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New York City's Showplace of Independent Cinema |
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East
3rd street, between Avenues A and B (closer to A) * New York City |
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April 13-26, 2006 Take some of NYC's funniest stand up comics. Mix in some of NYC's most talented filmmakers. Add Stella Artois, and, um, pizza, and, um, a Jacques Tati classic. Stir. Out comes the Pioneer's “Comedy Fortnight,” two weeks of hilarity with funny movies and hilarious q&a sessions following and in between many movies. Too often good comedians make films with poor filmmakers, or good filmmakers make films with bad comedians. This program shows what can happen when there are talented people on both sides of the camera. New York Times Critic's Choice! Organized by the Pioneer with many thanks to Darren Goldberg and Jesse Scolaro (7th Floor); Jay Stern, Victor Varnado, and Paul Zuckerman (First Sundays / Chicago City Limits); Amanda Congdon and Mario Librandi (Rocketboom); Susanne Jacobson (Sony Repertory); Nicole Woods (ETS Direct); Sarah Finklea (Janus Films). |
Comedy
Fortnight Part stand-up comedy act, part film festival, part party, First Sundays is a monthly festival featuring the best in short comedy films from around the world. Films in this program have screened at Sundance, the Aspen Comedy Festival, and on Comedy Central, while producers range from the BBC to the writers and stars of The Daily Show. Every month,
First Sundays puts together a show of short comedy films, many of them
made by the First Sundays guys themselves, but many of them collected
from elsewhere. Then, in between the films, Jay Stern and Victor Varnado
showcase deep intelligence and dry, hilarious wit. Most months, at the
end of the show, someone in the audience yells out a title for a movie,
and someone else in the audience is cast to star in that film. That film
then becomes part of the next month's show. During the comedy fortnight, First Sundays celebrates its fourth anniversary - and first at the Pioneer! - with a retrospective of terrific and very funny movies from across a very wide spectrum. hosted by Jay Stern and Victor Varnado - other filmmakers & special guests will attend! |
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Comedy Fortnight Best
of First Sundays: Sun Apr 2 7pm - buy tix (yes, I know, it's technically before the comedy fortnight begins) |
The First Sundays producers present their own favorite films they've screened over the past 4 years. |
Comedy Fortnight Best
of First Sundays: Thurs Apr 13 7pm - buy tix |
A night of funny documentaries, reality shows, and a few mockumentaries for good measure. |
Comedy Fortnight Best
of First Sundays: Tues Apr 18 7pm - buy tix Followed by beer & pizza reception |
A show of short comedy films made on a shoestring - and some which couldn't even afford a shoestring. A beer and pizza reception with some of the cheapest filmmakers around follows the screening. |
Comedy Fortnight Best
of First Sundays: Sat Apr 22 7pm - buy tix |
A program of some of the best short films about love, romance, and stalking. |
Comedy Fortnight Best
of First Sundays: Sun Apr 23 7pm - buy tix |
A night of terrific short animated comedies. |
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BLACKBALLED: (dir. Brant Sersen, 90 mins, 2004) Thurs Apr
13 9pm - SOLD OUT Fri Apr 14
7pm - buy
tix Fri Apr 14
9pm - buy
tix Sat Apr 15
9pm - buy
tix Sun Apr 16
5pm - buy
tix Fri Apr 21
9pm - buy
tix Tues Apr 25
9pm - buy
tix Weds Apr 26
9pm - buy
tix
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"A
great film and one destined for cult status" Rob Corddry * Rob Riggle * Paul Scheer * Rob Huebel * Ed Helms SXSW
Audience Award for Best 'Narrative' Feature Second place is first place for losers! "Gentlemen, and Canadians, may I have your attention please. . ." June 12th, 1993, the darkest day in paintball history. It was the day that Bobby Dukes cheated! While leading his team to their unprecedented fourth consecutive victory Bobby was shot. Desperate to stay in the game, Bobby intentionally wiped the paint from his jersey, thus committing paintball's most heinous crime -- "wiping." Banned from the game and rejected by the paintball community, Bobby disappeared in disgrace. Ten years later, the ban lifted, a well-traveled and mature Bobby is back to prove himself on the field that made him famous. To his dismay, he finds that no one will play with him. To them, he still is and always will be a cheater. Assembling a team of misfits, Bobby is determined to win back his title and his soul. Rob
Corddry interviews: Back-handed compliments: "Intermittently
amusing."
"Plays out in a string of sketches that gently prick the "Loose,
scruffy charm" "That
the film appears to have been made for roughly the same price as a New
York City dinner for two greatly enhances its off-beat charm." "Moderately
amusing." "The
performances are surprisingly good." |
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MANHATTAN very good 35mm print (dir. Woody Allen,
1979, 96 mins) Fri Apr 14
11:30pm - buy
tix
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Woody Allen * Diane Keaton * Michael Murphy * Mariel Hemingway * Meryl Streep Woody Allen finished his first decade of filmmaking, the 1970s, with one of his greatest and most deliberately artistic films, the love song to his home city MANHATTAN. Allen plays Isaac Davis, another one of his thinly veiled self-portraits, who finds himself suffering from a mid-life crisis. Unhappy in his career as a variety show comedy writer and newly divorced from a woman who has since come out as a lesbian, Isaac waffles between two relationships: that with emotionally honest and open, but far too young, Tracy (Mariel Hemingway in an Academy Award nominated performance) and with pseudo-intellectual, neurotic Mary (Diane Keaton). Allen uses these two women to contrast the naiveté and lack of pretension of youth with the growing cynicism of middle age. Although
the acting and writing is some of the sharpest of Allen's filmmaking career,
what is truly memorable and endearing about MANHATTAN is its romantic
view of New York. Whereas the character relationships in the film are
largely dysfunctional and fueled by a vision of perfection, by contrast
the city itself is envisioned by Allen as an object of perfection. In
order to create aesthetically pleasing images of the city, Allen and his
longtime cinematographer Gordon Willis decided to shoot the film in black
and white and in the 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, the first time that Allen
had used either format. The images are backed by the songs of quintessential
New York composer George Gershwin, setting a tone of romanticism and grandeur
that underlies Isaac's (and Allen's) inherent dissatisfaction with the
mundane aspects of his life. The magnificence of the city of New York
is the backdrop to the search for a similar splendor in human relationships
in MANHATTAN. |
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Jim Carrey is THE CABLE GUY (dir. Ben Stiller, 1996, 96 mins) |
There's No Such Thing as Free Cable Jim Carrey * Matthew Broderick * Leslie Mann * Jack Black When
Steven Kovacs orders cable TV for his apartment, he has no idea how much
he'll regret it. That's because the installer sent to his home is Chip
Douglas, a lonely, lisping, parasitic geek, who just might be psychotic.
Chip immediately bonds with vulnerable milquetoast Steve -- and then refuses
to leave him alone. Chip's wild behavior proceeds to make his victim's
life a living hell, and even jeopardizes Steve's attempt to reconcile
with his girlfriend. How
far will Chip go... and will Steve ever put his foot down? |
Comedy Fortnight Rocketboom: Amanda Congdon and Andrew Baron in person! Thurs Apr 20 7pm - buy tix |
Join
host Amanda Congdon and director Andrew Baron for an offbeat selection
of clips from the internet phenomenon that is ROCKETBOOM, a wacky and
smart three minute daily videoblog based in New York City. Rocketboom
covers and comments upon a wide range of information and commentary, ranging
from top news stories to quirky internet culture.
Rocketboom is currently one of the most popular videoblogs on the internet with more daily subscribers for original syndicated multimedia content than nearly any other site, including podcasts. |
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LOVE AND DEATH archival 35mm print (dir. Woody Allen, 1975, 85 mins) |
Woody Allen * Diane Keaton * Georges Adet The bridge between Woody Allen's early slapstick satires and his later romantic comedies and dramas, LOVE AND DEATH is also a broad parody of his numerous influences. The film tells the tale of Boris Grushenko (the filmmaker himself), a cowardly Russian who miraculously survives the Napoleonic Wars only to discover that his heroism does nothing to advance his romantic prospects with his philosophical cousin Sonia (Diane Keaton). Her convoluted reasoning dictates that the pair of them must attempt to assassinate the French dictator, a proposal Boris agrees to in the hopes that he will finally win Sonia's love through the act. The contrast between Sonia's analytical mind and Boris's lustful one provides Allen with numerous opportunities to joke about gender differences, but it is the multiple parodies of both literature and film that drive LOVE AND DEATH's comedic narrative. The
most obvious target in the film is Russian literature: many jokes are
built around the blend of fatalistic philosophy, historical narratives,
and complex familial and character relationships that characterize novels
by such authors as Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy (the most obvious
source for the film being his WAR AND PEACE). However, the filmmakers
that have influenced Allen are also parodied; themes and even shots are
taken directly from the work of Ingmar Bergman and Sergei Eisenstein.
The musical score is assembled from compositions by Prokofiev, who wrote
the scores for Eisenstein's later sound films, which were also heavily
affected by Russian literature and history. Finally, the quick-witted,
under-the-radar verbal hijinks in the film (like in other Allen films)
bear the mark of the Marx Brothers, perhaps the most famous Jewish comedians
aside from Allen himself. Although LOVE AND DEATH is not among the most
well-known of Allen's comedies, there are few films that lay bare the
influences of a master filmmaker as readily as this. |
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MON ONCLE (dir. Jacques Tati, 1958, 116 mins) 35mm print Mon Apr 24 6:30pm - buy tix |
Jacques Tati's second feature film and first film in color reintroduces his hilarious Chaplinesque alter ego, M. Hulot. After having followed Hulot on his sun-drenched, foible-filled seaside vacation in MR. HULOT'S HOLIDAY, MON ONCLE finds Tati contrasting Hulot's bohemian provincial home life with the modern, contraption-filled concrete and glass home belonging to his sister and her family, the Arpels, where Hulot's nephew, Gerard, is drowning in boredom. When Hulot comes for a visit, the gadgets get the better of him, in a seamless spectacle of electric switches, slamming doors and malfunctioning accoutrements. Tati shuttles back and forth between Hulot's quaint home of friendly, if mischievous neighbors and music filled provincial café's and the Arpel's surreal and cold ultra modern lifestyle, creating an evocative and whimsical contrast that Tati would develop further in his future masterpieces, PLAYTIME and TRAFFIC. When Mr. Arpel contrives to secure Hulot a position at his rubber tubing factory, Mrs. Arpel simultaneously conspires to fix him up with an eccentric neighbor, Hulot's clumsy and gullible nature lead him into myriad tangles with the Arpels modern lifestyle, climaxing in an intricately absurd garden party. |
Pioneer Theater
