Another update, straight from D-Word.
To read the original report, and a call for action, scroll down or click here.

We are now in the fifth day of [Rooftop alum] Andrew Berends' detainment in Port Harcourt, Niger Delta, Nigeria. Andrew's friends, family and colleagues are outraged about his situation and find it incomprehensible that more has not been done to secure his release.

The U.S. State Department has been aware of Andrew's detainment since day one. Yet he still has not been visited by a State Department official. We believe it is beyond acceptable protocol for an American citizen to be held illegally without an agent of the American government visiting him to ascertain his safety and the conditions of his custody and to make it crystal clear that the U.S. government is advocating in no uncertain terms for his release.

It does not appear that the State Department has done enough to be in constant communication with the Nigerian Government to apply pressure or even get accurate information about Andrew's status and well-being. If what they are doing is more than minimal, that has not been made clear to us, Andrew's advocates. Nor has it been getting any apparent results. Too many days have passed with no shift in Andrew's circumstances and no coordinated or decisive action on the part of the State Department to shift things.

Andrew entered the country legally as a filmmaker and journalist. He was filming in a public place in a country that claims to be a democracy when he was arrested. He was not filming oil facilities or the military, which are the only two subjects the Nigerian government has deemed to be sensitive. We have been told that on the day he was detained, Andrew even asked and was granted permission by a military official prior to filming.

Andrew reported to us that during the first 36 hours of his detainment, he was interrogated nonstop with no sleep. He was denied food and given barely any water. He does not have the benefit of legal representation inside the SSS facility and has been forced repeatedly to make coerced statements.

This is the fourth incident of American journalists being held in Nigeria within the past two years. It is now a pattern. It is evident that there has been no legitimate reason for the treatment these American citizens have endured. Rather, these incidents are intended to suppress journalism. They are a blatant attempt by the Nigerian government to cover up the evidence of years of human rights and environmental abuses and discourage others from coming to expose the poverty, injustice and corruption rampant in the region. We call on the U.S. government to speak out against this.

We urge our Congressional representatives to let the State Department know that the legislative branch they serve and answer to will not stand by and let more hours of inaction pass. In a country like Nigeria and a region like the Niger Delta, things can change in an instant. It is dangerous to assume that Andrew is OK and give in to the platitude that "these things take time." This situation must be elevated to the highest level of urgency. We must press strongly and continuously for Andrew's immediate release and safe escort out of the country.

Because journalists working in foreign countries often depend on local assistants and translators to do their work, make themselves understood, and keep safe, we are particularly distressed that Samuel George, the Nigerian national who works as a translator with Andrew Berends, was also detained by the Nigerian Military. We have had no word of his condition since his arrest, and we are deeply concerned that Samuel may be experiencing harsh treatment at the hands of the Nigerian government. It is imperative that Samuel George also be released immediately, and that there be no further intimidation and harassment of media workers by the Nigerian government.

Please click HERE to read about how you can help Andrew.

Once again, Rooftop Films is proud to be supporting emerging and independent filmmakers by partnering with IFP on Independent Film Week, September 14-19, 2008.

Six Days. Dozens of Panels. Daily Social Networking. Gain practical knowledge from producers, funders, distributors, agents and buyers addressing the issues facing today's independent filmmakers and learn about new models and platforms that will impact your work tomorrow. Get your badge now!

Rooftop-related events include, free outdoor screenings (with free drinks), "Meet the Programmers" sessions, panel discussions, and more:

Free outdoor film screenings:
+ Tues., September 16, 8-11pm
Trinidad ( PJ Raval, Jay Hodges | Colorado, Austin | 1:26:00)
40 years ago, Dr. Stanley Biber transformed a sleepy mining town in Colorado into the Sex Change Capital of The World. 



+ Wed., September 17, 8-11pm
Selections from the IFP Narrative and Documentary Labs
A sneak peek at trailers and scenes from independent fiction and documentary films that will be next year's hot festival and indie releases.

Venue: on the pier at Solar One
Address: 23rd Street @ the East River (Kips Bay, Manhattan)
Directions: R/6 to 23rd St., walk all the way East, or take the B23 bus all the way East.
8:00PM: Doors open
8:30PM: Sound Fix presents live music by Frances
9:00PM: Films
10:30PM: Free drinks courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner.
Rain: In the event of rain, there will be some covering for the audience, but we suggest you bring an umbrella.
Presented in partnership with: IFC.com, IndieGoGo, and Solar One

+ Wed., September 17 & Thurs., September 18., 3-6pm
Rooftop programmers Mark Elijah Rosenberg and Dan Nuxoll will be taking part in the "Meet the Programmers" sessions. A chance for filmmakers to talk about their work and get a sense of various festivals' goals, criteria and selection processes.

+ Wed., Sept. 17, 4-5pm
Artistic Director Mark Elijah Rosenberg will be moderating a panel on "DIY Distribution: Art House & Alternative Venue Programming." As audiences for films become more segmented, how can filmmakers work directly with art house and alternative venue programmers to showcase their latest content and bring audience back to the theatres? This session will bring together DIY filmmakers and programmers to discuss what works best to market, position and program independent films in art house theatres and alternative venues to maximize financial impact for both parties. Panelists include Karen Cooper (Film Forum), Ned Hinkle (Brattle Theater), Wendy Lidell (International Film Circuit), Dennis O'Connor (Bottle Shock), Cora Olson (Good Dick), Cynthia Swartz (42 West PR).

For the latest Conference updates and pass purchases, go to www.filmmakerconference.com.

Lee Isaac Chung (director of the acclaimed Munyurangabo, which screened at Rooftop on August 23) will receive a fully-loaded lighting and grip package for 30 days for his feature narrative Lucky Life.

Full details can be found at www.rooftopfilms.com/produce.html and www.easterneffects.com

Rooftop Films is committed to helping emerging filmmakers in a variety of ways, from providing large and diverse audiences for underexposed films at our screenings and online, to helping artists produce new films through the Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund. In 2008, Rooftop Films and Eastern Effects, a film equipment rental house in Brooklyn, inaugurated an Equipment Grant, lending one Rooftop alumni filmmaker a two-ton lighting and grip package for 30 days, to be used on a feature-length film. Dozens of excellent filmmakers submitted their treatments and screenplays in the hopes of receiving the package, valued at approximately at $15,000.

We are now pleased to announce that Lee Isaac Chung will be the recipient of the 2008 Rooftop Films and Eastern Effects Equipment Grant. Chung screened his short film Sex and Coffee at Rooftop in 2006, and will use the grant for a drama entitled Lucky Life, about four friends on a poignant road trip. Mark and Karen are preparing for the birth of their first child, while Jason is coping with his recent diagnosis with terminal cancer. A meditation on life, death and spirituality, Chung says the film, which will begin production in September, was inspired by his trips to Spanish cathedrals, and the revelation of "cinema as a medium for creating spiritual space." The title comes from a book of poetry by Gerald Stern: "Lucky life isn't one long string of horrors / and there are moments of peace, and pleasure, as I lie in between the blows."

Lucky Life will be Chung's second feature film, following on the tremendous success of his debut Munyurangabo, which screened festivals including Berlin, Toronto, and Cannes, where Variety praised the film as "flat-out, the discovery of this year's Un Certain Regard [section]."

Munyurangabo is a stunning neo-realist drama about revenge and friendship in post-genocide Rwanda. The debut feature from the 2008 recipient of the Rooftop Films and Eastern Effects Equipment Grant screened at Rooftop Films on Saturday, August 23, at the Old American Can Factory, in Gowanus (near Park Slope), Brooklyn. For more information, check out Munyurangabo.

Troubling news from D-Word:

Andrew Berends, an established, award-winning American filmmaker and journalist from New York, was detained Sunday, August 31st by the Nigerian military along with his translator, Samuel George. Andrew entered Nigeria legally in April 2008 to complete a documentary film. Back in 2006, Rooftop hosted the first US screening of Andrew's film When Adnan Comes Home.

Andrew was held in custody without food, sleep, or representation, and with limited water for the first 36 hours. He has been questioned by the army, the police, and the State Security Services in Port Harcourt. The State Security Services has confiscated his passport and personal property. Andrew has been returned to sleep in his rented room each night after the initial 36 hours, but then re-detained each morning. Andrew's translator, Samuel George, has not been released at night and has remained in custody since Sunday.

The US State Department is aware of the situation, and an attorney has been retained on Andrew's behalf. Reporters without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists have issued statements condemning Andrew's arrest. We, Andrew's friends, family, and colleagues, are deeply concerned that he has been held without cause and are calling for his safe treatment and immediate release.

For the latest updates on the situation, including a portrait of Andy and his work, go to:
http://helpandy.wordpress.com/

*************ACTION ALERT!**************

We would like all readers who are U.S. citizens, whether living in the U.S. or abroad, to contact their congressional representatives to raise political pressure on this issue.

Phone Script for Elected Officials:

* As a constituent and a concerned citizen, I wanted to bring your attention to the news that American journalist Andrew Berends has been arrested by the Nigerian government while working on a documentary.

* Nigeria enjoys the highest level of diplomatic relations with the United States, and for an American journalist to be detained without representation and subjected to coercive questioning is both highly inappropriate and illegal.

* We ask you to make known your awareness and concern about this matter, contact your colleagues, and work to ensure the good treatment and speedy release of Andrew Berends and his interpreter from Nigerian custody.

-------
We would like everyone to call both their own local representatives and also the two Senators from New York State. When talking with New York reps, please add that Andrew is a New Yorker.

The contact information for NY senators Clinton and Schumer is:

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY)- 202-224-6542
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY)- 202-224-4451

Your local representatives' contacts may be found here: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress

Please forward this call to action to anyone you think could help by making a call to their representatives and the NY senators.

Q & 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 encyclopedias, and ephemeral documents to find cracks in these images that could open up a different way of retelling something between a fiction and a history.

RT: Holy cow! How long did it take you to find all the images? Where did you do most of your searching?

KS: Lots of aimless treks to thrift stores and garage sales. It becomes about the thrill of the hunt, not knowing what you will find but that as soon as you see it, it will make sense in some larger narrative puzzle. My apartment is a backlog of everything that other people have ditched.

RT: 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.)?

KS: This film is one of several I am working on from mid century cultural markers and looking back on them from today to think about where things could have worked out differently in the past 50 years, how this all could be framed differently, both visually and ideologically.

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

KS: I listened to David Bowie's Space Odyssey and Hawkwind's Space Ritual on repeat to get into a floaty place with the piece. As I was working on the piece, the news story broke about the astronaut love triangle that involved an attempted murder, wigs, pepper spray, and astronaut diapers, and it was timely to see actual odd stories about the trajectory of our space program circulating along with the one I was working on.

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

KS: When I am not digging up old images or film and staying up late animating, I teach college and graduate classes on video, media research methodologies, and media history.

RT: What is your current/next project?

KS: I am working on piece that supposes a moment in a modern telecommunications network where spiritual energy invades our communication systems via suggestive emergency calls to exchange operators.

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

KS: I happened to be in New York this summer during a screening and it was amazing to see hundred of people together enjoying movies in the summer night air. Usually I see my work at festivals and galleries and this crowd was made up of people who wanted to get out of the house on a weekend night and see something new. There were so many people there and was great to have so many new faces seeing the work.

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

KS: IFC.com hosted my last short and it looked wonderful. I was able to have folks see a great resolution version of the piece online. Also, it's great that these shorts can be hosted under the banner of IFC as a way for people to get access to newer shorts.

RT: Do you have any questions for the viewers? They'll post comments.

KS: Sure - I'd love to hear recommendations for thrift stores that are great to pick up old Life magazines and other general interest periodicals from the 50s-80s?

To watch The Drift, scroll below or click HERE.

Self-perception is crucial to 72-year-old Louis Harding, rebuilding the community center he opened one month before Hurricane Katrina. He discusses the importance of history, heroes and self-esteem for African-Americans.

New Orleans native and filmmaker Brent Joseph shows us an touching and intimate portrait of
Louis Harding, a community leader who's years of hard work to benefit the youth of New Orleans was washed away by hurricane Katrina. Despite the massive set back, Louis keeps moving forward and believes that making his dream a reality is more important now than ever before.

We were able to ask Brent Joseph a few questions about his fascinating portrait of Louis Harding.

Q & A

RT: Tell us a little bit about the film!

BJ: A Loud Color is about Louis Harding, a 74-year-old life long resident of New Orleans who mowed grass for 30 years and saved up his money with the dream of opening a community center one day. He lives in the Central City neighborhood which has one of the highest crime rates in the city so Louis really wanted to do something to educate youth and try to pull them out of the cycle of poverty and violence that has plagued the area for so long. He finally got his center running in the summer of 2005, then Katrina hit and the center was destroyed a month later. For the film, Louis took me on a tour of the center and talked about African-American history in New Orleans and why he won't give up on his dream of running a community center.

RT: What was your inspiration for the film and how did you find out about Louis?

BJ: Well, I was already working on one short documentary that I shot in the immediate aftermath of the storm, called Holdout. It was about my neighbor who never left his house because he had 18 pets. Then in early 2006 I was contacted by Tim Ryan of the non-profit New Orleans Video Access Center. He was tired of hearing the mainstream media portray NOLA as a lost cause. He wanted several local filmmakers to make shorts that highlighted the determination of residents to rebuild. Anyone who has spent a lot of time in the area knows that New Orleans defies all logic. The odds may be against the city, but that doesn't mean that it won't find it's own meandering way to survive. With that in mind I drove back to the city from my new home in Austin looking for a story. How I found Louis is pretty random. I was literally crossing the state line when I heard a car honk. It was an old friend Akeem Khalif. I had not seen him in years. We pulled over on the side of the road and caught up. Akeem told me he had bought a home in the Lower 9th Ward a month before Katrina and it was destroyed before he even moved in. It was awful. I told him about the project I was working on and he suggested that I contact his friend Louis Harding. When I got to the city I arranged to met Louis at his community center and the second I drove up and saw the building I knew that he had a story that had to be told.

RT: What's Louis up to now? Has he made much improvement/progress to the Community Center?

BJ: I actually just did an update on Louis as a bonus feature for the 8th Annual Media That Matters DVD Compilation. Louis has continued to have even more setbacks, but he now as a very sharp partner who I think is really going to make things happen. They have a new vision and I just made a commercial to help them gain more visibility. I got DJ Jubilee who is a pioneer of Bounce Rap to be the spokesman. Jubilee is a Special Ed teacher by day, volunteer champion coach in the afternoon and DJ by night. He is a local legend and has been ripped off several times by more famous rappers from the city. It's turns out that he coaches across the street from where Louis' center used to be, so Louis walked over and asked him if he wanted to get involved. He's an amazing guy and I feel really lucky to have been able to meet him.

RT: What is your current/next project?

BJ: Right now I am splitting my time between writing a screenplay and working for Monofonus Press, a new record label and publishing press in Austin. They put out combination short stories and records with all of the artwork made by local painters. I'm making short documentaries, music videos and promos for them which I will start posting to their website, you tube and Vimeo in the next few weeks. Other than that I'm just waiting for this miserable Texas heat to be over with.

By the way, my other short that I mentioned earlier, Holdout, was just released on the NewFest Compilation DVD by Indiepix Films Ok, enough of the self-promotion.

RT: Do you have any questions for the viewers? They'll post comments.

BJ: Questions Question. hmmm. I'd like to know how many people out there know about DJ Jubilee. He's an unsung hero who has been ripped off by many bigger name NOLA rappers. He plays everything from project parties to Quintron and Miss Pussycat shows to Tulane frat parties all while juggling his teaching and coaching obligations. If your readers haven't heard of him check him out.

To make donations to the Washington Ave. Community Center, and to find out more information on how you can help, please visit the film's official website, www.aloudcolor.com

She craves adventure. He wants to settle down. In order to win her over, he tries to do something spontaneous. But she knows that "Adventures are as common as rooftops."

Berlin, a point he picked out on a map--it came to embody all his hopes and dreams of adventure that he thought would make him more like the girl he loved. She was adventurous, but gave up her journey because she wanted to be with him. He wanted her, but was he good enough? He could not see adventure in the every day like she could.

This is the story of a breaking point in a relationship. He becomes jealous and spiteful that she'd had adventures, and makes a desperate and spontaneous choice to create his own in Berlin. He becomes swept away, and distances himself from the girl he wanted to please. He thinks it is because of his love of her that he could not stay, because he needed to find adventure to satisfy her, but he does not see, as she can, that the everyday adventures are all she really wanted; the ones she could share with him.

This film showed at Rooftop's "This is What We Mean by Short Films" program on June 6th, 2008. All the films in this program are about that core human value of friendship, about sticking together, staying loyal, and finding the magic of cinema with your friends, one quick glimpse at a time. The film also screened at the University of Toronto Film Festival in 2008.

Jessica Duffin Wolfe makes small movies, writes for POV, Montage, and Spacing Magazines, and presumes to tell young OCAD people about the history of design. Sometimes she uploads the things she sees whilst out and about in Toronto to a site called YouTube.

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" gathered from magazines, junk piles, and thrift stores become animated in a would-be documentary. They drift across the screen and give an account of a manifest-destiny space mission gone awry. Perfect images give way to rejected or forgotten hopes, and the infatuation with a song of emptiness gives birth to the 'drifter' and thoughts about our place in the universe and what it means to be human.

The Drift showed as part of our Surreal Sounds and Shorts Program at Rooftop on June 27, 2008, featuring unexpected juxtapositions and surreal short films that explore the mind's wanderings and artistic expression.

Kelly Sears is an animator and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. Her work has been shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, the Hammer Museum, Sundance, Anthology Film Archives and in galleries and film festivals internationally. Sears' collage animations parse together collected media artifacts to reveal secret histories, forgotten tales, and possible moments embedded in the images around us. She has upcoming shows in Los Angeles and La Verne, California, through October.

A Rooftop favorite, this short tells the story of a self-defeated Marbled Rock Crab and his species' 120 million years of tragedy.

Revolution of the Crabs is a cute and witty animated short from France about a race of shellfish that have collectively internalized the concept of being trapped in a shell that dooms them to walk forever in the same direction. They are the Pachygrapsus Marmoratus, commonly known as 'depressed crabs.'"

They are likewise fated to meet each other only in passing for all time. Maybe they are this way for a reason; their life paths determined by the place they hatch and confining them to a single line for life. A certain stoicism and pride arises in the minds of these crabs, to account for that which they cannot do by nature: turn. (Or avoid having their legs torn off by toddlers on the beach for that matter!)

But it is not nature that keeps the crabs carrying on in such a way--it seems they are just too dim-witted to turn. When a fateful event causes one crab to turn in a split second of danger, the pride so inherent in the "civil servant" class of crab is offended--this "turn" is no more than a lack of the dignity that the rest of the crabs prize. It is never to happen again.

This clever and delightful animated short is a glimpse into the mind of a crab, but perhaps also a reflection on how stubbornness and pride, and the problems for which we blame nature, are often little more than our own ignorance.

Revolution des Crabes, Arthur de Pins' short film, played at Rooftop Films on June 4, 2005 with Rockaway and Smith & 9th. The short has gained a lot of attention, and is a Rooftop favorite, in addition to winning the Audience award at the 2004 Ottawa International Animation Festival, the Audience Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and a nomination for the Cartoon d'Or at the Cartoon Forum in Europe the same year, and winning the Chameleon Award for Best Animated Film at the 2006 Brooklyn International Film Festival.

Arthur de Pins is a 2000 graduate of École Nationale Supérieure Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and makes his living as a professional illustrator and cartoonist with a fondness for blocks of bright colors and a super-clean line. His work has appeared regularly in the French men's magazine Max, for whom he does cheeky sex cartoons in a Playboy-esqe vein. He has numerous other films, including L'eau de Rose and the award-winning Geraldine (2001).

FRIDAY: My Effortless Brilliance at Automotive High School
A week after our blow-out Animation Block screening, Rooftop was back at Automotive for the New York Premiere of Lynn Shelton's My Effortless Brilliance, and we were pleasantly surprised that once again the audience filled the lawn. Fresh vegetables, popcorn and snacks were on sale, all produce grown on school grounds as part of AHS' new gardening program, which student Damon Singho described on stage to a supportive audience. Then, getting the crowd into a indie-folksy mood, was Drew and the Medicinal Pen, a fantastic band who are about to head on tour, and who just happen to be fronted by Rooftop tech manager Drew Henkels, who composed the music for Rooftop's 2008 Trailer.

Two short films preceded the feature (and all three films were directed by women, sadly still a rarity even in independent film). You can check out Becky James' Snake below to get a sense of the pleasantly off-kilter tone of the film program.

My Effortless Brilliance is a subtle film, but the crowd really took to it--laughing throughout at the uncomfortable friendship, and gasping at the fleeting moments of danger. Though set in the woods of Washington State, Williamsburg might have the perfect crowd for this narrative, which mocks pretentious literary references and snide passive aggressiveness with a genuine interest in friendship and belonging.

During the Q & A, Lynn said that she had made the film "from the inside out," starting with the actors and building a story around them as characters. The actors knew the entire backstory, but the details in the film are elusive, forcing the audience to focus on the moment, and the nuance of the relationship, rather than any specific plot points. When asked by Rooftop Artistic Director Mark Elijah Rosenberg if it was hard to have the characters re-forge their friendship but maintain their prickly attitudes which had forced them apart initially, Shelton remarked that the two leads are old friends in real life, so they had a rich history to draw from and play off of. The biggest challenge, she said, was keeping them from constantly laughing at each other's jokes.

At the packed Matchless after-party, with free drinks from Radeberger, Lynn chatted with many fans, including Woodstock programmer Michael Lerman, but was also barraged by text messages from her actors in Seattle, showing that clearly the friendships on this film are just as deep as those on screen.

SATURDAY: Home Movies at The Yard
Rain threatened Rooftop's Saturday night show, but Rooftop threatened right back, and the rain stayed away. The crowds, fortunately, did not stay away. We thought it might be a small show, but we really couldn't have had more people watching the movies at The Yard, with chairs filled right up to the canal and deep into the woods, and people perched on rocks, grass and picnic tables to catch a glimpse of the films. Our annual Home Movies program is always filled with very personal, intimate films, so this kind of setting was really perfect.

Photo (c) Sarah Palmer.
Also perfect was the opening act, presented in partnership with Sound Fix Records, The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. The indie-vaudeville-conceptual-art-rock-slideshow band are an actual family who write catchy songs about slides (projected behind them) that are not actually their family. Dad's neurotic banter, mom's calm prodding, and daughter's steady upbeat spirit, make for an entertaining show filled with the kind of humor and pathos that we love about Home Movies. The audience loved it, too.

And, speaking of opening acts, we also filled out the evening with Home Movies-esque book giveaway, as the first 100 folks in attendance received a free copy of Rooftop veteran Jim Munroe's An Opening of Unspeakable Evil, a novel written in blog form about a demonic ritual that catches on with the kids as performance art.

At the after party, featuring food from Margarita from the famous Red Hook "Soccer Taco" Vendors, and free wine from Brooklyn Oenology, filmmaker Ethan Knecht was buzzing with excitement. He's been coming to Rooftop for years, and this was the first time he'd shown a film with us. Even if you missed the show, you can check the film out below, and read an interview with Ethan.