Going. For People Who Love to Go Out.
Rooftop Films: No Impact Man (Event Over)
- When:Thu 6/11 (8PM)
- Where: Automotive High School
- Address: 50 Bedford Avenue Brooklyn , NY Map
- Cost: $9
Tickets for this Event
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General Admission - $9.00
This event is on the LAWN of Automotive High School. It is outdoors, but not on a roof. No refunds. In the event of rain, show will go on indoors at the same location. 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.
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Rooftop friend ($9 General Admission ticket + $6 donation) - $15.00
Did you know that Rooftop Films is a non-profit organization? Consider making this additional $6 donation with the purchase of your General Admission ticket, and help sustain Rooftop Films during these difficult times. Additional donation is not tax deductible.
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Rooftop patron ($9 General Admission ticket + $16 donation) - $25.00
Did you know that Rooftop Films is a non-profit organization? Consider making this additional $16 donation with the purchase of your General Admission ticket, and help sustain Rooftop Films during these difficult times. Additional donation is not tax deductible.
THURSDAY JUNE 11
Rooftop Films,
Oscilloscope Pictures &
The Fledgling Fund present
NO IMPACT MAN
A local family drama with global implications: the inspirational
(and controversial) No Impact Man (and family) challenge themselves
to make no environmental impact for one year. Rooftop and The
Fledgling Fund invite you to join the challenge.
OPEN BAR AFTER PARTY FOLLOWING THE SCREENING FOR ALL IN ATTENDANCE
|
NO IMPACT MAN BLOG
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.
A local family drama with global implications. This engaging and
personal documentary follows Colin Beavan for a year as he pledges
to eat only locally-grown food, use only self-mechanized
transportation, buy no new products, even go without electricity .
. . and bring his wife and daughter along for the ride. The
inspirational (and controversial) No Impact Man (and family) have
challenged themselves to make no environmental impact for one year.
Rooftop and The Fledgling Fund invite you to join the challenge by
making similar pledges between the time of this screening and the
time of the film and book’s release in September.
Most everyone agrees that changes need to be made to save the
environment. But most people also think that someone else should be
making those changes. People make the easy choices—drop their
recyclable plastics in the proper bin, buy an organic piece of
fruit when it’s convenient. But how many among us are willing
to make real changes in our lives? How hard would these changes be?
How much will they change our lifestyles? Are these adaptations
actually helpful? And is it possible that they could not only
improve the environment, but our level of happiness as well?
Colin Beavan, a writer living in Manhattan with his wife and
daughter, decided to find out.
For one year, Beavan would become “No Impact Man,”
attempting to live his normal life, in New York City, but without
leaving an impact on the environment. No new products. No
chemicals. No non-local food. No electricity. He sacrificed his
personal comfort, risked his self-esteem, and even jeopardized his
relationship with his family, all for this strange test.
The challenge is, of course, rather quixotic. Couldn’t Beavan
simply reduce, reuse, recycle, like so many of us (try to) do? But
his obsessiveness generates immediate, widespread attention for the
project—for better and worse. While the acclaim raises
awareness for the waste and excess in American culture, Beavan has
also placed himself under a very public microscope, and the
detractors range from dismissive major media outlets to
mean-spirited personal attacks. Under pressure, Beavan is forced to
re-examine No Impact Man, to question this idea that’s the
driving force in his life, but will he renounce it?
The public scrutiny provides the intellectual spark for the film,
but the tension between Colin and his wife Michelle Conlin is the
emotional core of the movie. Conlin lives like so many of us:
proudly eating takeout, compulsively buying the latest products,
taking for granted the excessive habits of consumerism. Sneaking an
espresso here and there seems a minor offense, but the guilt from
Colin is burdensome. I’m sure many of us think we could
handle a year without chemical laundry detergent or new handbags,
but what about a fly-infested compost bin in the kitchen, or a
pot-within-a-pot refrigeration experiment? And what of her job at
Business Week magazine, examining (and in many ways promoting) the
essence of the culture No Impact Man is critiquing?
This endearing and fascinating film inspires us all to question our
roles in environmental change, and challenges us all to ask what we
as individuals can do. Colin’s experiment in lifestyle
redesign is the subject of his book (scheduled for publication in
September 2009 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux),
No Impact Man, and he also maintains the provocative environmental blog,
www.noimpactman.com. The entire No Impact Man outreach project—including the
film, the book and the blog—are an exciting addition to the
existing environmental movement. Colin is using the lessons from
his experiment and its aftermath to encourage a more sustainable
lifestyle, encouraging people around the country to make small and
large lifestyle changes and to participate as engaged citizens in
their community.
The lawn of Automotive High School will host a celebration of
environmentally-friendly activities, as Rooftop Films and The
Fledgling Fund utilize the screening of
No Impact Man to engage audience members in making environmentally-friendly
lifestyle commitments.
Just Food will get people involved in their “make bee keeping legal in
NY campaign”, the
Greenmarket will do a local foods cooking demonstration,
The NY Office of Recycling will do a “what can you recycle/what can you not
recycle” game, the
LES Ecology Center will demonstrate how to use a compost kit,
Artistic Evolution will bring their “bike blender” to make
environmentally friendly lemonade, and the students of Automotive
High School will demonstrate their bio-diesel car and distribute
organic food grown on the school grounds.
Audience members who make personal video pledges to change aspects
of their lifestyles will be entered into a raffle to win various
prizes.
The Hungry March Band, New York’s legendary political street brass march band will
help create a festive atmosphere as they perform in the anarchic
style that has become their trademark.
No Impact Man will hit theaters in New York and beyond in September. Check
www.rooftopfilms.com for updates
Proof that "eco" and "entertainment" aren't mutually exclusive, "No
Impact Man" may be a socially progressive, environmentally
conscious film, but it goes down far easier than, say, an
all-natural, fiber-enriched peanut butter sandwich without a glass
of soy milk.
- Variety
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.
Rooftop Films