Goings on. New York.

For the New York Sun, S James Snyder checks in with Rooftop Films: "More than 2,500 submissions flow in to its organizers on a yearly basis, all sent by filmmakers hoping for the chance to headline an outdoor show. Their interest is stoked by the ever-increasing size of Rooftop crowds; this year, between June and September, an estimated 20,000 viewers will take part in the group's 38 planned events."

Updated through 6/6.

"The body count at the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival rivals any in Hollywood's summer shoot-'em-ups," writes Anthony Kaufman. "Notwithstanding the vital reality check the fest provides, the event's greatest achievement is putting human faces on such numbers." June 13 through 26.

Also in the Voice, J Hoberman on The President's Analyst, opening today for a week-long run at Film Forum: "A political satire that impressed me mightily as a teenager (and less so thereafter), Theodore Flicker's genial exercise in comic paranoia re-emerges, for no apparent reason, a reasonably fit and funny artifact from the age of grooviness."

Scott Macaulay: "Thursday, June 5, Filmmaker, the IFC, IndieGoGo and the IFP are hosting an evening at the IFC Center that is part of Internet Week New York. It's called Where Film and Internet Collide, and it's one of three events going under this name that are dedicated to the merging of filmic and web sensibilities when it comes to creating new work."

In the New Yorker, briefly: Anthony Lane on Celebrating Summer (at MoMA through June 26).

Update, 6/6: "Many spoofs of the 1960s failed partly because they couldn't top the inherent ridiculousness of their target," writes Nicolas Rapold in the New York Sun. "The President's Analyst, starring James Coburn in the title role, surges past an ordinary hippie jaunt with assured Cold War nuttiness, a few gun-toting suburban liberals, and a zany conspiracy theory that may ring true to current Verizon customers. The 1967 caper, which Film Forum is reviving for one week beginning today, benefits from affable performances and playful direction, and the political satire doesn't try to show off at being sharp or bemused."

Posted by dwhudson at June 4, 2008 1:52 PM