The Cage Fighter (2017)

[caption id="attachment_19867" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Adam Pally, Fred Armisen and Zoe Lister-Jones appear in Band Aid by Zoe Lister-Jones[/caption] The Rooftop Films 2017 Summer Series will take place May 19th to August 19th, featuring more than 45 outdoor screenings in more than 10 venues. The series will kick off on Friday, May 19th, with “This is What We Mean by Short Films,” a collection of some of the most innovative, new short films of the past year. The screening will take place on the roof of The Old American Can Factory, in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The following night, Saturday, May 20th Rooftop will present a sneak preview screening of Zoe Lister-Jones’ 2017 Sundance indie hit, Band Aid, free and outdoors at House of Vans in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Starring Lister-Jones, Adam Pally (“The Mindy Project”), and Fred Armisen (“Portlandia”), Band Aid tells the story of a couple attempting to piece their marriage back together by turning their fights into indie rock lyrics.  Band Aid opens in theaters June 2nd, courtesy of IFC Films. Lister-Jones’ film is but one of many of this year’s best independent comedies playing at Rooftop this summer. In addition Rooftop films will present a sneak preview screening of Michael Showalter’s acclaimed new comedy, The Big Sick, starring and co-written by Kumail Nanjiani, prior to its June 23rd theatrical release by Lionsgate and Amazon Studios. Additional high-profile comedies include Rough Night, Lucia Aniello’s bachelorette-party-gone-wrong comedy starring Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz; Writer, director, and star Noël Wells’ Austin-based feature film debut Mr. Roosevelt; Jessica Williams’ big screen breakout role in Jim Strouse’s The Incredible Jessica James; and Dave McCary’s magical feature film, Brigsby Bear. The 2017 Summer Series also brings with it the triumphant return of Rooftop Films Alumni and Filmmakers’ Fund Grantees. The festival, in partnership with NEON, welcomes back Rooftop Films Piper-Heidsieck Feature Film Grant winner, Ana Lily Amirpour, for a night of complete dystopian debauchery with an exclusive screening of her new film, The Bad Batch, at the House of Vans in Greenpoint. Also returning is Joshua Z Weinstein with his Brooklyn-based, Rooftop/Brigade Festival Publicity Grant winning Menashe and Lauren Wolkstein and Christopher Radcliffe with The Strange Ones, an enigmatic and lush story, adapted into a feature film with the help of the Rooftop Films Eastern Effects Equipment Grant. Rooftop will also present special screenings of some of the most exciting documentaries of the year, including the US premiere of Vanessa Stockley’s fascinating Grey Gardens-in-Manhattan tale, The Genius and the Opera Singer; the NY premiere of Jeff Unay’s much-lauded MMA doc, The Cage Fighter; The US premiere of Maple J. Razsa and Milton Guillén’s The Maribor Uprising: A Live Participatory Film; Jairus McLeary and Gethin Aldous’ powerful SXSW-winning The Work; the gorgeous and sensitive Sundance-winning Dina; and the most entertaining found footage film of the year, Dmitry Kalashnikov’s Russian dash-cam doc, The Road Movie. It wouldn’t be Rooftop Films without cutting-edge evenings of short films. 2017 programming features the return of Summer Series staples, including the romantic short films of “Love is Short,” the innovative animation of “Dark Toons,” the uncanny short films of “Trapped,” the best of this year’s “New York Nonfiction,” and “The New American Paradise,” an evening of WTF short stories from outside the liberal bubble.

ROOFTOP FILMS 2017 SUMMER SERIES OPENING WEEKEND

Friday, May 19, 2017 This is What We Mean by Short Films On the roof of The Old American Can Factory. 232 Third St. Brooklyn Rooftop turns 21 this year. We’re legal, but not playing it safe. On opening night, we’re celebrating with our favorite stories from moral grey zones and uncharted territories: a mushroom of colorful balloons kills two before escaping to Canada, an unnatural presence enters tickle fight, a subversive dance number takes down the patriarchy, and a Russian circus meltdown is played in reverse. Saturday, May 20, 2017 Band Aid (Zoe Lister-Jones) Outdoors at House of Vans. 25 Franklin St. Brooklyn Band Aid, the refreshingly raw, real, and hilarious feature debut from Zoe Lister-Jones, is the story of a couple, Anna (Zoe Lister-Jones) and Ben (Adam Pally), who can’t stop fighting. Advised by their therapist to try and work through their grief unconventionally, they are reminded of their shared love of music. In a last-ditch effort to save their marriage, they decide to turn all their fights into song, and with the help of their neighbor Dave (Fred Armisen), they start a band. A story of love, loss, and rock and roll, Band Aid is a witty and perceptive view of modern love, with some seriously catchy pop hooks to boot. An IFC Films release.

FEATURE FILMS

The Bad Batch (Ana Lily Amirpour) The Bad Batch follows Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) after she’s left in a Texas wasteland fenced off from civilization. While trying to navigate the unforgiving landscape, Arlen is captured by a savage band of cannibals led by the mysterious Miami Man (Jason Momoa). With her life on the line, she makes her way to The Dream (Keanu Reeves). As she adjusts to life in ‘the bad batch’ Arlen discovers that being good or bad mostly depends on who’s standing next to you. Winner of the Rooftop Films Piper-Heidsieck Feature Film Grant. A NEON release. Beach Rats (Eliza Hittman) Frankie, an aimless teenager on the outer edges of Brooklyn, is having a miserable summer. With his father dying and his mother wanting him to find a girlfriend, Frankie escapes the bleakness of his home life by causing trouble with his delinquent friends and flirting with older men online. When his chatting and webcamming intensify, he finally starts hooking up with guys at a nearby cruising beach while simultaneously entering into a cautious relationship with a young woman. As Frankie struggles to reconcile his competing desires, his decisions leave him hurtling toward irreparable consequences. A NEON release. The Big Sick (Michael Showalter) Based on the real-life courtship between Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, The Big Sick tells the story of Pakistan-born aspiring comedian Kumail (Nanjiani), who connects with grad student Emily (Kazan) after one of his standup sets. However, what they thought would be just a one-night stand blossoms into the real thing, which complicates the life that is expected of Kumail by his traditional Muslim parents. When Emily is beset with a mystery illness, it forces Kumail to navigate the medical crisis with her parents, Beth and Terry (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) who he’s never met, while dealing with the emotional tug-of war between his family and his heart. The Big Sick is directed by Michael Showalter (Hello My Name Is Doris) and produced by Judd Apatow (Trainwreck, This Is 40) and Barry Mendel (Trainwreck, The Royal Tenenbaums). A Lionsgate and Amazon Studios release. Friday, June 30, 2017 Brigsby Bear (Dave McCary) On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan After 25 years of secluded existence with his protective parents in their isolated, off-the-grid home, James (Kyle Mooney) is tossed out into a new life in relatively daunting Cedar Hills, Utah. As his world upends, the most shocking revelation to James is that he’s the only person who has ever watched his favorite television program, Brigsby Bear Adventures. Struggling to adjust to the show’s abrupt end, he begins to see Brigsby’s lessons as his only way to make sense of a big, scary new world, and James decides to make a movie to end Brigsby’s story—and re-begin his own. A Sony Pictures Classics release. Friday, June 23, 2017 The Cage Fighter (Jeff Unay) On the roof of The Old American Can Factory. 232 Third St. Brooklyn A blue-collar family man breaks the promise he’d made years ago to never fight again. Now 40 years old, with a wife and four children who need him, Joe Carman risks everything—his marriage, his family, his financial security— to go back into the fighting cage and come to terms with his past. After party presented by Visit Seattle. California Dreams (Mike Ott) From acclaimed director Mike Ott (Lake Los Angeles, Actor Martinez) comes the new comedy documentary feature California Dreams, presenting five unique individuals in pursuit of a big life change. Through auditions set up in small towns across Southern California, the film shows genuine characters with big Hollywood aspirations who, for various reasons, have never had the opportunity to pursue their dreams. With subjects including celebrity impersonators, aspiring writers, and a former nurse, this bitingly funny film reveals the strange and entrancing hypnotic grip that Hollywood has, in some way or form, on everyone. Wednesday, August 2, 2017 The Challenge (Yuri Ancarani) Outdoors at Socrates Sculpture Park. 32-01 Vernon Blvd. Queens. If you have it, spend it: Italian artist Yuri Ancarani’s visually striking documentary enters the surreal world of wealthy Qatari sheikhs who moonlight as amateur falconers, with no expenses spared along the way. The Challenge follows these men through the rituals that define their lives: perilously racing blacked-out SUVs up and down sand dunes; sharing communal meals; taking their Ferraris out for a spin with their pet cheetahs riding shotgun; and much more. Ancarani’s film is a sly meditation on the collective pursuit of idiosyncratic desires. A Kino Lorber Release. Dayveon (Amman Abbasi) In the wake of his older brother’s death, 13-year-old Dayveon spends the sweltering summer days roaming his rural Arkansas town. When he falls in with a local gang, he becomes drawn to the camaraderie and violence of their world. A FilmRise release. Dina (Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) Dina, an outspoken and eccentric 49-year-old in suburban Philadelphia, invites her fiancé Scott, a Walmart door greeter, to move in with her. Having grown up neurologically diverse in a world blind to the value of their experience, the two are head-over-heels for one another, but shacking up poses a new challenge. Scott freezes when it comes to physical intimacy, and Dina, a Kardashians fanatic, wants nothing more than to share with Scott all she’s learned about sensual desire from books, TV shows, and her previous marriage. Her increasingly creative forays to draw Scott close keep hitting roadblocks—exposing anxieties, insecurities, and communication snafus while they strive to reconcile their conflicting approaches to romance and intimacy. An Orchard release. Saturday, May 27, 2017 The Genius and the Opera Singer (Vanessa Stockley) On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan A 92-year-old former opera singer and her volatile daughter have inhabited a rent-controlled Manhattan penthouse for the last fifty-five years – along with their obese chihuahua, Angelina Jolie. An unsettling portrait of a mother-daughter relationship, The Genius and the Opera Singer explores their intense emotional states and the knotted riddle of their past. US Premiere. Tuesday, July 25, 2017 The Incredible Jessica James (Jim Strouse) On the roof of The William Vale. 111 N 12th St. Brooklyn Jessica Williams (“The Daily Show”) stars as a young, aspiring playwright in New York City who is struggling to get over a recent breakup. She is forced to go on a date with the recently divorced Boone, played by Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids) and the unlikely duo discover how to make it through the tough times in a social media obsessed post-relationship universe. Lakeith Stanfield (FX’s “Atlanta”, Straight Outta Compton) and Noël Wells (Netflix’s “Master of None”) co-star. The film was written and directed by Jim Strouse and produced by Michael B. Clark and Alex Turtletaub of Beachside. Jessica Williams and Kerri Hundley serve as executive producers. A Netflix release. L.A. Times (Michelle Morgan) Annette (Michelle Morgan) and Elliot (Jorma Taccone) are a mostly-happy, moderately-neurotic LA couple. Maybe Annette doesn’t enjoy game nights or taco stands as much as Elliot does, but no relationship is perfect, right? Rather than embracing their differences, Annette can only compare their relationship to their happy couple friends. This cannot be endorsed by Annette’s beautiful but romantically troubled best friend, Baker (Dree Hemingway), who is very well-versed on the bleakness of the LA dating scene. Taking its cues from classic mid-20th Century comedies with a stylish and contemporary spin, L.A. Times is an irreverent tale of life and the search for elusive love in the 21st Century. Friday, June 16, 2017 The Maribor Uprisings: A Live Participatory Documentary (Maple J. Rasza, Milton Guillén) Outdoors at Metrotech Commons. 5 Metrotech Center. Brooklyn In the once prosperous industrial city of Maribor, Slovenia, anger over political corruption became unruly revolt. In The Maribor Uprisings–part film, part conversation and part interactive experiment–you are invited to participate in the protests. Drawing on the dramatic frontline footage from a video activist collective embedded within the uprisings, you begin in Maribor as crowds surround and ransack City Hall under a hailstorm of tear gas canisters. As a group, you must choose which cameras you will follow and therefore how the events will unfold. Like those who joined the actual uprisings, you will decide between joining non-violent protests or following rowdy crowds towards City Hall and greater conflict. These events stand as an example for any number of ideological stand-offs today. What sparks outrage? How are participants swept up in—and changed by—confrontations with police? Could something like this happen in your city? What would you do? US Premiere. Menashe (Joshua Z Weinstein) Set within the New York Hasidic community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Menashe follows a kind but hapless grocery store clerk trying to maintain custody of his son Rieven after his wife, Lea, passes away. Since they live in a tradition-bound culture that requires a mother present in every home, Rieven is supposed to be adopted by the boy’s strict, married uncle, but Menashe’s Rabbi decides to grant him one week to spend with Rieven prior to Lea’s memorial. Their time together creates an emotional moment of father/son bonding as well as offers Menashe a final chance to prove to his skeptical community that he can be a capable parent. Winner of the Rooftop Films Brigade Festival Publicity Grant. An A24 release. Tuesday, August 8, 2017 Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George’s Creators (Ema Ryan Yamazaki) On the roof of the JCC in Manhattan. 334 Amsterdam Ave. Manhattan Featuring a narrow escape from the Nazis on makeshift bicycles, Monkey Business explores the extraordinary lives of Hans and Margret Rey, the authors of the beloved Curious George children’s books. New York Premiere. An Orchard release. Saturday, June 17, 2017 Mr. Roosevelt (Noël Wells) On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan Emily Martin (Noël Wells) is a struggling 20-something who moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy after graduating college in Austin, Texas. When a loved one falls sick, she returns to Austin and runs into her ex-boyfriend, as well as his amazing and intimidating new girlfriend. Low on funds and stuck in Texas for the weekend, Emily stays with the two of them in her old, but miraculously remodeled house. She quickly finds her way into the circle of a local female badass who shows Emily a good time and tries to keep her from spinning out as she goes toe-to-toe with the new girlfriend, all the ways her ex has changed, and ultimately, her own choices and guilt about leaving the past behind. Quest (Jonathan Olshefski) Filmed with vérité intimacy for close to a decade, Quest is a portrait of a family in North Philadelphia. Christopher “Quest” Rainey, along with his wife Christine’a (aka “Ma Quest”), open the door to their home music studio, which serves as a creative sanctuary from the strife that grips their neighborhood. Over the years, the family evolves as everyday life brings a mix of joy and unexpected crisis. Set against the backdrop of a country now in turmoil, the film is a tender depiction of an American family whose journey is a profound testament to love, healing and hope. Friday, June 2, 2017 Rat Film (Theo Anthony) On the roof of The Old American Can Factory. 232 Third St. Brooklyn Across walls, fences, and alleys, rats not only expose our boundaries of separation but make homes in them. Rat Film is a feature-length documentary that uses the rat—as well as the humans that love them, live with them, and kill them–to explore the history of Baltimore. “There’s never been a rat problem in Baltimore, it’s always been a people problem.” A Cinema Guild release. The Road Movie (Dmitrii Kalashnikov) A fascinating mosaic of asphalt adventures, landscape photography, and some of the craziest shit you’ve ever seen, Kalashnikov’s THE ROAD MOVIE is a stunning compilation of video footage shot exclusively via dashboard cameras in Russian automobiles. The dash-cam phenomenon permeates Russian roads thoroughly, capturing a vivid range of spectacles through the windshield, including a comet crashing down to Earth, an epic forest fire, and no shortage of angry motorists taking road rage to wholly new and unexpected levels. All the while, accompanied by bemused commentary from unseen and often stoic drivers and passengers. An Oscilloscope Laboratories release. Wednesday, June 14, 2017 Rough Night (Lucia Aniello) On the roof of The William Vale. 111 N 12th St. Brooklyn In Rough Night, an edgy R-rated comedy, five best friends from college (played by Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, and Zoë Kravitz) reunite 10 years later for a wild bachelorette weekend in Miami. Their hard partying takes a hilariously dark turn when they accidentally kill a male stripper. Amidst the craziness of trying to cover it up, they’re ultimately brought closer together when it matters most. A Columbia Pictures release. The Strange Ones (Lauren Wolkstein, Christopher Radcliff) Mysterious events surround two travelers, seemingly brothers, as they make their way across a remote American landscape. On the surface all seems normal, but what appears to be a simple vacation soon gives way to a dark and complex web of secrets. Winner of the Rooftop Films Eastern Effects Equipment Grant. Friday, July 7, 2017 Whose Streets? (Sabaah Folayan, Damon Davis) On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents, artists, and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the National Guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, these young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance. A Magnolia Pictures release. The Work (Jairus McLeary, Gethin Aldous) Set inside a single room in Folsom Prison, The Work follows three men from outside as they participate in a four-day group therapy retreat with level-four convicts. Over the four days, each man in the room takes his turn at delving deep into his past. The raw and revealing process that the incarcerated men undertake exceeds the expectations of the free men, ripping them out of their comfort zones and forcing them to see themselves and the prisoners in unexpected ways. An Orchard release.

SHORT FILM PROGRAMS

Thursday, July 27, 2017 Animation Block Party In the courtyard of Industry City. 274 36 St. Brooklyn Experience the year’s best animated short films at the incomparable Animation Block Party! Saturday, June 3, 2017 Dark Toons: Animated Short Films On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan These toons are chocked full of furry animals and imaginative creatures but they are not for Sunday morning. The twisted and perverse landscapes of our annual Dark Toons program provide a unique backdrop for stories of life askew. From a true story of forced labor at communist-era prison that kept megastores in the West fully-stocked to a beautifully-animated and probably-alcoholic badger which has a run-in with the law and a woman who can’t stop growing fingers, these tales remind us that animation is the ideal medium to glimpse the darker side of life. Tuesday, May 30, 2017 Love is Short: Romantic Short Films On the roofs of The William Vale. 111 N 12th St. Brooklyn “Love is so short, forgetting is so long.” Neruda wrote it, but these protagonists live it. In this program of short films, animated birds, sultry nights-in, and dismembered zombie heads are all members of love’s seductive cult. Come relish in these stories of the beautifully imagined and harshly-real consequences of love’s choices. Thursday, May 25, 2017 The New American Paradise: Short Films Outdoors at Metrotech Commons. 5 Metrotech Center. Brooklyn Pop your New York bubble on a journey to the more peculiar corners of the modern U.S of A. In the land of drive-in churches, carnival boardwalks, border walls, and get-rich-quick schemes, any one of us could end up on the downside of the American dream: another desperado with a mask melted onto our face, searching for a nugget at the bottom of a dirty tin can. Friday, June 9, 2017 New York Nonfiction On the roof of New Design High School. 350 Grand St. Manhattan You see them every day. They’re on the train with you. They’re in your bodega. They’re your neighbors. But after this program of short films, we guarantee you’ll see them in a new light. Ours is a city full of record-holding record holders, spousal adoptions, trash havens, civil rights pioneers, lapsed goth kids, sexting teens, rambles full of leathermen, and unending change; and we like it that way… for the most part. Saturday, August 20, 2017 Rooftop Shots In the courtyard of Industry City. 274 36 St. Brooklyn CLOSING NIGHT! It’s hard to say goodbye. These short films will ease the pain. After-party presented by Visit Seattle. Seattle Shorts Presented by Visit Seattle Sundance Short Films Highlights from Sundance 2017 include these wild, weird and wonderful short films. Saturday, July 10, 2017 Trapped: Uncanny Short Films In the courtyard of Industry City. 274 36 St. Brooklyn Join us for a program of stories most unusual: the meeting of a spaceman and a cave man; an encounter with an alien phenomenon via public access television; and the imagined experiences of the forgotten subject of a famous photograph. These amusing and disquieting short films offer mix-tape portraits, analytic tragicomedies of infinite human desire and potentially-killer workplace procedurals. Experience startling cinematic spectacles you won’t soon forget.

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