Movie Night 6/21 : Choice of Features

This Saturday evening, June 21st, Roosevelt Island residents will have the choice of seeing two movies or perhaps seeing in effect a double feature.

Starting at 7:30 pm at the Roosevelt Island Visual Arts Association (RIVAA) residents can vew on the island the film "A Necessary Music" which was filmed on Roosevelt Island as a collaborative work between Beatrice Gibson and Alex Waterman. You can read more about this film by linking HERE to past blog posts about the film or linking HERE to the film's website.

Starting at 8:45 pm RIOC presents 'The NeverEnding Story" which is being shown on a large inflatable screen over at Firefighters Field. As previously reported the RIOC Summer Film Series has been moved this year from Southpoint to Firefighter's Field to allow for greater access as opposed to residents having to navigate the unpaved paths required to get to Southpoint.

Roosevelt Island as Science Fiction: Film Update

“A ‘Necessary Music’ is a science fiction film about modernist social housing. A musically conceived piece, referencing the video operas of Robert Ashley, the film explores the social imaginary of a utopian landscape through directed attention to the voices that inhabit it.”

I have to admit reading through the above text taken directly from the film’s website I am a little concerned. But having met the artist Beatrice Gibson, who developed the film in collaboration with composer Alex Waterman I am not as worried as I might be otherwise. Both seemed genuinely interested in presenting a film that would not paint the island as another “Dark Waters” which many individuals think of when they hear the name Roosevelt Island, film and science fiction in one sentence.

Apparently I missed the film's opening at the Whitney Museum of American Art but as per the below image it is currently running at the 548 West 22nd Street location through June 1st. Acording to an email I received from Ms. Gibson the times are 11am - 6pm every day through June 1st. I plan on getting there this week to check it out.

More from the film’s site:

“Treating the medium of film as both a musical proposition and a proposal for collective production, A Necessary Music employs the resident of New York's Roosevelt Island as its authors and actors, gathering together texts written by them and using them to construct a script for the film. Casting seventeen residents to enact these lines accompanied by a fictional narration take from Adolfo Bioy Casares' 1941 science fiction novel 'The invention of Morel', the film deploys fiction as a tool to frame and activate its site. Self-consciously dissolving from attempted realism to imagined narrative, what begins as a process concerned with sociality becomes instead a ethnographic fiction about place and community, and an investigation into representation itself.”

"Necessary Music" Film Issues Casting Call

A casting call has been issued for those interested in participating in the film about Roosevelt Island to be titled "A Necessary Music". All parties interested should come down to Gallery RIVAA on Saturday April 5th between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm. To read more details double click the above image. Filming is planned to take place this month.