Friday, August 20, 2021, 6:30 p.m.
New York Hall of Science - 47-01 111th Street, Corona, NY 11368

New York City isn’t the easiest place to live, even in the most gentle of times. And the last few years haven’t been gentle. But New York has always been a town that attracts the tough and cultivates the dogged, and it will always be a place that reminds us that none of us can do it on our own. In celebration of the city’s collective perseverance, Rooftop Films has gathered a selection of short films that embody the collective fighting spirit of New York’s everyday heroes and showcases our communal courage and camaraderie. We’ll witness a young woman wrestling an impossibly stubborn mattress into a walk-up apartment; one family adapting to the unexpected darkness of a sudden blackout and another family maintaining solidarity across great a great divide; and people across the five boroughs coming together to share food and comfort, defiantly resisting the alienating solitude of the pandemic. In times of crisis, these New Yorkers, like so many of you, found ways to make the greatest city on Earth into an even better place.

How To with John Wilson: How to Cook the Perfect Risotto
Dir. John Wilson. 2020, 30 mins. To thank his elderly landlord for all the times she has cooked and cleaned for him, John attempts to make her favorite dish.

I Know What Pandemic Means (Sé Lo Que Es Pandemia)
Dir. Frisly Soberanis. 15 mins. This visual and auditory experience is an attempt to meditate on what happened and how it felt to be so close to instability and illness in one of the epicenters of the Coronavirus pandemic in Elmhurst, Queens. Created with images that felt like love and tranquility to reject the notion that death and despair were the only things that folks experienced.

In Sudden Darkness
Dir. Tayler Montague. 2020, 13 mins. A slice of life film set in the Bronx, New York—In Sudden Darkness follows the life of the Moores, a working-class Black family trying to stay afloat in the midst of the city-wide blackout.

Last Stop For Lost Property
Dir. Vicente Cueto. 2020, 13 mins. An intimate look at the NYC subway and the thousands of items and people that get lost in its tunnels.

Moving
Dir. Adinah Dancyger. 2019, 8 mins. Moving alone in New York City, a tragic comedy.

3,000 Miles (三千哩)
Dirs. Sean Wang, Breton Vivian. 2017, 5 mins. On July 5th, 2016, I moved across the country to live and work in New York City for one year. This is a personal documentary of my year, chronicled by voicemails left by my mother.

NYC Homecoming Week, August 14-22, is a citywide celebration featuring live concerts, free movie screenings, cultural activities, iconic events, public art, and more. This five-borough week of events drives support for the mom-and-pop businesses that define our neighborhoods and that kept the heart of our city beating throughout the COVID pandemic.

Free RSVP here.

Proof of vaccination required for entry—includes at least one dose of an approved Covid-19 vaccine, such as Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, or Astrazeneca/Oxford.