Rooftop Films: Romance (Event Over)

FRIDAY, MAY 22

Babeland and Rooftop Films present...

Romantic Short Films: Endless Forgiveness
Love, lust and sexual confusion.
FREE OPEN BAR after the films
 
Venue: on the roof of the Open Road Rooftop
Address: 350 Grand Street @ Essex (Lower East Side, Manhattan)
8:00PM: Doors open
8:30PM: Sound Fix presents live music by Acrylics
9:00PM: Films
11:30PM - 1:00AM: Open Bar at Fontana’s (105 Eldridge St), courtesy of Radeberger beer
Tickets: $9-$25

No refunds. In the event of rain, the show will be indoors at the same locations. Seating is first come, first served. Physical seats are limited. This means you may not get a chair. You are welcome to bring a blanket and picnic.

MAP | ACRYLICS | SOUND FIX

Peter Ustinov once said, “Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.” Love isn’t easy, and the films included in Romance Shorts: Endless Forgiveness display the many varied sacrifices we make to be with the people we love and lust after.

Every year Rooftop Films puts together a program of short films about sex and romance, but unlike the so-called romantic films at the multiplexes, the films that we show don’t reinforce stereotypes and reassure audiences. These films remind us that love is confusing, terrifying and rife with danger—and that courtship wouldn’t be nearly so exciting if it were otherwise. And for it all to work out we have to forgive our beloved a thousand tiny indiscretions and imperfections.

When we are young, sex can seem baffling but magical (The Kinda Sutra), but once we have basically mastered the mechanics of it, we still might push things too far (Young Love)—and even if we can come to agree about what we want, that doesn’t mean that it is going to work out quite as well as we planned (Receive Bacon). Those early, lustful moments are exhilarating, but soon enough we realize that for relationships to continue we might have to give up everything we have previously valued most (Sweet Dreams) or reassess our understanding of what it means to love someone in the first place (Sister Wife).

But in the end, hopefully, it is worth it. And when we look back and remember how much we have sacrificed for the ones we treasure (2 Birds), we’ll hopefully remember the pain and anxiety and realize that we couldn’t have experienced true love any other way.

FILMS:
Receive Bacon (James M. Johnston | Ft. Worth, Texas | 7:00)
James Johnston is the Producer of David Lowery’s St. Nick, which will be playing later this summer at Rooftop Films. He also directed this naughty little short about a bathroom tryst that gets interrupted by a case of the giggles.

Sweet Dreams (Kristin Lepore | Maryland | 9:56)
Whatever our dietary preferences, we pretty much all love food of some sort. And most of us love cupcakes. But what kind of food do you think your cupcake loves?

The Kinda Sutra (Jessica Yu | Los Angeles | 8:00)
Academy Award Winner Jessica Yu sat down with kids, asked them how babies are made, and animated their responses.

Young Love (Emily Carmichael | New York City | 9:20)
Two lovers lie in bed, tentatively exploring the first stages of sexual role playing. But soon the game gets a little too serious to be simply fun. But maybe that is the point of role-playing? We all remember how naïve we were about sex when we were little, but in Young Love, Emily Carmichael reminds us just how difficult it can be to figure out what we can and can’t handle in bed.

The Blindness of the Woods (Martin Jalfen, Javier Lourenco | Argentina | 11:00)
Partly a parody of 1970’s Nordic porn, partly a lesson in crocheting, this unforgettable Argentinian short marks the birth of a new genre: Cute Porn.

Don McCloskey “Mister Novocaine” (Peter Rhoads | New York | 4:00)
In a fever dream where hands are people, one hand fights the pleasure of the bottle by telling his story through song.

2 Birds (Runar Runarsson | Iceland | 15:00)
A group of young teenagers embark on a journey that transports them too quickly away from innocence and towards the stark realities of sex, adulthood, and sacrifice.

Sister Wife (Jill Orshel | Utah | 10:00)
Over time, we all come to realize that a long-term relationship requires us to make substantial sacrifices. But how many of us are willing to share our spouse with another person? And what if that other person were our sibling? Jill Orshel's powerful documentary gives voice to a woman in a polygamist marriage and asks us to question our own attitudes about love, commitment, and selflessness.

Please Say Something (David O’Reilly | Ireland | 10:00)
A 10 minute short concerning a troubled relationship between a Cat and Mouse set in the distant Future. The final film was completed in January 2009 and contains 23 episodes of exactly 25 seconds each. Images from it can be seen on the Flickr Page. The film won the Golden Bear for best short at the 2009 Berlinale.

The evening is presented by Babeland. Look out for chances to win a VIP Babeland gift bag (valued at $200) and stop by the Babeland table for coupons, tips & tricks and more. Free toys will be handed out to the first 50 people!

Rooftop Films is a non-profit organization whose mission is to engage and inspire the diverse communities of New York City by showcasing the work of emerging filmmakers and musicians. In addition to our Summer Series – which takes place in unique outdoor venues every weekend throughout the summer – Rooftop provides grants to filmmakers, teaches media literacy and filmmaking to young people, rents low-cost equipment to artists and non-profits, and produces new independent films. At Rooftop Films, we bring the underground outdoors. For more information and updates please visit our website at www.rooftopfilms.com.