SFIndiefest 2011: 'Gabi on the Roof in July'

This film took me completely by surprise. It's straight out of left-field, totally, rigorously unlike ordinary films, ie. the micro-managed top-down productions we usually see. John Cassavetes comes to mind, updated to 2010 and populated with a lot of people we recognize if we have lived in New York or San Francisco, young, talented, arty people who are devoting their energies to self-expression without having first developed much self-awareness or responsibility. Twenty year-old 'feminist' artist and Oberlin College student Gabi visits with her older, slightly more established artist brother Sam for a summer in New York and ignites, through a series of provocative gestures, a state of ever-more inflamed and contradictory relations between relatives, friends, lovers, ex-lovers, roommates, freeloaders, and others. But the action is not strictly scripted, so everything just develops normally, with the right amount of levity, hesitation, bravado, and release, meandering through uncharted terrain in loosely connected chapters that reflect the episodic character of ordinary life. As director (and co-writer, actor) Lawrence Michael Levine explains in his statement for the film, he has collaborated with (co-producer, editor, actor) Sophia Takal and others to make something closer in feel to a jazz-combo performance, in which the ensemble creates and interprets together, seeking the unexpected, the extraordinary, the miracles only a well-prepared combo can play. Characters are based on real people - probably Levine and friends, only moved over a couple of inches from the film to the visual art world - and the script is developed through ongoing improvisations that deliver a product so authentic it makes even traditional verite techniques like hand-held camera etc. seem contrived.

Youthful, experimental ventures like this can be associated with dodgy production values, but there's no evidence of that here - Gabi is transparently produced, lucid and elegant; the sound in particular is perfect - we hear the whole galaxy of exhalations that go into the experience of a real conversation. The acting is stellar as well. This is no bunch of amateurs coming together in unschooled defiance of professional norms. They are clever, provocative, imaginative artists with rich backgrounds in fringe, off-Broadway and indie-film work (with a lot of Columbia graduates in the mix) and their fresh approach is clearly grounded in the familiarity with conventions that effective subversion requires. Gems like this are few and far between (though Levine lists ten of them made in 2010 alone, see his blog), so don't miss this one's single showing at the Roxie, February 5th as part of SFIndiefest.