The Rooftop Films 2008 Summer Series

When the filmmaker set out to make a documentary about the legendary mosaics his father pieces together, he didn’t mean to take his family apart. An eye-popping and heart-wrenching documentary about art and love, merging home movies and public expression.

Advance Tickets sold out, but advance tickets WILL be available at the door, starting at 8 PM.

Venue: On the roof of The Old American Can Factory
Address: 232 3rd Street at the corner of 3rd Avenue (Gowanus, Brooklyn)
Directions: F, G to Carroll Street or M, R to Union Street and read here for directions from the train| Map
Rain: In the event of rain the show will be held indoors at the same location
8:30PM: Sound Fix presents live music
9:00PM: Films
11:00PM-1:00AM: After Party in the Courtyard with free wine courtesy of Brooklyn Oenology and free beer courtesy of Radeberger
Tickets: $9 at the door.
Preview: See short films from this and other programs at www.IFC.com
Presented in partnership with: IFC.com, New York magazine, and XØ Projects

PROGRAM NOTES:
This stunning documentary is really the perfect film for Rooftop, where we don’t screen in theaters, we screen in communities. We take independent cinema out of the underground and into the outdoors, and match films with venues and neighborhoods to create meaningful and intimate connections. It’s a marriage of widely public art and deeply personal cinema.

Isaiah Zagar’s gigantic, intricate murals have been part of a Philadelphia revitalization for decades. In the 1960s, Zagar and other artists were in danger of losing their homes and studios because they city wanted to build a Crosstown Highway. But all along South Street, Zagar crafted mosaics that filled the entire sides of decaying buildings, and along with many other residents, activists and artists, the community successfully foiled the eminent domain abuse and saved their neighborhood. (For an amazing interactive 360-degree view of Zagar’s Magic Garden, and an excellent history of Zagar’s involvement in helping to preserve and heal the Center City neighborhood in Philadelphia, visit: www.isaiahzagar.org and www.philadelphiasmagicgardens.org/history.html).

Of course, as is often the case, places like the Magic Garden, Julia and Isaiah Zagar’s gallery, and the many other theaters, cafes and shops that opened in the neighborhood led to the skyrocketing real estate prices, so the struggle to survive and create continues. But with Zagar, his art addresses social issues, but comes from a very personal place. His murals are infused with the interests, stories, and loves of his life. The names of his friends and family are woven into the walls, and portraits spring from the jagged patterns. Mirror shards are scattered through his murals, indicating the self-reflective nature of the work, for both Zagar and the public.

It was this milieu and perspective that Jeremiah Zagar aimed to capture with a documentary about his father. He ended up with much more. Similar to the way his father’s art makes private passions public, Jeremiah’s film unexpectedly reveals the fragility of his family’s life. In A Dream plays like one of our favorite genres here at Rooftop, the home movie (our annual screening of Home Movies will be on 8/1/08), where only a filmmaker personally invested in the story could discover and disclose the intimate difficulties—mistreatment, infidelity, drug abuse, mental instability. But that same private perspective is what keeps the film honest, never veering into sensationalism. Told with dexterity, sensitivity and poignancy, In a Dream is an eye-popping and heart-wrenching documentary about art and love, merging home movies and public expression.

Part of Rooftop Films and XO Projects’ INDUSTRIANCE™ Series: films, discussions, installations and more about the changing landscape in industry, architecture, agriculture, labor, and related fields.