FiPS Cares: Local Filmmakers Need Cashmoneyhos

A few years back, a Park Slope resident named Dan, who works for local grassroots organization ROOFTOP FILMS, had a strange run-in with a woman who jumped ship on a bill for some movie equipment that he rented to her. Dan attempted to track the felonious woman down, but she had seemingly vanished. If I were Dan, I probably would have cried and made some declarative statement about karma, and that would have been the end of it. But Dan did some research on this woman and learned that he was not the only one she had foiled. Other men and women have suffered heartache, broken promises and unpaid debt at the hands of the same thief. Dan unearthed some pretty wild stories about the conwoman, and eventually made a documentary about it. He was even able to interview the theiving woman who started it all.

Here's the story:

Four years ago, a woman who said her name was Marie Castaldo called us up, saying she ran something called the Queens International Film Festival. She rented some equipment from Rooftop and ran up a bill of $2650, but immediately after the fest she disappeared and never paid us a dime. We tracked her down, and she made up some excuses and disappeared again, and we thought that was the end of the story. 

But a year later, she accidentally invited me to the next iteration of the film festival, and when I called her up and questioned her on the phone, she threatened to sue me for libel and slander and said that if I ever appeared at the festival, there would be men…large men…who would make me regret it for the rest of my life.

Shocked (and admittedly somewhat intrigued) by the encounter, I began looking further into the life of Ms. Castaldo, and I soon encountered many others who had grievances with the enigmatic festival president. Further research led me to discover that Marie had gone by many different names in many different cities, and that at every step along the way there had been unpaid bills, broken promises, bankruptcies, scandals, jilted lovers, lies, multiple aliases, allegations of fraud, shattered lives and more bizarre stories than you could possibly imagine. There was even a THIS AMERICAN LIFE story made about one of the scandals that she and her ex-husband had been involved with in upstate New York. 

All of this seemed to come to an end after we exposed Marie in the press via a truly bizarre segment on ARNOLD DIAZ'S FOX 5 NEWS SHAME SHAME SHAME SEGMENT. Soon thereafter Marie was arrested for multiple crimes, including fraud, petty larceny, and 47 counts of animal cruelty (as I said…it's a long story). Marie pled guilty to many of her crimes, paid back Rooftop, and was deported back to France, most likely to never return. 

As Martha and I uncovered so many wild stories, we realized this story would make an amazing documentary. For the last two years we have been following up on leads and interviewing people who have encountered Marie. But our biggest catch to date has been Marie herself—last October we flew to London to interview her for four full days in a blacked out flat near Battersea Park. 

The interviews were great, but now we have a LOT more to do, and unfortunately, documentaries cost money to make. To help raise the funds we need to move to the next level of production, we have launched a Kickstarter campaign and are trying to raise enough to keep the project going. 

Look, if we donated to every Kickstarter campaign that came our way we'd be broke. I get that. But if you've attended even one Rooftop Film over the past 15 years, think of this as a great way to say thank you! Plus, Dan's a Slope resident, and we have to look out for our own, right? DONATE A LITTLE, DONATE A LOT, spread the word on various Social Media networks -- do whatever you can!