Rooftop Films Presents Three-Day Weekend of Documentaries, 6/19 - 6/21

THE LAST SEASON - June 19

(Sara Dosa | 78 min.)

8:00PM Doors Open and reception sponsored by New Amsterdam Spirits and Bulleit Bourbon

8:30PM Live music by The Woes

9:00PM Film Begins

10:45PM Q&A with director Sara Dosa

Venue: Brooklyn Grange at The Brooklyn Navy Yard (63 Flushing Avenue, Building #3, Brooklyn, NY 11205)

Pacific Pride Commercial Fueling, The Burger Deli, Chalet Restaurant - quiet, rural spots right off the Highway are immediately juxtaposed with karaoke and the loading of a truck with highly sought after but rare matsutake mushrooms. It's September in the small rural town of Chemult, Oregon and a camp of over 200 seasonal workers - most of Southeast Asian descent - have started hunting for a prized fungus. Kouy, 46 year-old platoon leader of Cambodia's Khmer Freedom Fighters who battled the Khmer Rouge, is a seasoned veteran who learned foraging during his enslavement. Roger, a 75 year-old sniper with the US Special Forces in Vietnam, who acts as a father to Kouy, has less luck as his health starts to fail him. Traversing the land in search of the elusive fungi, the two search for underground networks of matsutake while they slowly unearth the roots of their unlikely friendship.

In her debut feature film, Sara Dosa balances these two men's intimate story while also engaging larger themes, including the correlation of past and present, and man's relationship to nature and location. Dosa probes the quiet moments which reveal a distinct sense of a shared past and geographic specificity that binds the characters. Archival footage of rebel fighters in Cambodia and American soldiers in Vietnam is seamlessly edited into vérité scenes of domesticity and work, along with gorgeous wide shots of mountains and rural landscapes. While initially a fly-on-the-wall approach, The Last Season's subjects gently draw Dosa into their relationship, as layers of friendship and life call out to be uncovered. Told over the course of one matsutake mushroom season, the documentary is a journey into the woods, into the memory of war and survival, telling a story of family from an unexpected place.

More info and tickets: http://rooftopfilms.com/2014/schedule/the-last-season/

GIUSEPPE MAKES A MOVIE - June 20

(Adam Rifkin | 83 min.)

8:00PM Doors Open

8:30PM Live Music

9:00PM Film Begins

10:30PM Q&A with filmmaker Adam Rifkin

11:30PM After Party sponsored by New Amsterdam Vodka & Gin

Venue: The Old American Can Factory (232 Third Street at Third Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215)

An hour away from the outer edge of Los Angeles, in Ventura, California, lives Giuseppe Andrews, a former child actor who had roles in late 90's hits such as Independence Day, Never Been Kissed and Detroit Rock City. More than 10 Years later, he has left behind the glitzy productions of his youth and is now fomenting a lo-fi artistic revolution within the local trailer park that he calls home. Giuseppe has knocked out 30 feature films to date with the help of his Neighbors and countless homeless friends, creating vibrantly anarchic works that don't rely on big budgets, acting ability, snazzy graphics, or even proper continuity. For Giuseppe it's all about the vibe, and with his handwritten scripts, consumer video camera, and his aerodynamic spandex suit he's got "vibe" in spades.

As the title indicates, Giuseppe Makes A Movie documents Andrews' creative process as he shoots his latest feature film, Garbanzo Gas, over just two days. The premise: "Vietnam Ron, one of many homeless men in Ventura that Giuseppe has grown up with, plays a vegan cow on vacation from the slaughterhouse." What's revealed within this making-of documentary is an artist who blurs Hollywood and the underground-a filmmaker who reveres the form and couldn't care less about the technique.

To Giuseppe, every aspect of his movie-making is malleable and fluid, and he cares less about the cinematic outcome and more about the experience of creation and collaboration. His films may resemble the visceral early work of John Waters, Harmony Korine and George Kuchar, but his inspirations are from the intellectual work of Bunuel, Cassavetes and Fassbinder. Rooftop Films Filmmaker Fund Grant recipients Mike Plante and director Adam Rifkin capture a one-of-a-kind character in this stranger-than-fiction documentary. Their exploration of his bizarre creative universe conveys how one self-taught filmmaker can uncover unexpected humanism while fabricating an improvised family unit out of a lovable band of misfits.

More info and tickets: http://rooftopfilms.com/2014/schedule/giuseppe-makes-a-movie/

LIVING STARS - June 21

(Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat | Argentina | 60 min.)

8:00PM Doors Open

8:30PM Live Music

9:00PM Film Begins

11:30PM After Party sponsored by New Amsterdam Vodka & Gin

Venue: Industry City (220 36th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232)

Free with RSVP! No script, no plot, just music and gyrating bodies-from a precocious body popping prodigy to a cross-dressing pizza delivery guy and even a Spice Girls loving Gaucho-Living Stars is a sixty minute dance party and everyone's invited! Traveling through Buenos Aires, directors Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat set out to capture real people, in Everyday settings, dancing to their chosen pop songs. The result is a euphoria-inducing portrait of the city and its remarkably rhythmically-inclined inhabitants. Young and old, coordinated and not so, dancing to everything from hip-hop to swing Living Stars presents a cross-section of society, brought together by movement.

Made up entirely of a series of static wide shots in which an array the participants-identified solely by their name and occupation-are invited to dance; Living Stars is wonderfully simple in its essence, yet nevertheless manages to resonate beyond the rehearsed movements at its core. As each dancer executes their scene with varying levels of creativity and commitment (and, indeed, skill)-the backgrounds of each set-up become as much a part of the performance as the dancing itself. Real life carries on around, or just behind them, intermittently creeping in and disrupting their carefully choreographed movements. People nonchalantly play video-games, one girl's middle-aged mother hijacks her Britney Spears' routine-it is in these moments of unintentional spontaneity where Living Stars transcends the sum of its parts. While clearly taking its cues from the modern phenomenon of YouTube dance videos, Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat's documentary attests to the ability of dance to bring people together and in doing so subtly counteracts the atomizing effects of the internet.

Following a riotous reception at Sundance, Rooftop Films is thrilled to present this wonderfully infectious and ridiculously fun documentary. Although chairs will be provided for the screening, and dancing is by no means mandatory, it will be very much encouraged and believe us, you'll have a hard time resisting.

More info and RSVP: http://rooftopfilms.com/2014/schedule/living-stars/

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