Davy Rothbart

Davy Rothbart
Davy Rothbart at Wheeler Park, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Background information
Birth name	David Ira Rothbart
Born	April 11, 1975 (1975-04-11) (age 36)
Origin	Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States of America
Occupations	Author, Filmmaker, Journalist
Website	Found Magazines's official site

Davy Rothbart (born April 11, 1975) is an author, filmmaker, contributor to This American Life, and the editor/publisher of Found Magazine.

Background

Davy Rothbart's magazine Found is dedicated to discarded notes, letters, flyers, photos, lists, and drawings found and sent in by readers. The magazine spawned a best-selling book, Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World, published in April 2004. A second collection was published in May 2006, a third in May 2009. The magazine is published annually and co-edited by Rothbart's friend Jason Bitner.

Rothbart, a former Chicago Bulls ticket scalper,^[1] often tours the country to share finds and invite others to share their finds with him. His brother, musician Peter Rothbart, often accompanies him on these tours. In 2004, as he was on a nationwide tour to promote the Found book, he appeared twice on the television program The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS.

The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas, a collection of Rothbart's short-stories, was published in August 2005 by Simon & Schuster. A shorter version of the same book was previously self-published by Rothbart's own production company, 21 Balloons Productions (named after Rothbart's favorite book, The 21 Balloons, by William Pène du Bois). An Italian edition, Il Surfista Solitario del Montana, was published in 2007 by Coniglio Editore. In 2008, actor Steve Buscemi optioned the book for film adaption, to be developed by Olive Productions; Buscemi has written the screenplay and plans to direct.

When Fred Rogers of the PBS television program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood died in February 2003, the New York Times ran an Op-Ed by Rothbart about his childhood encounters with Rogers similar to his story on This American Life. Rothbart also writes for GQ, The Believer, SLAM Magazine, Maxim, Polite, and The Sun, and has a recurring column on Grantland.

In December 2006, Geffen Records released Rothbart's documentary film How We Survive about the punk rock band Rise Against on a DVD called Generation Lost. His second Rise Against documentary, Another Station: Another Mile, which follows the band as they write songs for a new album and perform shows around the world, was released in October 2010. In May, 2011, Rothbart directed a behind-the-scenes featurette for ItGetsBetter.org about the making of Rise Against's "Make It Stop" video, which was nominated for a MTV Video Music Award. Rothbart and Rise Against lead singer Tim McIlrath are former roommates.

In the spring of 2008, Easier With Practice, a film based on an article Rothbart wrote for GQ about his life on tour, was shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The movie, written and directed by Kyle Alvarez, stars Brian Geraghty (The Hurt Locker) as Davy and Kel O'Neill as Davy's brother; it premiered June 12, 2009 at the CineVegas Film Festival and was awarded the Grand Jury Prize. A week later, Easier With Practice premiered internationally at the Edinburgh Film Festival, where it won the prize for Best Feature. In December 2009, Easier With Practice was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards. The film was released in theaters in February, 2010, and met with great critical success: The Los Angeles Times called Easier With Practice "fresh, flawless, and totally captivating," and The Village Voice praised the film as "emotionally honest and achingly true."

In January 2009, Rothbart filmed his first full-length narrative feature, Overhaul, which stars rapper Daniel "D Shot" Garvatt as a pizza driver in desperate circumstances on New Year's Eve. Rothbart himself delivered for Bell's Pizza in Ann Arbor, Michigan for six years. Overhaul is scheduled to be released in 2012.

Rothbart is also the subject of a documentary, directed by David Meiklejohn, called My Heart Is An Idiot, which premiered in April 2011, and screened in twenty U.S. cities that spring.

Rothbart is the founder of Washington II Washington, an annual hiking adventure which brings inner-city kids from Washington, D.C. and Southeast Michigan to New Hampshire for a climb to the top of Mt. Washington. He directs the Found Magazine Prison Pen-Pal Program, connecting Found readers on the outside with those behind bars, and is also active with the youth writing programs 826 National, 826michigan, and 826LA.

A graduate of the alternative Community High School and the University of Michigan, Rothbart lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Los Angeles, California.

Radio

Davy Rothbart's stories were featured on the following episodes of This American Life:

• 184 – Neighbors
• 212 – The Other Man
• 224 – Middlemen
• 239 – Lost in America
• 262 – Miracle Cures
• 306 – Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
• 327 – By Proxy

External links

• Found Magazine
• 21 Balloons Productions
• Washington II Washington
• Davy Rothbart's Op-Ed tribute of Fred Rogers
• Davy Rothbart on The Late Show with David Letterman (Oct. 2004)
• Davy Rothbart on The Late Show with David Letterman (April 2004)
• PopGurls Interview: Davy Rothbart
• Interview on The Sound of Young America (July 2006)
• Podcast of presentation at Pop!Tech 2005
• Heavy In The Streets Interviews Davy Rothbart
• 20 Questions with Davy Rothbart
• Davy Rothbart, My Heart is an Idiot blog on AOL Life & Style
• Davy Rothbart – MIPtalk.com Interview

References

1. ^ Rothbart, Davy. "21 Balloons Productions – This American Life". http://www.21balloons.com/peep-the/projects/tal. Retrieved 2006-12-28. 

Persondata
Name	Rothbart, Davy
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 11, 1975
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Date of death
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