Join Rooftop Films as they bring five innovative nonfiction film programs from around the world to outdoor venues across NYC.

The filmmakers showcased in this program show us that capturing an authentic moment is frequently difficult and sometimes it’s downright perilous. In pursuit of the real, these plucky directors scaled the sides of cliffs, flew their drone cameras into swarms of droning bees, rigged spinning cameras to the front of their cars, climbed mountain-sized monuments built by white supremacists, dug through their parent’s smutty videos, and watched countless hours of the least appetizing food porn on the internet. Their audacious truth-seeking helped them to capture some visceral closeups and to forge some truly dangerous documentaries.

Using over 100 years of archival footage, director Sierra Pettengill explores the history of the largest Confederate monument, Georgia’s Stone Mountain.

“Hypnodrome” is motion-induced delirium that loosens the borders between earth and sky, between represented reality and imagination, between being awake and dreaming.

In a remote corner of Nepal, Maule Dhan Rai had a vivid dream as a young man. The elders determined that he alone would be granted safe passage onto the jungle cliffs in pursuit of a rare and toxic honey. This was many years ago. Even in these forgotten corners of the Himalayas, the world is changing quickly and unpredictably. No one else in Maule’s village has since had the dream.

The found footage film is dedicated to nutrition and the human relationship to “production animals.” The collage provides disturbing insights into the behavior of a western affluent society between a lack of appreciation and the origin of animal products. The starting material of the film collage is from Youtube and serves different internet phenomena such as ASMR, Mukbang and Lets Play Videos. The experimental narrative perspective and precise picture selection are both humorous and bitterly true, pointing out destructive aspects of global consumer behavior.

A town on the borderlands of Texas. A place out of time. A desert where strange lights dance in the night sky. A mecca for lovers of minimalist art. A landscape of lost horses, freaks and food trucks. And then there’s the giant lemon.

Filmmaker Charlie Tyrell seeks to better understand his emotionally distant late-father through the personal belongings he left behind… including a stack of VHS dirty movies. Narrated by David Wain.

Tragedy strikes the world’s tallest water slide.

Free Event!

8:00 PM: Doors Open
8:30 PM: Live Music
9:00 PM: Film Begins

More details can be found on the Rooftop Films Website!