Rooftop Films: Canary (Event Over)

FRIDAY AUGUST 7
CANARY

(Alejandro Adams | San Jose, CA | www.canarymovie.com | 93 min.) 

A subtly horrifying, naturalistic contemporary sci-fi dystopian film about an organ harvesting company, the media attention that surrounds it, and the banality of ethical squirrelliness.

Venue: On the roof of the Old American Can Factory
Address: 232 3rd St. @ 3rd Ave. (Gowanus/ Park Slope, Brooklyn)
Directions: F/G to Carroll St. or M/R to Union Ave.
Rain: In the event of rain the show will be held indoors at the same location
8:00PM: Doors open
8:30PM: Live music by The American Dollar presented by Sound Fix Records
9:00PM: Films
11:00PM–12:30AM: Reception in courtyard including free sangria courtesy of Carlo Rossi
Tickets: $9 at the door or online at www.rooftopfilms.com
Presented in partnership with: Cinereach, New York magazine, & XØ Projects

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 | OFFICIAL WEBSITE | TRAILER


CANARY (Alejandro Adams | San Jose, CA | www.canarymovie.com | 93 min.)

Let's begin with some of the bizarre and unfounded myths that surround Canary Industries:
+ We provide organs to the highest bidder
+ We grow human beings in test tubes and harvest their organs
+ We have facilitated third-world genocide in order to harvest organs from the victims

You also may have heard some unsavory myths about our Organ Redistribution Specialists:
+ They are grown in test tubes
+ They are clones
+ They have no capacity to understand or reproduce human speech
+ They are the product of a top-secret government experiment
+ They are owned by Canary Industries rather than employed
+ They remove organs with their teeth

Here we will dispel these myths and introduce some important facts and statistics concerning Canary Industries and our ongoing commitment to provide a better quality of life for the community. Remember: organ redistribution is a quick, painless procedure that benefits the entire community.

Alejandro Adams’ has crafted a rare neo-realist sci-fi film, a creepy examination into a dystopian world that looks almost exactly like our own. The central premise is ghoulish—Canary Industries is a mainstream American bio-tech company who harvest human organs and lease them out. The company has crafted a clever and calming advertising campaign that has soothed any public fears and made the service mainstream. Their office employees flirt and fidget just like those at any company, seemingly unconcerned with the morals of their work. Members of the media sense something unsavory, but worry more about whether it’s a scoop that will attract viewers than any deeper ethical investigative need. The customers experience only slight dissatisfaction, or they simply disappear.

Among all the disquieting facts, one quiet character seems to stand in for the audience’s disturbance. A mute and watchful employee charged with stalking customers and repossessing organs that aren’t properly cared-for (or paid for), played by the dark-eyed Carla Pauli, her ominous, spectral but dangerous presence is alternately the untamed id and the reproachful superego of the present society. We watch her with curious horror as she captures her victims, but ache for her to speak out against her own crimes.

Using improvised dialogue but a controlled sense of direction and purpose, Adams builds a brilliant film that casually but intelligently inspects myriad issues, including our twisted health care system and the callous force of the medical industry; class divisions and immigration; corporate greed, the media’s complicity and American’s willingness to accept it. A unique and fascinating addition to Rooftop Films and XO Projects’ INDUSTRIANCE™ Series, examining the shifting landscape of industry, manufacturing, labor and the way these changes affect individuals world wide, Canary is a powerful, haunting and exciting work of art.

ACCLAIM:
"This second feature by Alejandro Adams confirms him as an arresting talent. [Viewers] may be fascinated to the point of repeat viewings to sort out its myriad characters and half-buried clues."
- Dennis Harvey, Variety

"Wildly ambitious...an overwhelming and surprisingly fresh-feeling sense of dystopian dread."
- Karina Longworth, Spout

"[Canary is] terrific...very creepy and uncanny. It's quite an achievement."
- Phillip Lopate

"Mysterious, elliptical, Bresson-like. [Canary] is to biotech what Primer was to time-travel."
- Richard von Busack, Metro

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.