The Rooftop Films 2008 Summer Series

A sneak peek at trailers and scenes from independent narrative and documentary films that will be next year's hot festival and indie releases. PResented in partnership with IFP and Indie GoGo
PLEASE NOTE THE VENUE FOR THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLAR ONE. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE THE VENUE CHANGE MAY HAVE CAUSED.
Venue: Along the water at Solar One
Address: East 23rd Street and the East River in Manhattan
Directions: 6 Train to 23rd street and walk East to the river. MAP
*8:00: Doors Open
*8:30: Soundfix presents live music
*9:00: IFP selections
*10:30: Open Bar, with free beer courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner
*Admission: FREE!

IFP | SOLAR ONE | INDIEGOGO

Rooftop Films is proud to be partnering with IFP to support emerging filmmakers. IFP is the nation's oldest and largest organization of independent filmmakers. Since its founding in 1979, IFP has facilitated the development, financing or distribution of 7,000 independent films, while more than 20,000 filmmakers have participated in its programs.

IFP’s Independent Filmmaker Lab is a national program connecting mentors and projects before they are submitted to festivals. The Labs aim to identify high-quality, independently produced narrative and documentary features in the rough assembly stage that can benefit from the mentorship of experienced professionals. The program challenges filmmakers to realize the full potential of their footage and stories prior to industry exposure, providing dynamic advice on technical, creative and post-production issues.

“All of this year’s Lab participants share a fierce determination to share their vision with audiences, even if it requires slinging coffee by day and editing at night,” said Amy Dotson, Producer and Managing Director of Programming and supervisor of the Narrative Lab. “These filmmakers are truly independent, working well outside of the mainstream, and we’re looking forward to helping them on their journey to find their voices and make them heard.”

In the Documentary Lab, the selected films reflect the breadth of documentary film today, ranging from explorations of pressing social issues (artistic freedom in Tibet; Hurricane Katrina recovery, immigration) to history and biography (Up with People; theater director Joseph Chaikin) to highly-personal journeys (a Chilean-American comes to terms with her father's politics; a filmmaker rediscovers himself in his native rural Spain). Accepted projects hail from across the country with filmmakers from New York, California, Arizona and Mississippi, and include projects by recent immigrants to the U.S., with filmmakers native to Chile, Spain, Tibet and Turkey.

"The strong projects selected this year are a microcosm of the range in diversity in American non-fiction work today, encompassing the personal, political, and cultural. Despite the variety of style and subject, these filmmakers are all at a similar place - having worked largely in isolation within their own creative cocoons for months and sometimes years. The Lab affords them the opportunity for input and inspiration from both their peers and mentors as they begin that final push toward completion" says Milton Tabbot, IFP Senior Director of Programming and supervisor of the Documentary Lab.

"IFP's Labs exemplify what we are all about: concentrating on works in progress and the creative process rather than on just the finished product," said Michelle Byrd, executive director of IFP.

PARTNERSHIP - SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS
This event is presented in partnership with IndieGoGo, an online social marketplace connecting filmmakers and fans to make independent film happen. The platform provides filmmakers the tools for project funding, recruiting, and promotion, while enabling the audience to discover and connect directly with filmmakers and the causes they support. IndieGoGo is proud to be collaborating with filmmakers from Rooftop and the IFP Labs.

NARRATIVE LAB FILMS
At The Foot Of A Tree – Alfie, a freckle faced eleven year old boy, seeks heartfelt and poetic revenge for the beating of his father. Ricky Shane (Director, Writer); Kelly Jo Reid (Producer, Actress); Gregory Singer (Editor)

Good Intentions – Meet Etta Milford: Loving Wife…Doting Mother….Armed Robber. Jim Issa (Director); Pamela Peacock,Richard Sampson (Producers)

How Would You Feel? Vol. 1-7 – Centering on the story of a young man and woman, friends whose relationship is perpetually teetering on the edge of romantic, this experimental narrative explores the ambiguity of their rapport and is consistently fed by the inhibiting melodrama of their romantic pasts. Terence Nance (Director, Producer, Writer, Editor); Yvonne Shirley (Editor); Vincent Wheeler (Sound Designer)

The Mountain Thief – A father and son escape their war-torn village in the Philippines to seek refuge in a town called Little Hope, a community of scavengers. Gerry Balasta (Director, Writer); Desireena Almoradie (Producer); Francisco Diaz (Editor)

Mr. Sadman – In 1990, before the First Gulf War, a Saddam Hussein body-double loses his job and moves to Los Angeles in search of a new start. Patrick Epino (Director, Writer); Cindy Fang (Producer)

Periphery – Four college-bound kids take a road trip to Mexico and find themselves caught up in a pharmaceutical drug smuggling operation that goes wrong. Duane Allen Humeyestewa (Director, Producer, Writer); Deepa Donde (Producer, Writer)

Sorry, Thanks – Kira has no attachments. Max has a girlfriend. Sometimes love is a happy accident, sometimes pure disaster. Mostly: love means having to say you’re sorry. Dia Sokol, (Director, Writer); Lauren Veloski (Producer, Writer); Jennifer Lilly (Editor)

St. Nick – A brother and sister run away from home and try to start a new life, free from adults, all on their own. David Lowery (Director, Writer, Editor); James M. Johnston (Producer); Adam Donaghey (Executive Producer)

A Thing As Big As The Ocean – Two Hurricane Katrina survivors leave New Orleans and travel west into the desert, where their mutual quietness is overwhelmed by a world of possibilities. Joseph Cashiola (Director, Producer, Writer); Jeff Harms (Producer, Actor); Nathan Duncan (Editor)

We Are The Mods – High school loner, Sadie, befriends the wild new girl, Nico, and together they explore sex, drugs and rock and roll by embracing 1960’s British Mod culture in present day California. E.E. Cassidy (Director, Writer, Producer); Robert Poswall (Producer, DP); Daniel Gabbe (Editor)

Zero Bridge – In occupied Kashmir, where every day is about survival, a petty criminal’s last chance at escape is threatened when he faces a moral crisis. Tariq Tapa (Director, Writer, DP, Editor)

DOCUMENTARY LAB FILMS
Burning in the Sun - A young entrepreneur starts producing and selling homemade solar panels to rural Malians without power, but the harsh realities of doing business there threaten to overpower his good intentions. Cambria Matlow, Morgan Robinson (Directors, Producers, Writers, DPs); Claire Weingarten (Executive Producer)

The Hand of Fatima - The daughter of late NY Times music critic Robert Palmer investigates her estranged father's transformative encounter with an ancient Sufi band when she journeys to the remote village of Jajouka, experiences its sacred musical rituals, and comes to terms with her father's legacy. Augusta Palmer (Director, Writer); Chris Arnold (Producer, Editor)

Mine: Taken by Katrina - Hundreds of thousands of people lost their pets in Hurricane Katrina, but 15,000 were heroically rescued and sent to shelters and adoptive homes around the country. When the original owners want their pets back, rescuers and animal lovers are divided over what is right for the animals and what is fair to the families who love them. Geralyn Pezanoski (Director, Producer, Writer); Erin Essenmacher (Producer)

The Presence of Joseph Chaikin - The story of the most innovative late-century American theater director in his own words, and those of his collaborators. Chaikin's career as actor, director, writer, and leading light in new theater of the 1960's, belies his lifelong struggle with rheumatic heart disease, an ever-present harbinger of death. Troy Word (Director, Producer, Writer, DPs); Encke King (Writer, Editor)

The Stranger's Land - An observational portrait of the filmmaker's return, after a long absence, to rural Spain, where he grew up - rediscovering a place lost to time and memory. Xavier Marrades Orga (Director, Producer, Writer, DP, Editor)

Tibet In Song - Ngawang Choephel tells the story of Tibetan folk music, and how Chinese policies have systematically destroyed it since the takeover of Tibet - and his own story of filmmaker turned political prisoner. Ngawang Choephel (Director, Producer, Writer); Tim Bartlett (Editor)

Tijuana, Nada Más - A story of visible and invisible borders faced by four homeless children in the busiest frontier city in the world. Yolanda Pividal (Director, Producer, Writer); Carmen Vidal (DP); Sara Booth (Editor)

Ulises' Odyssey - The story of the filmmaker's struggle as a Chilean-American woman to mend a 30-year rift between her father and uncle who were on opposite sides in the 1973 military coup that brought General Pinochet to power in Chile. Lorena Manriquez (Director, Producer, Writer); Miguel Picker (Director, Producer, DP, Editor)

Smile ‘Til It Hurts - The story of the sacrifices and secrets of clean-cut ”Up With People” who believed they could change the world. Music is their weapon of choice to attract minds to the American values of Freedom and Democracy in the riotous 1960s. Lee Storey (Director, Writer); Bari Pearlman (Producer)

The Visitors - A documentary about the passengers of a charter bus that leaves New York City every weekend for visits to prisons in upstate New York, reflecting the struggles of a unique culture living at the intersection of confinement and the free world. Melis Birder (Director, Producer, Writer, DP, Editor)

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Lead support for the Independent Filmmaker Labs is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, with additional funding from Hollywood Foreign Press Association, New York State Council for the Arts and SAGIndie.