Rooftop Films and IFP team up to sponsor free film screenings during Independent Film Week

Next week, the IFP begins its annual Independent Film Week, and for the fourth year in a row, Rooftop Films is teaming up with IFP to sponsor a series of free screenings and forum activities during the event. As a part of the collaboration, Rooftop will host three outdoor events, showcasing films that have passed through the No Borders forum, as well as the IFP Filmmaker Labs. Additionally, for the first time, Rooftop Films has chosen three screenplays to be in the Emerging Narratives section of the IFW project forum.

Here is the screening schedule as it currently stands:

Monday, September 20th
Howl (Sneak Preview)
Directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
Location: Open Road Rooftop, 350 Grand Street (Lower East Side, Manhattan)

James Franco stars as the young poet and counter-culture adventurer Allen Ginsberg – chronicler of the Beat Generation. In his famously confessional, leave-nothing-out style, Ginsberg recounts the road trips, love affairs, and search for personal liberation that led to the most timeless and electrifying work of his career – the poem Howl.

8:00 Doors Open
8:30 Live Music
9:00 Film begins
10:30 Q and A with directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
11:30 After Party with free Radeberger Pilsner at Fontana’s, located at 105 Eldridge Street, NYC

CLICK HERE to confirm the screening time and for additional information.

Tuesday, September 21st
IFP Labs Showcase
Location: On the Pier along the East River at Solar One (Kips Bay, Manhattan)

Short scenes and trailers from each of the documentary and narrative feature works in progress participating in IFP’s 2010 Independent Filmmaker Labs.

8:00 Doors Open
8:30 Live Music
9:00 IFP Lab Selections
10:30 Reception Along the Water with Free Open Bar

There is no admission charge for this show. CLICK HERE for more information.

Wednesday, September 22nd
Twelve Ways to Sunday (World Premiere)
Directed by Anna Farrell
Location: On the High Line (Chelsea section of Manhattan)

Amid a rural landscape and disappearing communities, the residents of Allegany County, NY are living the working-class American story. This luscious and intimate cinematic portrait captures the testimonies of life in these small towns.

7:00 Live Music by High Highs
7:30 Film Begins
8:45 Filmmaker Q and A

There is no admission charge for this show. CLICK HERE for more information.

Below is additional information on the IFW Project Forum and The Rooftop Films projects.

Project Forum is the centerpiece of Independent Film Week, designed specifically as a place for industry to meet with new talent, as well as discover fresh projects from emerging and veteran filmmakers. The program is also qualitatively and quantitatively the best opportunity in the nation for independent film and media artists to find funders, supporters and/or producers.

Across a broad range of genres, budget ranges and sensibilities, IFP upholds its core mission to champion original and provocative storytelling at its Project Forum. This unique event focuses on assisting filmmakers when they need it most: through the development, financing and completion of their feature films. All projects showcased in the Project Forum are features and documentaries ranging from films in development, the early stages of production, to those nearing completion (i.e. in postproduction or at the rough cut stage).

Now more than ever, independent filmmakers across the country and around the globe are turning to IFP’s one- of-a-kind Project Forum to find the funding, support and industry acknowledgement they need to launch or complete their latest projects. After a 90% increase in submissions this year, 150 projects have been selected; projects are evenly split between documentary and narrative features in development (script through post- production) and have little previous industry exposure.

This year, Rooftop Films selected three screenplays to be in the Emerging Narratives section of the forum. Emerging Narrative has become the premiere U.S. talent pool for producers, agents and managers, and development execs to discover projects in development from new voices on the independent scene. Presenting 25 scripts in early development by up-and-coming writers and writer/directors, all projects and participants have minimal previous exposure to the marketplace.

The Rooftop Films projects are:

The Garden – Written and directed by Steve Collins. A sarcastic employee in a yoga center has an epiphany and decides to take the company back to the earth. (Comedy)

Killer – Written by Casimir Nozkowski. High school politics are magnified exponentially as seniors, waiting to hear from colleges, blow off academics and dedicate themselves to playing a game called Killer. (Family/Teen)

Short Term 12 – Written and directed by Destin Cretton, and produced by Asher Goldstein. Grace, a young supervisor at a group home, struggles to care for her teens while desperately avoiding the residue of her own dark past. (Drama)
Also selected was Rooftop Alum Topaz Adizes:

Look For The Light – Written by Topaz Adizes and Tim Hetherington, directed by Topaz Adizes, and produced by Tim Hetherington and Adam Somner. A modern-day Faustian legend, “Look for the Light” is a psychological thriller about a war photographer, his spiritual degradation and his search for redemption. (Drama)