftop Films events are more than just a movie screening--there's films you won't see anywhere else, live music, filmmakers in attendance, and a communal energy that exceeds just about anything you'll get in a theater.Which is why we're so crazy about Brent Green--his shows have all that magic and passion, pinched together with wires and duct tape, and blasted forth though old phonographs, scratchy woodcuts, and a creaking, plaintive voice. Brent makes astonishing and inspiring animated films about strange old houses, alcoholic Santas, and bringing our soldiers home from an unnecessary war one piece at a time, and he sings... MORE »
PRINCESS
(Ethan Clarke | 7:05 | Animation)
By Rooftop Films on 09/13/2008
Filed under: Animation, Watch Short FilmscallBrightcove(1683793530, 594, 445, "#ffffff");The story of an unbreakable friendship between a woman and her cat. We need them. Do they really need us? The pets that we share our life with make some interesting companions. They grow with us, and maybe even understand us better than we can understand ourselves. In Ethan Clarke's short film, we see an old woman and the relationship she shares with her cat Princess--love, respect, and camaraderie. Princess does not act differently because the woman is in her old age, as her son does, but remains a steady attendant and partner, and provides a way... MORE »
Interview With Kelly Sears, Director of "The Drift"
By Rooftop Films on 09/03/2008
Filed under: Animation, Rooftop Filmmakers, Watch Short FilmsQ & A Rooftop Films: Tell us about your film. Kelly Sears: The Drift is the tale of a 1960s space journey that goes awry and launches the counter culture revolution at the end of the decade. It's made up of collected images that are slowly animated and make you wonder if you are seeing astronauts and dropouts float away from you. RT: What was your inspiration? KS: I am interested in dystopic manifests destiny fables that draw largely on American history but uses fictional hinges to connect moments of time. I mine pop history images, National Geographic's, cultural... MORE »
THE DRIFT
(Kelly Sears | 8:13 | Animation)
By Rooftop Films on 08/13/2008
Filed under: Animation, Documentary, Political Films, Watch Short FilmscallBrightcove(1634691271, 594, 445, "#ffffff");An absurd fable crafted from images found in thrift store bookshelves about our country's unflinching frontierism and the desire to push too far, too fast. What happens when the final frontier has been crossed one too many times? Space, the moon, the emptiness-we've already been there. But when astronauts of a new, exalted space mission hear "the drift," a hypnotic song that sounds like emptiness, it draws them further from the ground of Earth and augments a desire to explore and live in wonder. With Kelly Sears' looped DVD projection, still photographic images of the "American Dream"... MORE »
ROOFTOP WEEKEND RECAP - July 25-26
ANIMATION, FAMILY DRAMA, AND A VISIT FROM THE PRESIDENT
By Rooftop Films on 07/28/2008
Filed under: Animation, Documentary, Drama, Home Movies, Personal Narrative, Political Films, Rooftop News, Rooftop Weekend Recap, Sparrow, Watch Short FilmsFRIDAY: Animation Block Party at Automotive High School We always have an amazing turnout for our partnership with the exuberant Animation Block Party but this week we set a record: two screens at Automotive High School allowed some 1,000 people to check out the packed program. The night began with comments from AHS teacher Jenny Kessler, who has started a student gardening program at this uber-urban school, growing vegetables on the very lawn we were watching films. She was selling a lush selection of produce to fund student activities, and our wonderfully supportive audience was thrilled to learn a little... MORE »
SNAKE
(Becky James | 3:03 | Animation)
Screening at Rooftop Films on August 1
By Rooftop Films on 07/23/2008
Filed under: Animation, Rooftop Filmmakers, Watch Short FilmscallBrightcove (1634709670, 594, 445, "#ffffff") ; Deceptively playful, Snake is a film about stubbornness in the face of change. Charming. When a simple snake goes out for some snacking adventures (which reminds me of course of the ever-popular Snake video game), it seems as if nothing can stop it from reaching the next carrot. But when some obstacles come its way that it's never encountered before, well, we see sadness and pain in its line-drawn form. What seems like a simplistic cartoon gives way to much more as the snake deals with the tools it is left with, and deals... MORE »
Rooftop Trailers!
By Rooftop Films on 07/17/2008
Filed under: Animation, Rooftop FilmmakersWe've gotten a lot of response from the first 45 seconds of our shows...so we have decided to post the Rooftop Films trailers. This year's trailer was conceived by Mark Elijah Rosenberg, animated by Fran Krause, and features music from Drew Henkels, with his band, Drew & the Medicinal Pen. Rooftop Films 2008 Trailer Here is the 2007 trailer, with Rooftop Films in miniature! Rooftop Films 2007 Trailer We owe this 44-second gem to: Ryan McFaul - Direction Lothar Osterburg - Models Dan Nuxoll - Music Matt Elkind - Cinematography Mark Elijah Rosenberg - Concept and Production Enjoy!... MORE »
DOCK 5
(Paul Chaudet, Benjamin Devaux, & Simon Landrein | 05:00 | Animation, Short)
By Rooftop Films on 07/15/2008
Filed under: Animation, Watch Short FilmscallBrightcove(1634709671, 594, 445, "#ffffff");A glorious animated musical celebration of the dockworker, another disappearing occupation. Dock 5 impresses us with its rhythm and the quality of its aesthetics. Superb graphic renderings place us in the dark, film-noir-like world of the dockworker at night, on the job. With the creation of musical rhythm through the manual actions of the workers, we catch a glimpse of industrial beauty. Danger and suspense arise in the visual environment of light and shadow, but a jazzy, flowing score as accompaniment soothes the viewer and take us along on the fast-paced ride. The workers and cranes dance... MORE »
ROOFTOP WEEKEND RECAP - June 12-14
3 SOLD-OUT SHOWS
By Rooftop Films on 06/16/2008
Filed under: Animation, Documentary, Home Movies, Political Films, Rooftop Filmmakers, Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund, Rooftop Weekend Recap, Watch Short FilmsThe First Annual Rooftop Panorama a huge success Rooftop Films is more than a film festival--we are a community, a collaboration between filmmakers and audience members, between movies, venues and neighborhoods. We not only screen films outdoors; we also foster collaborations by renting equipment, teach filmmaking to young people at partner schools, and co-produce new films through The Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund. But because our festival runs through five months (weekends and more from May 31-September 27), as opposed to many that last a weekend or a week, there's not always the same opportunity for filmmakers, distributors, critics, and audience members... MORE »
CRAZY EYES DOLPHIN VS. THE MAD COWS
(Ian Stewart | 4:35 | Animation)
By Rooftop Films on 06/05/2008
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Home Movies, Rooftop Filmmakers, Watch Short FilmscallBrightcove(1556197793, 594, 445, "#ffffff"); A sobering animated expose about how Mad Cow Disease is now killing dolphins. Via karate. Okay, this is seriously one of the funniest films we've ever shown in the 12 years of Rooftop Films. Ian was a camp counselor, and he used to have his kids tell a part of a story, and then pass it on to the next kid. When you start off with an energetic loony ranting about a bovine/porpoise kung-fu battle, you know you're in for a great tale. This is one you'll watch over and over, and email to all your... MORE »
About the Rooftop Films Blog on IFC.com
By Rooftop Films on 05/01/2008
Filed under: About Rooftop Films and This Blog, Animation, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Environmental Films, Home Movies, Personal Narrative, Political Films, Rooftop Filmmakers, Rooftop Music, Rooftop News, Watch Short FilmsFor those of you who know don't know much (or anything) about Rooftop Films, here is a brief introduction: Rooftop Films is a non-profit film festival and production collective that has been screening and producing independent films since 1997. We are most famous for our annual Summer Series, a summer-long outdoor film festival that features more than 35 screenings each year. All of our summer screenings take place in stunning outdoor locations--either on rooftop or in parks, along piers, or in other scenic outdoor locations all over New York City (and occasionally beyond). We have screened more than 1,500 films... MORE »
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