Sundance

This week marks the start of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. Join Rooftop Films and our funny, charming alumni-in-attendance as they give you a behind-the-scenes look into the Prom of the Indie Film world.

The 2011 Sundance line-up features 25 Rooftop Alums, more than ever before. Meet the Sundance stars of tomorrow: Buy a Rooftop Films Membership today.

“You’re going to see nipples, you’re going to see butts, you’re going to see a penis — briefly.” Director Bryan Poyser talks about sexuality in indie films, low budget filmmaking and his ties to mumblecore filmmakers.

Vik Muniz is an internationally-acclaimed artist best known for his playful recreations of famous masterpieces using quotidian materials–the peanut butter and jelly Mona Lisa, for example. But coming from a lower class background in Brazil, Muniz is now developing an interest in breaking out of art world gags and doing something more global, more socially significant.

Spanish director Rodrigo Cortes introduced his film Buried thusly: “I am sorry that Ryan Reynolds cannot be here today, because he is much taller and better looking than I am, but I have this accent, which perhaps to you is sexy. This is a film about a man in a coffin. That’s it. And yet you are still here. I don’t know why.”

Rooftop alum Sam Green and Dave Cerf‘s philosophical film essay Utopia in Four Movements swirls brilliantly and casually through cultural history and detritus, through fantasy and forgotten fact. The film hits NYC in October.

Traveling to one of the most isolated countries in the world, making fun of one of the most deadly regimes in history, takes courage and passion, but it should also be terrifying.

Gasland opens on September 15th at the IFC Center in New York City. Learn more about Gasland screenings in your area. When a natural gas mining company offered Josh Fox and his upstate New York neighbors $100,000 each for the right to drill for gas on their land, Fox thought he’d better examine what was […]

For some people, it takes a few days to acclimate to the cold and the altitude of Park City. For me, it takes a few days to acclimate to “normal” life after Sundance and Slamdance. I wake up panicked that I’ve slept through some 8:30am screening. I walk down a busy street confused as to […]

In 1974, Philippe Petit committed one of the world’s greatest “art crimes”: walking across a tightrope strung between the then unfinished World Trade Center towers. It’s a gorgeously ephemeral stunt. Walking some 1,200 feet above the street, Petit was barely visible, and might not have been noticed if not for his own assistants looking up […]