Independent Film

Like the film itself, this story has (in its own way) a happy ending. As you probably read in my other posts below, Benh Zeitlin–the director of “Glory at Sea,” a miraculous short film that Rooftop co-funded–was in a brutal car accident the day of his first screening at SXSW. He’s doing much better now, […]

Is Barry Jenkins‘ “Medicine for Melancholy” the first African-American “Mumblecore” movie? Hell yeah! And, uh, maybe not. Jenkins’ engaging and entertaining low-budget love story certainly fits many of Mumblecore’s thematic ideas, and premiered at SXSW, the cauldron that supposedly brewed the movement. The film takes place over the course of one dreamy day, from the […]

GO SEE “GLORY AT SEA!” A few days ago, I posted below about “Glory at Sea!” a short film directed by Benh Zeitlin of Court 13 Productions. It’s a movie that Rooftop Films partially funded, and which is an amazing, uplifting, collaborative project, a mythical narrative about a community (set in post-Katrina New Orleans) coming […]

The pleasure of “The Pleasure of Being Robbed” is the joy of discovering a bag full of kittens (and watching them playfully flip through the air); the bliss of an unexpected overnight road trip with a friend; the warmth of a frolic with a polar bear. Josh Safdie’s film is filled with a carefree awkwardness, […]

In a certain way, this entire review is a spoiler, so if you don’t want to know too much, skip my writings and go see the film. Herein, I don’t really tell you the plot–an exciting and gripping drama–but I do get at the essence of the film.  I highly recommend it. In Daniel Stamm’s […]

Carroll Pickett was a minister in Huntsville, TX–a place best known for its many prisons and high number of executions–when two of his parishioners were taken hostage in an infamous prison riot in 1974. He was called in to try to broker peace, but his friends were eventually killed, and Pickett vowed to never return […]

A lot has been written about the South by Southwest Film Festival and their support of the Austin film community and the “Mumblecore” movement. Personally, I love the idea of indie filmmakers bonding, working together, supporting each other. You can say that the importance of the those scenes is blown out of proportion, and that […]

As I wrote the other day, Rooftop Films and IFP are proud to be working together to support all aspects of independent film–from exhibition all the way back through production. IFP does an admirable job at helping films get made, and have an outstanding track record of bringing fantastic films through their Labs. And when […]

One of the most beautiful shows Rooftop Films ever hosted was our 2007 edition of Dark ‘Toons. The astonishing animator Brent Green showed his films and played live music with Brooklyn locals The Quavers. They are a band whose sound and focus is very much in line with Rooftop–quiet and surprisingly intricate songs about drifting […]

Rooftop Films is more than a film festival–we are a community, and we aim to provide more than just a screening for our filmmakers. Obviously, we want to have their films seen by new, large audiences at our shows, but we also want to help the films be seen elsewhere–at other festivals, on our TV […]