Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund
ROOFTOP ALUMS AT SUNDANCE
Wednesday, December 3, 2008 | 4:41 PM
Sundance announced their films in competition today, and we're proud to say that there are three Rooftop Films alums in competition. With over 9,000 submissions, it's a pretty great honor for these filmmakers. The films are:
• Humpday
(Director and Screenwriter: Lynn Shelton)
A farcical comedy about straight male bonding gone a little too far. Cast: Mark Duplass, Joshua Leonard, Alycia Delmore, Lynn Shelton, Trina Willard. World Premiere.
Lynn's narrative film My Effortless Brilliance played at Rooftop in 2008, and is now available on pay-per-view from IFC.
(Star and director, pictured left.)
• Toe to Toe
(Director and Screenwriter: Emily Abt)
The story of an inter-racial friendship put to the test by the intense pressures of a competitive Washington, D.C. prep school. Cast: Sonequa Martin, Louisa Krause, Silvestre Rasuk, Leslie Uggams, Gaius Charles, Ally Walker. World Premiere.
Emily screened her film Take It From Me at Rooftop in 2000--before the internet!
• William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe
(Directors: Sarah Kunstler & Emily Kunstler)
With clients including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Chicago 10, the late civil rights attorney William Kunstler was one of the most famous lawyers of the 20th century. Filmmakers Emily and Sarah Kunstler explore their father's life from movement hero to "the most hated lawyer in America." World Premiere.
Sarah and Emily (pictured above, with their father), producer/director/activists at Off-Center Media, had three shorts play at Rooftop in 2002-4: A Pattern of Exclusion: The Trial of Thomas Miller-el; Tulia, TX: Scenes from the Drug War; Getting Through to the President. They were also some of the earliest recipients of support from the Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund.
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We're also pleased to see these friends on the roster:
• The Glass House (Director: Hamid Rahmanian)--The Glass House follows four teenage girls striving to overcome drug addiction, abandonment and abuse by attending a rehabilitation center in Tehran. North American Premiere.
• Dare (Director: Adam Salky; Screenwriter: David Brind)--Three very different teenagers discover that, even in the safe world of a suburban prep school, no one is who she or he appears to be. Cast: Emmy Rossum, Zach Gilford, Ashley Springer, Ana Gasteyer, Alan Cumming, Sandra Bernhard, Rooney Mara. World Premiere.
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Lastly, our heartfelt condolences go out to all the filmmaker alums and friends who didn't get in. There's lots of other festivals out there . . . including Rooftop! Submit your films for Rooftop's 2009 Summer Series, and good luck to all, at Sundance and beyond.
AN EVENING WITH DON HERTZFELDT!
WED., NOV. 19TH AT THE IFC CENTER.
Monday, November 17, 2008 | 11:46 AM
AN EVENING WITH DON HERTZFELDT:
Wednesday, November 19 at 7:00, 9:15 and 11:15pm at IFC Center.
Don Hertzfedlt comes to New York's IFC Center on Wednesday, November 19th to present three screenings of his work. The highlight of the program is the New York premiere of I AM SO PROUD OF YOU, the sequel to his Sundance winning short Everything Will Be Ok.
I AM SO PROUD OF YOU was funded in part by the Rooftop Filmmakers Fund.
Tickets are on sale now and quickly selling out - $15 general admission/$12 for IFC Center members. You can purchase tickets on the IFC Center website.
ABOUT THE SCREENING: An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt, a special event with the Academy Award-nominated animator in person to present the New York premiere of his newest film, takes place Wednesday, November 19 at 7:00, 9:15 and 11:15pm at IFC Center. Mr. Hertzfeldt will screen his latest, I AM SO PROUD OF YOU, featuring his trademark hand-drawn animation, along with a selection of his earlier films. The evening also includes a on-stage interview and Q&A session with the audience.
Hertzfeldt's longest piece to date, I AM SO PROUD OF YOU is the eagerly anticipated second chapter to Everything Will Be OK, which screened at Rooftop Films on Opening Night 2007, was the winner of the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Award in Short Filmmaking and was named by many critics as one of the "best films of 2007." Like all of Hertzfeldt's films, I AM SO PROUD OF YOU was single-handedly animated and photographed by hand without the use of computers. It was shot entirely on an antique 35mm animation stand, one of the last remaining cameras of its kind left in America. The film's special effects were meticulously created directly on film, using traditional double exposures, in-camera mattes, and innovative experimental techniques. The 22-minute film was nearly two years in the making.
Mr. Hertzfeldt's appearance at IFC Center is part of a national tour, with additional screenings scheduled for Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, Seattle and other cities. Find out more at http://www.bitterfilms.com/
ABOUT THE ROOFTOP FILMMAKERS FUND: Rooftop Films commits $1 of every ticket sold and every film submission fee to fund new productions, an innovative approach to the exhibition/production cycle which uses the support of our community to produce dynamic films. This year, Rooftop Films screened a number of films we co-funded, including Jay Hodges and PJ Raval's documentary Trinidad, Benh Zeitlin's award-winning short film Glory at Sea, a post-Katrina shipwreck epic; and an excerpt from Fabio Wuytack's upcoming feature Persona Non Grata, about his father, a radical left-wing missionary working in Venezuela in the 1970s. I AM SO PROUD OF YOU will likely screen outdoors as part of the 2009 Summer Series (dates announced in the spring).
In 2007-8, Rooftop Films gave away over $12,000 in cash and more than $10,000 in services to help produce work by filmmakers whose works have shown with Rooftop Films previously.
Read more about the fund HERE.
COURT 13 PRODUCTIONS ("GLORY AT SEA")
MAKE VIDEOS FOR OBAMA
Tuesday, November 4, 2008 | 2:32 PM
Many of the filmmakers from Court 13 Productions, the team behind the amazing Rooftop-co-funded film Glory At Sea, have been working for Barack Obama's campaign for months. I can't think of a better group of artists to craft inspirational films with a poignant social message.
Check out a couple short samples of their work. If this doesn't make you weep with hope and joy, and get out of your seat to help change America, I don't know what will:
Rooftop Films is immensely proud to have supported filmmakers doing such honorable work. Want more? Check out another wonderful video on Obama's website and his YouTube page.
Although the election is just a day away, there's still time to volunteer for Obama (or any other candidate, since we're legally required to be non-partisan). Keep in mind, in 2004, as late as November 2, John Kerry was leading in many polls. And in 2000, it was a mere 537 votes in Florida that separated Bush and Gore. Although the election may look decided, it could be crucial for you to go to a swing state to knock on doors or drive people to the polls, or just call voters from your home.
Don't wake up on November 5 and regret you didn't help more.
ROOFTOP WEEKEND RECAP - June 12-14
3 SOLD-OUT SHOWS
Monday, June 16, 2008 | 10:33 AM
The First Annual Rooftop Panorama a huge success
Rooftop Films is more than a film festival--we are a community, a collaboration between filmmakers and audience members, between movies, venues and neighborhoods. We not only screen films outdoors; we also foster collaborations by renting equipment, teach filmmaking to young people at partner schools, and co-produce new films through The Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund. But because our festival runs through five months (weekends and more from May 31-September 27), as opposed to many that last a weekend or a week, there's not always the same opportunity for filmmakers, distributors, critics, and audience members to come together all at the same time.
Hence the creation of Rooftop Panorama, three days of screenings, panel discussions, live music, parties and more, as an opportunity to showcase all that we do and bring together the diverse communities we serve. Would it work?
With dozens of filmmakers in attendance, write-ups in publications from IndieWire and Variety to TK, and over 2,000 audience members in one weekend, Rooftop Panorama turned out to be one of the most successful weekends in Rooftop's 12 year history.
THURSDAY, JUNE 12
Making the Mission--a program full of films that, in both content and execution, know that taking a risk is sometimes just as important as the thing you're risking--drew 650 people to Automotive High School, and filmmakers William Lamson, Zachary Treitz, Dana O'Keefe and Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund recipient Benh Zeitlin were in attendance for a lively Q & A and an extended after-party at Matchless Bar, with free drinks courtesy of Radeberger Pilsner.
FRIDAY, JUNE 13
With the 20-year anniversary of the Tompkins Square Park riots coming up this summer, Rooftop was thrilled to host the World Premiere of Captured, a powerful and exciting documentary about Clayton Patterson, the riots and the gentrification of the Lower East Side. It's a key part of Rooftop's mission to show films about specific communities in the very neighborhoods they're covering, and this screening on a graffiti-covered roof in the LES demonstrated the persuasive power of that symbiotic relationship.
Former Mayor Ed Koch and former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern came to the show, despite being portrayed in a relatively negative light in the film, joining an astonishing 1,150 other people who formed one of the most raucous and enthusiastic crowds we've ever had at Rooftop. For a generation accused of being apathetic, the throngs at this show were clearly invigorated by the dynamic and rebellious recent history represented in the film. And with dozens of distributors in attendance for this world premiere, it's possible that because of the Rooftop premiere the film will reach an even wider audience soon.
SATURDAY, JUNE 14
Rooftop Films teamed up with IndiePix and Shooting People to host our first ever panel discussions, covering topics that are key to Rooftop's mission: Cinema and Social Justice and The Art of the Short Film. The esteemed panelists were Ryan Harrington (Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund); Simon Kilmurry (Executive Director of POV); Esther Robinson (director, A Walk Into the Sea; Founder of Art Home), and Katy Chevigny (Director, Election Day; Co-Founder of Arts Engine), Benh Zeitlin (Filmmaker, Glory at Sea); Duana Butler (Filmmaker, Curator of ReelNY); Signe Baumane (animator, Veterinarian and Teat Beat of Sex), and Casimir Nozkowski (the man who has shown more short films at Rooftop than any other)
The two lively discussions offered ranged from useful information on the state of funding for documentaries to comic information on the state of workaholism among short film animators. Despite a day of rain, it was our third sold-out show of the weekend, and an astonishing conclusion to the first annual Rooftop Panorama.
Check out Sara Zia Ibrahimi's Cusps from the Saturday night show, "INDUSTRIANCE: Eminent Domain.". The film gave us the subtitle for the show--"Films about Communities on the Cusp"--and encapsulates the thesis of the program.
CUSPS
(Sara Zia Ibrahimi | 14:28 | Documentary)
Paralleling changes in the city of Philadelphia with those in her own life, Iranian-American filmmaker Sara Zia Ebrahimi explores her experiences living as an urban nomad.
ROSWELL
(Bill Brown | 19:17 | Documentary)
Thursday, June 5, 2008 | 3:08 AM
In this action-packed experimental documentary, Bill Brown drifts through New Mexico trying to find out what caused that lonely spacecraft to crash land in a tiny town in the American desert half a century ago.
Bill has been one of Rooftop Films' favorite filmmakers for years. He covers an astonishing and amusingly diverse range of topics--including aliens from outerspace (here in Roswell) and aliens from across the border (in The Other Side)--with an low-fi aesthetic and an extremely personal touch. It's really a thrill to have unique and thoughtful film art like this online.
Two whole DVDs of Bill's work are onsale now: Homeland Insecurity and The Next Best Place.
Through the Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund, we recently gave a grant to Bill's newest film, Cumberland, which he calls "a landscape film about torture." Bill will be reconstructing the lives of the 7 members of the 372 Military Police Company who were convicted of abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. "I am interested how in a global economy, a small American town is an extension of the global marketplace, and how in a global war on terror, it is an extension of the battlefield. I hope to understand a little better how seven representatives of America's battered working class came to bear the responsibility for the failure of America's foreign policy and moral authority."
Everyone should also check out Bill's amazing, handwritten travel zine Dream Whip, and his nostalgic novel about a long lost Los Angeles, Saugus to the Sea.
DEVIL'S TEETH
(Roger Teich | 8:30 | Documentary)
Monday, May 19, 2008 | 4:37 PM
A Rooftop Films co-production.
A film about Ron Elliot, the only sea urchin diver who works the Farallon Islands, even though he regularly encounters enormous sharks. Made possible in part by a grant from the Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund.
