ROOFTOP FILMS ANNOUNCES LINEUP FOR 19TH ANNUAL SUMMER SERIES
By Joshua Handler
For the past two years, I've covered the Rooftop Films Summer Series. The series screens indie hits hot off of the festival circuit anywhere from days to months (or even a year) before their theatrical debuts (many films don't have U.S. distribution when they play Rooftop). Over the past few years, Rooftop Films has shown such acclaimed films as Short Term 12, Obvious Child, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Frances Ha, 10000 KM, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, and The Trip to Italy, among many others. All screenings have live music before the screening, and nearly all include Q&As with the filmmakers along with an after party. And screenings are held on rooftops in NYC. Admission usually costs less than a multiplex ticket. For me, it doesn't get much better than that.
This year, Rooftop Films will be showing three personal favorites, Sean Baker's Sundance hit, Tangerine, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's highly disturbing, yet immensely entertaining Goodnight Mommy, and Crystal Moselle's oddly moving Sundance-winner, The Wolfpack. I'm quite excited to see Trey Shults' SXSW-winner, Krisha, Zachary Treitz' Tribeca-winner, Men Go to Battle, Hao Zhou's Sundance-winner, The Chinese Mayor, and Joe Swanberg's Digging for Fire. Below is the official press release from Rooftop Films.
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(New York, NY | May 4, 2015) Rooftop Films is proud to announce Opening Weekend, Featureand select highlights of the 19th annual Rooftop Films Summer Series. This year’s series will feature over 40 outdoor screenings in 19 spectacular venues, with huge crowds, live music, special enhancements and the best in new, independent films from around the world.
This year’s edition kicks off on Friday, May 29th, at their principal venue, Industry City, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, with some of the greatest new short films from around the world. The event will include the New York premiere of David Sandberg’s highly anticipated and hilarious short film, Kung Fury, which raised $630,000 on Kickstarter and the trailer for which has racked up more than 10,000,000 views online. The following night, Saturday, May 30th, Rooftop Films will head to the roof of The Old American Can Factory, in Gowanus, Brooklyn, to present Bob Byington’s charming off-beat comedy, 7 Chinese Brothers , starring Jason Schwartzman as an irrepressible man-child attempting to pull his life together and win over his boss at the Quick-Lube. David Sandberg will be in attendance opening night, Bob Byington and Jason Schwartzman will be in attendance on May 30th, and both evenings will feature live music before each screening and a post-screening after party, featuring Signature Sponsor New Amsterdam Spirits.
Tickets for both events will be on sale Tuesday, May 5th at 11:00 a.m. at www.rooftopfilms.com. Rooftop Films members are admitted free of charge. Memberships are available atwww.rooftopfilms.com/2015/
The 2015 Rooftop Films Summer Series continues through the summer, with screenings each week in a variety of exciting and picturesque outdoor locations. It is Rooftop Films’ goal with each event and each season to re-imagine the festival and reinvigorate communities across New York. With live performances, audience interaction, and enhanced themed events at amazing venues, Rooftop turns each film screening into an unforgettable event.
“2015 is shaping up to be a tremendous year for independent film, with many remarkable films making their debuts at festivals and reaching wide, appreciative audiences in theaters and online,” said Dan Nuxoll, Rooftop Films Program Director. “The indie film world is not only alive and well—it is thriving, and this year’s Summer Series slate features some truly stunning and innovative films from all over the world: personal works of film art, auteurist takes on genre and breathtakingly cinematic documentaries that stretch the boundaries of the form.”
Rooftop Films’ full feature film slate includes exceptional fiction films, such as Sean Baker’s warm-hearted yet riotously entertaining Tangerine; Trey Shults’ powerful SXSW-winning Krisha; Frank V. Ross’ delicately personal Bloomin’ Mud Shuffle; Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s bone-chilling psychological thriller Goodnight Mommy; and many more fantastic films, including Zachary Treitz’ Rooftop Films Edgeworx grantee Men Go To Battle, Joe Swanberg’s Digging for Fire, and more.
Rooftop also shows powerful, innovative and invigorating documentaries, and this year’s slate includes non-fiction discoveries from all across the world: Crystal Moselle’s critically acclaimed The Wolfpack; Khalik Allah’s ground-breaking Field Niggas; Bryan Carberry’s wildly entertaining Finders Keepers; Jason Zeldes’ Romeo is Bleeding; Hao Zhou’s The Chinese Mayor; Ulrike Franke and Michael Loeken’s Divine Location; and many more great docs, including Welcome to Leith, Kings of the Wind and Electric Queens, Spartacus and Cassandra, and Sam Klemke’s Time Machine, just to name a few.
Rooftop Films searches the world for the very best short movies being made. This summer they will be returning with new editions of their signature themed short film programs, including two Romantic Shorts screenings, a New York Non-Fiction program, two showcases of groundbreaking animation, and many big thrillers, comedies, docs and dramas in small packages.
This year’s series also includes a number of special events and partnerships including their annual SXSW weekend, a Sundance short film program, a Swedish Focus in partnership with the Swedish Film Institute, a presentation of The Skin Deep’s {The And} interactive event, and more special screenings to be announced soon.
All shows include live-music before the screenings and most include filmmaker Q&As and complementary after parties. The Summer Series will also include more than 13 programs of short films, and there will be additional feature films and special events announced shortly.
Dates and full line-up will be announced in the next week. Press passes, screeners, images, and interviews available upon request.
Rooftop Films 19th Annual Summer Series Opening Weekend
Friday, May 29, 2015
This is What We Mean by Short Films
Opening Night of Rooftop Films 19th Annual Summer Series will feature eaght short films about epic adventures, including the NY premiere of David Sandberg’s Kung Fury.
The Films: Kung Fury (David Sandberg), La nuit américaine d'Angélique (Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet), All Your Favorite Shows! (Danny Madden), Actor Seeks Role (Michael Tyburski),Butter Ya'Self (Julian Petschek), The Land (Erin Davis), Lesley the Pony Has an A+ Day!(Christian Larrave), Thank Ewe (Keith Wilson).
Saturday, May 30, 2015
7 Chinese Brothers (Bob Byington)
Bob Byington’s latest hangdog comedy, starring Jason Schwartzman and his trusty sidekick, Arrow.
Feature Films (more films, dates and venues to be announced soon):
Bloomin’ Mud Shuffle (Frank V. Ross)
A charming drama about a housepainter in love from one of the Midwest’s finest indie auteurs.
The Chinese Mayor (Hao Zhou)
The fascinating life of a bureaucrat restoring ancient ruins at the expense of his own career.
Digging for Fire (Joe Swanberg)
Jake Johnson digs for answers in Joe Swanberg’s latest indie-star-studded drama. Courtesy of The Orchard.
Divine Location (Michael Loeken, Ulrike Franke)
A subtly delightful comic portrait of a small German town undergoing huge changes.
Field Niggas (Khalik Allah)
A visceral documentary captures the inhabitants and sultry streets of Harlem in mid-summer.
Finders Keepers (Bryan Carberry)
A man finds a dismembered foot in an auctioned meat smoker. Then things get strange. Courtesy of The Orchard.
Goodnight Mommy (Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz)
A bone-chilling Austrian thriller about two young boys and their mysteriously altered mother. Courtesy of RADiUS-TWC.
Kings of the Wind & Electric Queens (Cédric Dupire and Gaspard Kuentz)
A compelling and hypnotic glimpse into one of India’s wildest carnivals.
Krisha (Trey Shults)
Rooftop grantee Trey Shults’ daring, SXSW-winning drama about a family on the brink.
Men Go To Battle (Zachary Treitz)
A Civil War epic of intimate proportions, written & directed by Rooftop Film Fund Grantees.
Romeo is Bleeding (Jason Zeldes)
In downtrodden region of southern California, the youth of a city mount an urban adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
Sam Klemke’s Time Machine (Matthew Bate)
A free-wheeling and non-fiction portrait of an extra-ordinary nobody, 35 years in the making.
Spartacus & Cassandra (Ioanis Nuguet)
An intimate cinematic portrait of two Roma children forced to become their parents’ parents.
Tangerine (Sean Baker)
Sean Baker’s riotous Christmas tale of a transgender prostitute searching for the pimp that broke her heart. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Welcome to Leith (Michael Beach Nichols, Christopher K. Walker)
Aryan militants invade a small North Dakota town. The town fights back.
The Wolfpack (Crystal Moselle)
The six Angulo brothers have spent their entire lives locked away from society in an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. All they know of the outside world is gleaned from the films they watch obsessively and recreate meticulously. But after one of the brothers escapes the apartment, the power dynamics in the house are transformed, and all the boys begin to dream of venturing out. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Special Events:
{The And}
An interactive social experiment that explores the labyrinths of human intimacy.
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About Rooftop Films
Rooftop Films is a non-profit organization whose mission is to engage and inspire the diverse communities of New York City by showcasing the work of emerging filmmakers and musicians. In addition to their annual Summer Series – which takes place in unique outdoor venues every weekend throughout the summer – Rooftop provides grants to filmmakers, helps local organizations to produce screenings and events, and rents equipment at low-cost to artists and nonprofits. At Rooftop Films, they bring underground movies outdoors. For more information and updates please visit their website at www.rooftopfilms.com.
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