FREE SUMMER SCREENING SERIES
Programmed by Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages Manager Kenneth Filmer, Brooklyn Fire Proof Inc. hosted its first free screening series during the summer of 2016. Brooklyn Fire Proof acquired an HD projector and 17' screen and set up an outdoor theater with 200 seats in the 3,200 square foot courtyard adjacent to its main studio building and connected bar Terra Firma at 119 Ingraham. Each week was curated by a different filmmaker, artist or programmer, many of them more infamous than well-known.
Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages is the is the movie, television, and photography arm of BFP, and has hosted thousands of professional productions over the last 10 years. They’ve worked with a wide array of talented artists, filmmakers, and media-makers, some of whom will be featured in this series. This screening series was one opportunity to have some of those incredible creatives come back for BFP Creative's favorite activity, show and tell. All screenings were free.
art by Monica Ramos for Brooklyn Fire Proof
“We purchased this great professional, outdoor theater screen to have a few movie parties, since we have the space. We asked some of the fantastic people we’d worked with about hosting parties, and they all said yes,” said Kenneth Filmer. “We then opened it up to some underground cinema programmers, as an overall celebration of the outer limits of New York’s filmmaking and film-viewing community, with a program that includes one of New York’s most celebrated young artists, former Kim’s Video employees, the founder of the cinema of transgression, VHS-fetishizing maniacs, and the guys that make the weirdest stuff on Adult Swim.”
You can read about all eight weeks of programming below, and stay tuned for more free film screenings at Brooklyn Fire Proof!
JULY 8TH – THE BEST OF THE BUSHWICK FILM FESTIVAL
The Bushwick Film Festival (BFF) is excited to present a special night of its award-winning films! To get Bushwick excited for its 9th Edition, scheduled from Sept 29 – Oct 2nd, the festival will be showcasing several of its award-winning shorts as well as one of its Best Picture winners. Audiences can expect a night of both daring and entertaining independent films that capture the human spirit and experience in unique ways.
Founded in 2007, The Bushwick Film Festival has evolved from a local community festival to an international festival. Tribeca film hailed BFF as “one of Brooklyn’s most celebrated cinematic events,” and it has been covered by Brooklyn Reporter, the Village Voice, and Fox News. Brooklyn’s own Borough President has publicly expressed enthusiasm at how the festival has rejuvenated community involvement as a one-of-a-kind celebration of independent and innovative cinema.
The Bushwick Film Festival’s programming runs year round with classes, workshops, and content open to the community and distributed via digital and broadcast networks. The competition, now in its ninth year, attracts industry leaders, submissions of international note and culminates in a four day festival of screenings and events.
Still from Marcel Dzama’s “Infidels” Copyright the artist, Courtesy David Zwirner, New York/London
JULY 15TH – MARCEL DZAMA
Marcel Dzama, the hugely popular artist fresh from his work on the New York City Ballet’s The Most Incredible Thing, will present an extensive program of his films, including “Sad Ghost,” made with Spike Jonze, and “A Jester’s Dance,” starring Kim Gordon with music by the Arcade Fire. A preview of a new film, “A Flower of Evil,” starring Amy Sedaris, and shot at Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages, will also be shown.
Mr. Dzama’s work is characterized by an immediately recognizable visual language that draws from a diverse range of references and artistic influences, including Dada and Marcel Duchamp. While he has become known for his prolific drawings with their distinctive palette of muted colors, in recent years, the artist has expanded his practice to encompass sculpture, painting, film, and dioramas. Work by the artist is held in collections worldwide, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Gallery, London; and the Vancouver Art Gallery. Dzama lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
JULY 22ND – THE “MOVIE FRIENDS”
The “Movie Friends,” who have been hosting/curating a free, Sunday night of off-center cinema at KGB’s Krain Theater for the last six years, will host a screening on July 22. The “Movie Friends” are all former long-term Kim’s Video employees; each worked on the third rental floor of Mondo Kim’s for five to sixteen years. They show obscure, rarely-screened, most often “fun” things, and always with their enthusiasm backing it up. There are always prizes involved. They promise to screen a top secret old Kim’s Video favorite.
The “Movie Friends” include cinematographer Sean Price Williams (Iris, Listen Up Philip), programmer Jeff Cashvan (Nitehawk’s “The Deuce”), and illustrator Chris Jacobson. The “Movie Friends” have been collectively working on a movie entitled Maniac City for the last six years, and while over 40 hours have been shot, it is not yet complete.
Copyright PFFR
JULY 29TH – PFFR
PFFR are the creatrices [sic] of cultural coffin stuffers “Wonder Showzen,” “Xavier: Renegade Angel,” & “The Heart, She Holler,” along with some various sonic flailings and artistic land fillers. While the PFFR members (Alyson Levy, John Lee, and Vernon Chatman) have been busy with many big name projects like Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday, “Louie,” “Broad City,” and “South Park,” their collective work is the strangest. They’ve shot several projects at Brooklyn Fire Proof Stages, including all three season’s of Adult Swim’s “The Heart, She Holler.”
PFFR will hosting a night of their unusual cult content, entitled “PFFR: Legacy IX,” which they describe as “a hodgepodge of of nonsense and sense – a couple of shorts and then a slightly longer thing,” but there’s no telling what we’ll see.
AUGUST 5TH – CARTUNA
Cartuna is a new digital media brand focused on animated comedy for adults. Founded by Adam Belfer, James Belfer, and Daniel Shepard, Cartuna will be premiering 11 original series in 2016 and recently produced the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize Winner NUTS!
They’ll be presenting a night of animated adult comedy entitled “Dirty Morning Cartoons” featuring original shorts from Justin Roiland, Sick Animation, Leah Shore, Nick DenBoer, Felix Colgrave – Unofficial, Jeanette Bonds, Jaime R., Ian Miller, Sean Glaze, Cool 3D World, Signe Baumane, Lena Greene, Rob Yulfo, Sven Stoffels, Preston Spurlock, Joey Altadonna, Pat Kain plus illustrations by Killer Acid, Wizard Skull, and MAXX.
Sear your eyes on this selection of fun-time indie cartoons that will surely make your inner-child recess deep into your psyche and wither away. Don’t miss another awesome night of outdoor summer movie vibes! Keep your eyes out for new interstitials by Bushwick street artists!
The screening will be preceded by a zine fair, with zines and prints from local artists, illustrators, and animators. The zine fair will start at 7pm in the screening area.
AUGUST 12TH – MONO NO AWARE
Mono No Aware is a 501c3 cinema-arts non-profit organization based in Brooklyn, NY offering affordable analog filmmaking workshops, equipment access, and film stock to the community. Through their educational initiatives and facilities they assist in the production of over 300 films a year. MONO NO AWARE also hosts an annual exhibition of expanded cinema, performance and installation art that incorporates the moving image on film. 2016 marks their 10th anniversary.
Still from Twiggs Gorie’s 2014 film “Luciferia Locks of Horror
Mono No Aware and its founder Steve Cossman will be hosting “The Films of Twiggs Gorie and Josafat Concepcion,” a program of avant-garde, all-analog horror shorts by two of the organization’s filmmakers. The program will feature the world premiere of Ms. Gorie’s 16mm color film “Velvet Tears.” The program will be projected on Super-8mm and 16mm projectors. Twiggs’ statement on her work:
“All of the world’s mythology features some type of a horror story. Horror is something that is shared amongst all people on Earth. From the Japanese myth of the Onibaba to the mythological character of Leatherface from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” we all have our favorite horror myth. Usually, these myths involve a female victim and a male aggressor/hero. I employ the elements of horror story telling to tell horror stories from a female perspective. My work promotes both female aggressors and heroins. My goal is to change the face of horror from a mask with masculine features to one with feminine ones. I want to glorify the female side of horror mythology.”
AUGUST 19TH – HORROR BOOBS
Horror Boobs will present “Night of 1000 VHS Tapes,” which they describe this way: “Get ready to relive the days of the home video era; a time where all it took was a VCR to travel to an unknown world of neon spandex and ultraviolence. Horror Boobs presents a night of analog debauchery with trailers, clips, and a secret feature film all sourced from those little black rectangles we lovingly refer to as VHS. Revel in the weird, appreciate the obscure, and experience the type of entertainment that can only be enjoyed after you have adjusted your tracking. Join the Horror Boobs crew along with other notable members of the modern VHS resurgence who will be on hand with mounds of videos for trade and sale. So make sure you bring your video treasures to share with other like minded tape heads.”
For over five years, Horror Boobs founder Matt Desiderio and his crew of freaked out film fans have been busy spreading their love of cult cinema with a focus on the VHS format. Horror Boobs are on the front-lines of an analog attack, whether they are programming screenings of forgotten flicks at venues like Nitehawk Cinema, Alamo Drafthouse, or Spectacle Theater; releasing lost gems under their Horror Boobs Video label; and publishing the VHS culture and cult cinema zine, “Blood Video.” After the release of the Horror Boobs-produced documentary Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS collector, Desiderio has become the go-to guy for VHS in NYC, frequently being interviewed on the subject by print and online publications.
Matt and Horror Boobs will also have a full-on VHS tape swap in the screening area, so bring your videotapes!
AUGUST 26TH – NICK ZEDD
Nick Zedd will host the “Sinema of Nick Zedd,” a program of some of Nick’s notable works of the years, including “Thrust in Me;” “Police State,” described by Joe Bob Briggs as a “nihilistic roller coaster ride through hell;” excerpts from War is Menstrual Envy, which Jonas Mekas called “Forbidden, maybe even evil, perverted, ungodly;” “Ecstasy in Entropy;” as well as debuting a new work to be shot right here at Brooklyn Fire Proof in anticipation of this event.
Nick Zedd spearheaded the cinema of transgression film movement, and has directed 44 movies since 1979. Nick Zedd presented a retrospective of his motion pictures at The Museum of Modern Art in 1989 and 2014 as well as at the New Museum in 2013. Mr. Zedd currently resides in Mexico City where he paints, writes screenplays, shoots videos and publishes “Hatred of Capitalism” magazine. In 2012 his work was featured at the Kunstwerke Museum of Contemporary Art in Berlin, where he screened several movies and spoke on a panel. In 2013, he was presented with the Acker Award for Lifetime Achievement, a tribute given to members of the avant-garde arts community who have made outstanding contributions in their discipline in defiance of convention, or else served their fellow writers and artists in outstanding ways.
