St Nick Premiers at Rooftop Films

Rooftop1

Rooftop Films will present the New York Premiere of St. Nick on Friday, August 28.

There will be live music performance by Cameron Hull prior to the film and a filmmaker Q and A following the screening with director David Lowery, producer James M. Johnston, and cinematographer Clay Lifford. After the Q and A there will be a reception outdoors in the courtyard, featuring complimentary sangria courtesy of Carlo Rossi.

Here’s a rundown of the film…

A brother and sister—they can’t be more than 10 years old—are living on their own. No explanation is ever given about what brought them to this lifestyle, and Rooftop alum David Lowery said he wanted to explore the “how” and “what” but wasn’t concerned with “why.” We know they once had a more sheltered life—the braces the boy painfully tries to remove belie a certain class status. Not explaining what happened is a brave choice to make in a film, in a culture that often wants the easy answers of a sensational backstory, a pat X caused Y morality. Instead, Lowery inspects the painful and shifting psychology of these kids, the landscape of their purgatory.

They find an empty, run-down house, and settle in. There’s no heat or running water, but they fix a stove so the smoke blows out the window, rig up a little kid’s favorite primitive defense mechanism, and make a secret bedroom with sheets strung from the walls like a canopy. It’s a sad and twisted fantasy home, a place they hope will not merely shelter them but save them, transform them. The most revealing metaphor from the house is the attic stairs, which when pulled down emit a horrifying howl, creating an ominous haunted quality to the space above them—the temporary physical roof and the tenuous idea of ascension and salvation. The detailed explorations of the house are crucial in the story because they mirror the kids’ attempt to build an armor of adulthood—attempts that fray and crack at the seams, revealing the vulnerable children inside.

And when a real adult shows up and kicks them out, the kids we’ve begun to see as mature—now with quivering lips and watery eyes, with shuffling “yessirs” and juvenile rock-throwing retaliation—they revert to their childhood status. The hopes they’ve built have been challenged; their bodies are weakened from the strain. You can’t say their dreams are dashed, because despite the dream-like quality of the film, these kids are too practical for much dreaming. Like all kids, they are trying on different incarnations of selfhood, and their long-term plans are still nascent. But unlike most kids, the harsh facts of their existence mean they can have only escape and survival as goals, and the daytime dreamlike quality of their lives—whale songs ringing from train yards, horses unnervingly coddling them—is not a comfort to retreat within, but a fog from which to wander forth.

Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of children, but if he’s to be found in St. Nick, he’s probably the church thief who finds the kids, stares them down, and decides they’re not even worth his attention. The film, however, is worth everyone’s attention.

On the roof of the Old American Can Factory

232 3RD St. @ 3rd Ave. (Gowanus/ Park Slope, Brooklyn)

Rain: In the event of rain the show will be held indoors at the same location

8:00PM: Doors open

8:30PM: Live music by Cameron Hull (http://www.myspace.com/cameronhull) presented by Sound Fix Records

9:00PM: Film

11:00PM–12:30AM: Reception in courtyard including free sangria courtesy of Carlo Rossi sangria