Rooftop Films: Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then June 26, 2010

VENUE
OPEN ROAD ROOFTOP
Open Road Rooftop
LOWER EAST SIDE
350 GRAND ST., NEW YORK, NY 10002
F, J, M, Z to Delancey Street-Essex Street; B, D, Q to Grand Street
8:00 Doors Open
8:30 Live Music
9:00 Film begins
11:30 After-party: Open Bar at Fontana's (105 Eldridge St.)

When Leonard's wife Mary was diagnosed with cancer, he thought he could build their house into a healing machine. The magnificent debut feature from Rooftop alum musician/animator/artist Brent Green will be performed with a live soundtrack, featuring members of punk idols Fugazi.

Presented in partnership with: IFC, New York magazine, vitaminwater, Open Road NY, New Design High School, Fontanas, the NYC Council Manhattan Delegation & NYS Senator Daniel L. Squadron
THE FILMS

GRAVITY WAS EVERYWHERE BACK THEN (Brent Green | Cressona, PA | 72 min.)
Mary collected wild eggs and made bird houses. Leonard worked in a hardware store and ranted free-form gospel. Their first date was in a car crash. Their second date was a funeral. He grew a beard, she planted a garden, they flew stars in the sky and fell completely in love. Until Mary got sick. Bird flu. Or cancer. Everyone dies of something.

Everyone dies of something, but Leonard thought he could save Mary's life if he turned their house into a tower to the heavens, a leaking, creaking life-affirming healing machine. He pounded the bitter nails of his soul into the building, and ran his bank account and his willpower down to zero. You'll never die from running out of money and you'll never die from running out of energy, but leave something wonderful behind and somehow you'll live forever.

Based on a true story from Louisville, Kentucky, artist/musician/filmmaker Brent Green returns to Rooftop Films running everything down to zero for this glorious cinematic event. Using a unique blend of live-action and animation, Brent built a full-scale version of Leonard's house in his own backyard, and crafted elaborate handmade props and intricate drawings that have recently been on display at the Andrew Edlin Gallery in Chelsea. Brent's heart-wrenching songs and seething narration provide a poetic and philosophical framework for the story. At this show, for the first time in New York, Brent will be creating a live soundtrack to the film, with accompaniment from Brendan Canty and Guy Piccioto (of Fugazi), plus the film's co-star Donna Kozloski and musician Drew Henkels.

There is an angry hopefulness to Brent's work, a wonder at the way the world works and a despair in the way standard beliefs fail us. Using incisive poetry to berate the fallacy of conventional society, creating crooked images of the inspiring beauty of the everyday, Brent Green's art is an elegy to secular miracles, a stirring marvel to behold.

-Mark Elijah Rosenberg

nervousfilms.com

Official Website: http://www.rooftopfilms.com/2010/schedule/20-gravity-was-everywhere-back-then