Trip.com is an innovative planning tool that tailors recommendations for places to stay, eat and play to your specific tastes. It also allows you to share your great experiences with people who have the same interests as you; people in your “tribes.” Trip.com’s TripPicks This Week feature empowers you to discover and take advantage of great events, openings and exhibits throughout the city each week.
Here are some exciting events and sites to check out this week in Downtown New York, courtesy of Trip.com. Visit their site or download the app for more upcoming events.
A new rooftop bar, aptly named the The Crown, now tops the 21st floor of Hotel 50 Bowery. Come check out the breathtaking views of Manhattan and Brooklyn while sampling Asian-inspired craft cocktails and “a small menu of rotating globally-inspired street food.” Trust us: you’re going to be very impressed.
Hotel 50 Bowery (Chinatown) Sunday-Wednesday from 12 pm-2am; Thursday-Saturday from 12pm-4am
Though the grape’s origin can be traced to Croatia and Italy, Zinfandel is the quintessential American wine. The Zinfandel Experience showcases the wine’s versatility, which ranges from dry to semi-sweet, with wine samples from awarding wineries. Tickets start at $69.
Awaken your higher self with groovy music, Kundalini yoga and meditation. This original two hour class will take participants on a unique spiritual journey that will rejuvenate, renew and revitalize from the inside out. Class is $30.
June 6 marks the start of a month-long classical concert series at Washington Square Park. We can’t imagine a lovelier Tuesday evening than in the company of Bizet and Carl Orff‘s “Carmina Burana” with The Stonewall Chorale, the nation’s first LGBT chorus, and soloists. Free event.
Washington Square Park (Greenwich Village) Tuesday, June 6 at 8pm
The Lower East Side Film Festival showcases low-budget and independent films from across the globe, but this affair is far from low-profile. Don’t miss the opening night film “Avenues” and the after-party hosted by Vimeo at DROM where a $20 cover includes live music and an open bar with beer and wine. While you’re at it, hit up the filmmaker reception and ice cream social on the rooftop of Meet on Bowery. Tickets start at $16.
Check out the site for a complete list of venues and times Thursday, June 8-Thursday, June 15
Meet fellow bourbon enthusiasts and enjoy eight different premium bourbon tastings at eight different downtown bars. Among them Copper Still, 2A, Parkside Lounge, East Village Social and Plug Uglies at the New York City Bourbon Bash. Neat, on the rocks, or with a soda mixer: it’s bottoms up! Tickets are $65.
Parkside Lounge (Lower East Side) Saturday, June 10 from 12-10pm
“Get sauced” with 15 of the finest pitmasters from across the county during two days of Big Apple Barbecue. We can’t wait to taste the heat and smoke from Hometown Bar-B-Que, Baker’s Ribs, Fox Brothers Bar-B-Q, Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ and Salt Lick BBQ. There will also be live musical performances throughout the day.
Madison Square Park (Flatiron) Saturday, June 10-Sunday June 11 from 11am-6pm
New York City has no shortage of film festivals, but the Lower East Side Film Festival is arguably its fastest-growing. This year’s event runs from Jun. 9 to 16 and its venues include Sunshine Cinema, Hotel Indigo, and the East Village location of The Standard Hotel. This year’s judges include Ethan Hawke, Raul Castillo and Cindy Tolan, whereas last year’s jury included Laverne Cox, Parker Posey and The Beach Boys’ Mike Love.
One film screening at 2016’s Lower East Side Film Festival is The Art Of The Prank. The acclaimed documentary chronicles influential prankster, Joey Skaggs, who is arguably the first notable prankster. Known pranks of his include 1976’s “Cathouse For Dogs,” 1986’s “April Fool’s Day Parade,” and 2015’s “You Gotta Watch The Movie To Find Out.” Joey will be in attendance.
In advance of the LESFF, Downtown spoke to Andrea Marini and Judy Drosd from The Art Of The Prank. Andrea, the film’s director, editor and producer, directed music videos prior to this feature. Judy, a producer for the film, was the Vice President of Production at HBO in New York. For more info on Prank, click on to www.artoftheprank-themovie.com. More on the film festival and its other presentations can be found at www.lesfilmfestival.com.
Joey Skaggs from “The Art Of The Prank”
How would you describe your film to someone who hasn’t yet seen the trailer?
Andrea Marini: Art Of The Prank is a film about the life of the greatest media prankster of all times, Joey Skaggs, a man who has devoted his life to proving how gullible the media is and how prone we all are to believing everything we read and see. It focuses on his outrageous career and features an ongoing hoax. At the end, you’ll realize that this is not “just” a film.
Judy Drosd: This is a hilarious film about an artist who uses satire to inspire people to question the very core of their beliefs. As a world-famous “media hoaxer”, he shines a light on media gullibility and inaccuracy, as well as on the propaganda and disinformation fed by the mass media to the unsuspecting public every day.
Do you remember the first film festival you ever showed a movie at?
AM: A number of years ago, I was there with a short movie. However, the first festival was not as amazing as the second…so I’ll just skip to that. It was the Miami Short Film Festival. We were so excited, you have no idea. I went there with the producer and the DP. It was a real blessing just to be in competition. But the best was that we won the award for best foreign short film!
Actually, that was the lightning rod that helped me start my first feature project, which eventually morphed into Art Of The Prank! Also, my parents came, which was very special.
Joey Skaggs from “The Art Of The Prank”
Other than your own film, which film at the festival are you most excited to see?
AM: I love to be surprised. It’s getting harder and harder to get that feeling, so why should I let expectations ruin that? That is also why I usually don’t watch trailers.
JD: I want to see them all.
When you have a free moment during the festival, which restaurant is on your must-go list?
AM: There are so many in New York City, and the Lower East Side is a great spot. Any place with good food and good wine. I’m an Italian, after all!
What’s ahead for you after the festival has wrapped?
AM: Continue shooting and start editing the film I’m working on now. Work on more projects, and spend some time in some remote place. And, obviously, go see my family and my beautiful bew niece.
JD: We’re looking forward to getting Art Of The Prank into distribution so that more people can experience it.
Finally, any last words for the kids?
AM: Keep it PG-13.
JD: Inspiration can come from unusual sources. Stay curious.
Director William Sullivan‘s Jane Wants A Boyfriend, features the story of a young girl, Jane, who’s looking for romance in New York City–and not in the Carrie Bradshaw kind of way. A rose-colored movie on familial bonding and the struggles of developmental issues, Jane Wants A Boyfriend will be premiering at this year’s Lower East Side Film Festival on Friday, June 19 from 7 pm-9 pm. Another short animated feature, Monster, will be screened before the film.
The Crosby Street Hotel
79 Crosby St
New York, NY 10012
LESFF summates Jane Wants A Boyfriend:
This romantic comedy explores a week in the life of Jane (Louisa Krause), a young woman looking for love in New York City. Despite dealing with the everyday challenges of being on the autism spectrum, Jane looks to her older sister Bianca (Eliza Dushku), to help her find her very first boyfriend. As the innocent Jane embarks on new territory, and as Bianca worries that Jane’s heart will be broken, they open up a new chapter in their relationship as sisters.
Downtown Magazine got to sit with Will and gather his thoughts regarding the new sold-out film before it debuts in Lower Manhattan:
What about Jane’s character makes you feel more human? What about her warms you?
I’ve always, from the very first draft of Jarret’s first script, felt that there’s a little piece of me in Jane. I’ve spent many years of my life being scared to pursue what was going to make me happy, and not speaking up for what I deserved. And I think Jane is at that really wonderful crossroads where she’s finally built up the courage to say, “I’m a woman, I’m a person, I deserve love just like everybody else.” In so many ways, just through the interaction she has with the world, she’s been made to feel like she’s a child and that she is maybe not worthy of the same things other people are. She sees her big sister having it all. Her big sister has a career, a fiancee, a new apartment. She wants all those things. And I think it takes a tremendous amount of courage to say, “I want this, too.”
I’ve spent so many years of my childhood growing up, feeling like I couldn’t be myself. Or I wasn’t ever going to be able to find love. I was developing this script right around the time I was coming out and starting to figure out who I was. It was very scary and I feel very close to Jane in that way. That you have to stand up for yourself, your right, and your path.
So Jack’s character is living his life a decade after college, and he feels the pressure to get married and “do things” is on. It seems that he’s got a good awareness of the loneliness and cyclic activities that come with the adult lifestyle, but he doesn’t quite have a good handle on it. How do you think Jack’s character complements the rest of the characters––more so, how does his character complement the rest of the party goers as a symbol?
Well I think that the movie at its core, is a female driven story–a story about two sisters. And I think that it’s really important to have Jack in the film as a compelling and complex character, because the relationship between Jack and Jane being believable is something that the movie hinges on completely. So we really needed to find this man who was at a crossroads with his life and almost sort of beaten down enough tobe open to the realization that he could take a couple giant steps in a different direction that would lead him closer to being happy.
I think many people come out of school thinking they know exactly what they want to do; for some, it takes time to stop comparing yourself to others, and to an idea of what you think you should be doing, and how you think life is going to play out. Is that making any sense?
No, it makes total sense. I feel a lot of people think they’re going to be living their dream life and working their dream job by the time they’re 25, and they’re not.
W- Yeah. I did a film called Percival’s Big Night. That was about the post-collegiate crisis many of us face when we graduate; but it’s been many years since I’ve made that movie. And with Jane Wants A Boyfriend, I wanted to focus on what is it like to be in your thirties and seeing everyone around you start to settle down and get married––the pressure that Jack is feeling when he goes to this party with Rob and Bianca. He starts to see everyone look, act, and think like “adults,” or at a least what he thinks of as adults. He doesn’t relate to them anymore, he feels left behind, and I think that creates a tremendous amount of pressure for him.
I feel like during the film–especially the beginning–smoking plays a role within the characters of Bianca and Jack, as well as how Jane feels towards the habit. It kind of made me think of Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee & Cigarettes. In what ways do you think cigarettes relate to conversations? And taking “breaks” from places and people?
That’s a really interesting question. It’s such a thing in the restaurant/hospitality industry; because it’s such a grind, and the hours are so brutal. It’s hard to say “I need to go outside and get some air, I need to step away.” By saying you need a cigarette break, it’s like carving out a space and time for you to reset and recharge.
I think it’s a really helpful–and even clichéd–way of setting up scenes in movies. What was useful for us was to show that Jack’s [his character], starts off as this heavy smoker, and eventually by the end of the film, he has given it up for Jane, who doesn’t like to be around smoke. When he meets her for the first time, he puts out his cigarette, and just realizes this isn’t the kind of girl he’s used to hanging out with. I think that’s a really important story telling point.
I don’t really want to be putting smoking in movies. I certainly know less people smoking now then I did in college. Bianca has quit, and she’s moving away from that. Jack just keeps dragging her back into the world of cigarettes. By giving it up – I think it’s a really wonderful way to show the transition away from his old life, into his new life.
Relaying towards the date sequence where Jane is on her first date with Steve, what inspired you to shoot that the way you did? The fuzziness, the disorientation? Why did you feel that it was the best way to depict what was going on in Jane’s head?
I worked with a wonderful director of photography named Brandon Roots. We spent a long, long time trying to figure out a way to visually portray what it feels like when Jane hits a sensory overload. We did a lot of playing around with camera tests, trying to feel out how we could sort of warp the environment. Ultimately, we settled on this “lens baby” effect. That’s the product we ended up, it’s called a “lens baby.” I think it’s sort of a very imprecise piece of camera equipment. You have to hold it in front of the camera, and I think that instability–the impreciseness lends itself to the focus shifting in-and-out. If you’re being overwhelmed by something, you can’t actually focus on one thing because things keep hitting you from different angles. After a lot of playing around, we sort of landed on that as the trick we were going to use to try and let the audience know what it felt like to be in Jane’s world. That, coupled with the sound design of, what does it feel like to be flooded with all these noises and sounds, that discomfort. When you watch it in the theatre, it’s kind of unnerving.
How important was New York City to you during filming? What about Manhattan charms you?
I’ve been here for many years. I think as a New Yorker, you get a little bit jaded about the city. It was really fun to see it again through Jane’s eyes and let it be somewhere that was special, and intriguing, and fun–in the way that it can be in a Woody Allen movie. When you’re doing production in New York, it’s so hard. Everything is so difficult; but when you watch it on the screen, it’s so romantic and idealized. I think just being able to find locations that took our breath away, like the rooftop overlooking the Empire State Building. It’s like when we felt like we could translate what was described in the script, into an actual, practical location, it was so fulfilling because it’s almost like we could tap into this idea that Jane has–that everything is a perfect world, a black & white movie.
Lastly, what other filmmakers do you draw your inspiration from? What are some of your favorites?
I think that the best directors adapt to the story that they’re trying to tell. I think the directors that I’m attracted to, wouldn’t necessarily have a similar tone to the film that I just made. I’m a huge fan of the director Joe Swanberg, who does his movies completely improvised. I just have another film within the festival circuit called That’s Not Us. And that is completely improvised. I really wanted to explore a very different kind of film from Jane.
In terms of a director that could probably make a Jane-esque movie, I’m huge fan of Sam Mendes. Just because he has the ability to pull performances out of an actor. I think that’s always what I’ve prided myself on, is my ability to work with actors and really pull performances––or coax performances out of people that other directors might not be able to. I really like performance-based films.
View the trailer for Jane Wants A Boyfriend, below:
For the fifth consecutive year, downtown Manhattan will be holding its Lower East Side Film Festival, screening handfuls of brilliant films to kick off the summer. The festival will begin on June 11, and will run its course until June 21.
Debut feature film, Desert Cathedral, will be screened at the festival on Sunday, June 14 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
AMC Loews Village 7 66 3rd Ave New York, NY, 10003
Courtesy of lesfilmfestival.com
Desert Cathedral features a distinguished cast: Lee Tergesen (Oz, Generation Kill, Monster) and Chaske Spencer (The Twilight Saga).
LESFF summates the film:
A broken real estate developer, played by Lee Tergesen, mysteriously disappears into the Southwest in 1992, leaving behind a series of VHS tapes to his employer and family. Without the aid of the police, his desperate wife hires a private investigator, played by Chaske Spencer, to locate his whereabouts and bring him home.
Downtown Magazine got to sit with Desert Cathedral‘s director and writer, Travis Gutiérrez Senger, to gain further insight toward the genesis of the up-and-coming feature.
So this is based on a true story, what about this real-life story inspired you to write your own cinematic version of it? What personal twists did you add, if you did?
I had heard the story and I thought that this idea of this sort of well-to-do suburban father driving around the Southwest, you know, essentially, escaping from all of his responsibilities and his day-to-day life in suburban America, was really fascinating and a sort of interesting image. He seems like a well-to-do normal person, but underneath it, there’s something really dark and terrible lurking. I thought that those were interesting ideas for a film and knowing that he had made these VHS tapes and sent them home, I just thought that was so strange that someone would actually do that. It was like in the early ’90s, he was having financial problems. I certainly felt like it was a story of a personal financial crisis, like in 2008–when I first got into the project was when I first really heard about it–I thought it was interesting just because in the early ’90s, you had the birth of the mcmansion. He was way over extended on his credit, no one was there to bail him out, and he had to deal firsthand with the challenges of being this all-American father. He’s being this proprietor, but at the same time, I feel like he was mixed up in this really interesting way.In terms of what twists I added to it, in the real life story, the guy disappears and he takes off from the Pacific Northwest to the Southwest, and his wife hires the PI. ‘
I really developed the PI character–who’s played by Chaske Spencer–Chaske did a great job. He’s a really talented, up-and-coming actor. He apparently got his break in the Twilight Series, and he’s been doing a lot of cool indie films. He lives in Williamsburg. He’s a really smart guy. I developed his character basically to complement the real story. There was a real PI who did pursue him and all of those things but I sort of developed that part of the story. And in terms of Peter’s character, I tried to be pretty true to what financial problems he was having, the nature of his mental demise. We even incorporated some found audio/video into the film, so those elements are truthful. And I tried to be as truthful as I could with the PI too. Everything the family told me about that, I tried to be truthful. But I didn’t have access to him like I had the family when I was developing the story, so that’s someone I developed more on my own.
It seems like the loneliness of the adult world is kind of a theme. Especially in some suburban neighborhood, so maybe he feels alienated.
Alienation is a big theme in the film. I think both the PI and the real estate developer both have that connection of feeling alienated.
What was the genesis of your film? How was it funded? What are the biggest problems indie filmmakers face these days re: funding their films and, just as importantly, getting them into theaters? These days, are film fest screenings the best that indie filmmakers can hope for? Especially in New York City where living standards and expenses are so high?
Our film was funding through private equity so we had investors. I think for every film, its journey in the world is different and it ranges from films that are now being bought by Netflix at film festivals and going straight to Netflix, to stuff that will have a small release in six to twelve cities, and then stuff that will maybe catch some buzz and get some nominations–and go off to a broader release. And then stuff that was always built to be released on a massive scale. For indie films, I think that there’s more options now in terms of platforms and where your work may be seen. Whether that’s iTunes or Netflix, or theaters like the Angelika in New York. I think that there’s a lot of opportunities. For different films, different things make sense. I think the budget level often determines it, the cast determines it, and then the changing landscape and technology, and how we consume films immediately determines it. But I don’t think there’s any one way. I don’t think film festivals necessarily have to be the only theatrical experience that your audience has. I think the biggest thing television is doing right now is asking the question of, how can you make an indie film? And make it successful financially? Why is it an indie film and not a television series? It’s starting to ask questions about the nature of the story and what its best form is. I think that it’s an opportunity for film–if they want a theatrical release–to really push for an experience that warrants that. My interest personally is still very much people seeing my work on a big screen, whether it’s at a festival or through a release. It’s a great opportunity for me to share my work on that scale. Like Desert Cathedral, is a film full of these big landscapes, a lot of wonderful negative space. The opportunity to see that on a big screen is very rewarding. But I think that it’s always hard, and I don’t think festivals are the best you can hope for.
I’m working on a new film now and I’m really trying to plan it out and design the project in such a way where it would make sense to play in 12+ cities. I think it’s more competitive and challenging to do that now.
I still feel like there are a lot of great indie films that have come out. Like last year, I don’t want to see Birdman on a small screen, I want to see that on a big screen. I feel like that’s a good example of a film that is still in terms of its form and its onset, something that I think needs to exist on a big screen. Some stories don’t. I think if there was something that I did that went to Netflix–because of the nature of it–I would be thrilled to have that audience watch the film. I think it just depends on the project, the filmmaker’s goals, and what the reality is for that project is.
What other filmmakers do you draw your inspiration from?
I’m a big fan of Alejandro González Iñárritu–Birdman, Babel. I love his films. PT Anderson is a big inspiration. Growing up, I really liked Fellini and Truffaut–some of the big European auteurs. I really watched a lot of German New Cinema: Rainer Fassbinder, Werner Herzog. All the sort of European masters have been big influences on me.
Another filmmaker I really like is Pedro Costa. Not a lot of people watch his films, but he’s a phenomenal filmmaker. His film, In Vanda’s Room, is one of my favorite films. I think he’s somebody that has darker material, but it’s great.
How do you want your audience to feel after watching Desert Cathedral? What questions do you intend to raise within the viewer?
It should definitely be a haunting feeling. What happens in the film is something that, no matter how much you understand it, and you learn about it, I don’t feel like you totally understand it. The people I’ve spent time with, that have gone through that, the experiences first hand of having someone close in their life, just leave in such a way that it should leave you with a feeling of wanting to understand and know more about something. The haunting feeling that suicide really leaves you with. I don’t know, especially the nature of this story: what I like about the story, what I like about the film, and what’s drawn me to it is that feeling of lingering questions and lingering remains. Especially with the archives and the very strange nature of the story, there’s a certain mystery and certain sense of haunting that lingers with you in a dark way. And I think thematically when you start to look at the film, that could lead to some interesting questions about the choices we make and our moral value systems, our cultural value systems–the power of ideology. At one point, Peter says, “I could never go back now. I could never go bankrupt. I could never face that.” I felt that, that was very revealing about the power of ideology, the way people internalize certain value systems. This was a person who decided that he was worth more dead than alive. Then you really see when that happens, how sort of meaningless that really is.We made the film right after 2008, when all these big corporations were getting bailed out. You have an individual who’s facing the same problems, and just the nature of financial collapse on an individual looks so radically different than it does with a massive institution. All these things are interesting but I really feel like it’s a film driven by the challenge of the lingering sense of loss. The best way to describe it is haunting.
Being that this is for Downtown Magazine, how do you feel about your film being debuted in the Lower East side?
I think it’s perfect. I really like the culture of downtown. We made this film with a generally young group of filmmakers. A lot of us have done music videos and commercial work. We’ve all lived in either downtown New York or the north of Brooklyn, so I think it’s a perfect fit for the film. I also think the audience of lower Manhattan will appreciate the edgy qualities of a dark film. We do have found audio and video footage, but we also use a pristine, beautiful style of photography. We tried doing something progressive and a little bit different with the film in terms of its form and the way the story is told. I feel downtown is a great place, with an audience that will get that, and appreciate all the aesthetic elements of the film–really just the spirit of the film. It’s designed to be challenging material.
That’s where independent films live: downtown. It’s the home of independent film. There’s more venues here, better screening opportunities, better theaters, in a small area than anywhere.
You can purchase tickets to see Desert Cathedral, here.
