Battle for Brooklyn
Free screening Thursday night 6/9 in Fort Greene Park at 9pm
Battle for Brooklyn explores the poorly understood phenomenon of eminent domain abuse. A feature-length documentary from filmmakers Michael Galinsky, Suki Hawley, and David Beilinson, this film investigates how real estate developers, local government, community activists, and the media have clashed over the largest single-source development project ever proposed in New York City. Widely known as the Atlantic Yards project, this undertaking has for the past four years been a major source of contention as local residents resist a billionaire developers attempt to use eminent domain to seize their homes and businesses. Done in the name of “development,” schemes such as this one eviscerate private property rights and make a mockery of the Fifth Amendment—and yet they freely exploit lucrative taxpayer subsidies, easements, and tax abatements.
No Matter What - Trailer
“No Matter What” is the story of Nick and Joey, two best friends living in the crumbling landscape of rural Florida, whose lives and friendship are changed by the journey to find Joey’s mother.
written & directed by CHERIE SAULTER
starring MATT WEBB & WAYLAN GROSS
Tomorrow night at ROOFTOP FILMS
Rooftop opens their 15th festival with a flash of creativity, a splatter of inspiration, and short epic stories that could save your life.
Rooftop opens their 15th festival with a flash of creativity, a splatter of inspiration, and short epic stories that could save your life.
A simple line drawing fleetingly becomes a recognizable face, then morphs into something disturbing. An obliterating splatter of paint describes the history of the universe. A prophesy of doom comes blissfully alive. The forces of creation and destruction battle epically within and around us at all times, at atomic, 8-bit and astronomical levels. David O’Reilly’s masterful fragmented universe The External World reminds us “Remember this is merely a cartoon. None of this is real… . There is only a silent emptiness spreading infinitely in all directions.” But at this, the start of Rooftop’s 15th year of existence, we begin with short films that celebrate creativity as a necessary means to survival. The piano players know, “She can’t kill me while I’m playing.”
THE FILMS
- Mark Elijah RosenbergLOVE & THEFT (Andreas Hykade | Germany | 7 min.)
The driving pulse of transformation reveals moments of terror and beauty amidst images familiar and domestic.OOPS (Chris Beckman | Springfield, MO | 10 min.)
Conjuring creative connections out of mundane happenstance, Oops—composed entirely of appropriated YouTube videos—lies somewhere between a home-video mixtape and a postmodern travelogue.THE EXTERNAL WORLD (David O’Reilly | Ireland | 15 min.)
A boy learns to play the piano.THE PIANO TUNER (Olivier Treiner | France | 13 min.)
Adrien is a young piano prodigy. He now works as a piano tuner. He pretends to be blind in order to infiltrate his clients’ intimacy. Since he sees things he should not, Adrien ends up witnessing a murder.HEARTPOCALYPSE (Matthew Silver | Brooklyn, NY | 7 min.)
In a dynamic bit of spontaneous street art, a crazed doomsayer ranting underneath a Brooklyn subway track brings to life his worst nightmares—and the crowd loves it.BIG BANG BIG BOOM (Blu | Italy | 10 min.)
This ingenious animation uses the city as its canvas in a short unscientific story about evolution and its possible consequences.LEDO AND IX BATTLE EPICALLY (Emily Carmichael | Brooklyn, NY | 4 min.)
The third in a series of films about two adventurers in an old-school fantasy video game. Ledo, the tiny 8-bit heroine, has been obsessively upgrading her weapons and tirelessly honing her attacks, all in preparation for great battles that have never materialized. Supported by the Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund.YEARBOOK (Carter Smith | New York, NY | 10 min.)
The yearbook photo never tells the whole story in this creepy portrait of small town high school sexuality from the award-winning creator of Bugcrush.PIONEER (David Lowery | Dallas, TX | 15 min.)
A father (Will Oldham) tells his little boy the most epic bedtime story ever.FRIDAY, MAY 13
OPEN ROAD ROOFTOP
LOWER EAST SIDE
350 Grand Street, New York, NY8:00PMDoors Open
8:30PMLive Music by Dustin Wong
9:00PMFilms Begin
11:30PMAfter Party at Fontanas
Here at Rooftop, we’ve been burning the midnight oil, watching thousands of films, finding gorgeous new venues, and planning exciting special events filled with robots, wrestlers, lesbian space aliens, and more.
And now we just can’t contain our excitement any more. It is our pleasure to announce the lineup for their 15th Annual Summer Series, presented by IFC and New York Magazine, featuring:
- Over 50 shows: every weekend from May 13th – August 20th
- 23 feature-length films including 2 World Premieres and 15 US or NY Premieres
- 183 short films from 26 countries, shown in themed programs such as Romance Shorts, Thriller Shorts, and New York Non-Fiction
- Fiction, documentary, comedy, drama, animation and more
- 15 spectacular outdoor venues with stunning views across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens & The Bronx
- Live music, filmmaker Q&As, and after parties with complimentary drinks
- Special events such as a live wrestling match at the screening of Robert Green’s Fake it So Real, featuring the semi-pro wrestlers from that film, and a sneak attack performance by the musical guerillas from the Swedish comedy The Sound of Noise
