Rooftop Films Summer Series
May 19 to TBA, various locations.
Rooftop Films had already released its preliminary lineup of more than 45 outdoor screenings around the city (among the highlights: Desiree Akhavan’s gay conversion film The Miseducation of Cameron Post); and now it drops the details of its short films programs, starting with the fest’s opening night on May 19 at Green-Wood Cemetery. Of note are Michael Sugarman’s documentary about Anthology Film Archives founder Jonas Mekas; SXSW winner Charlie Tyrell’s My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes, in case you missed it over at the Times; and pizza-porn film Slice Thing. Closing night will feature modern-ruins photographer Nathan Kensinger’s documentary Managed Retreat, about the city’s post-Sandy efforts to return three Staten Island coastal communities to the wild. The shorts will be presented in 10 installments, grouped by themes including “eerie existential thrillers,” dark cartoons, romance, love and lust, “dangerous” documentaries, New York docs, bold women, and Sundance picks. Al fresco venues include Industry City’s courtyards in Sunset Park, the roof of the New Design High School on the Lower East Side, and the roof of the Old American Can Factory in Gowanus.
Films on the Green
June 1 to Sept. 6, various locations.
The 11th installment of this annual fest produced in part by the French Embassy will once again bring subtitled French films to parks around the city, including in the East Village, Greenwich Village, and Greenpoint. This year’s theme is gastronomy, so pack a picnic or prepare to be very, very hungry during the sumptuous cooking scenes in Christian Vincent’s Haute Cuisine. The series will kick off June 1 in Central Park, with a screening of Jacques Besnard’s Le Grand Restaurant, and hits Washington Square Park (Trần Anh Hùng’s The Scent of Green Papaya on June 8, Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game on June 15), Transmitter Park in Greenpoint (Danièle Thompson’s La Bûche on June 22, Claude Sautet’s Garçon! on June 29), and Tompkins Square Park (Claude Chabrol’s Le Boucher on July 6, Jean-Pierre Améris’s Romantics Anonymous on July 13), among other parks. The films will be preceded by DJs from NYU and Hunter College’s radio stations spinning French music. If you’re lucky they’ll drop some Jordy on you.
Brooklyn Film Festival
June 1 to 10, various locations.
While Films on the Green focuses on gastronomy, this year’s Brooklyn Film Festival is all about making lemons out of lemonade. The fest’s trailer pushes the idea that great art has emerged from the challenges of the Trump administration, and executive director Marco Ursino describes the fest’s mission as “shedding light, spreading love and celebrating diversity.” To that end, this year’s 125 features hail from 30 countries, including flashpoints like Iran and Venezuela. Of course, there are also films that hit closer to home: One Bedroom, from Brooklyn-born actor-director-comedian Darien Sills-Evans, chronicles the breakup of a 30-something couple in the director’s home borough. Rowena Potts’s documentary, They Come Home, is about a pair of Brooklyn pigeon breeders. Screenings will occur at Windmill Studios in Greenpoint, Syndicated in Bushwick, Alamo Drafthouse in downtown Brooklyn, and Wythe Hotel and UnionDocs in Williamsburg. In addition, there’ll be parties and receptions around North Brooklyn, and a panel discussion about women in film at Kickstarter’s headquarters in Greenpoint.