After Friday night’s near wash-out at the Old American Can Factory, Rooftop’s organizers heaved a sigh of relief when it was clear that the weather was going to cooperate on Saturday night. It was an especially gratifying thing since the evening’s event, also on the top of the Can Factory and entitled “Rooftop Shots” was the closing night event of the 2011 season. The evening included two opening musical artists including talented singer Lady Lamb the Beekeeper (aka Aly Spaltro) a powerhouse of emotional performance.
The crowd at in Gowanus was treated to an evening of, in the word of Founder & Artistic Director Mark Elijah Rosenberg, shorts films about conclusions. The centerpiece, and certainly the most moving, was Tim Hetherington’s”Diary”, a dazzling 19-minute montage of arbitrary moments from Tim’s various global assignments. Seeing the film was all the more painful in the wake of his death in a bombing episode in Libya this past April. Tim had, necessarily put himself in harm’s way as a war photographer for Vanity Fair. He was co-director for last year’s Oscar-nominated “Restrepo”. I had the good fortune to interview Tim during one of his press junkets in NYC.
During a mid-evening break, Rosenberg took a moment to show his appreciation for his staff by introducing them to the crowd who were seated both on the rooftop and in the ground-level courtyard below. After the second half of the slate played, which included Nicolas Steiner’s memorable “It’s Me, Helmet”, a charming short that was little more than a series of visual puns. Once the films were over, everyone gathered down in the courtyard for cocktails and Pilsner courtesy of Rooftop Films and sponsors.
