Sundance

I think that Dan’s going to write a post as well, but “Sugar” is such a rich film there’s plenty to write about, and I’m eager to share my delight with this film. What I love about Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck‘s films is that they find ways to externalize internal struggles. Unlike most films, […]

There is no film I’m more pleased and proud to see here at Sundance than “Trouble the Water,” directed by Rooftop’s neighbors and friends Carl Deal and Tia Lessin. Dan and I first saw a rough cut of this film about a year ago and the material was so powerful and the story so compelling […]

“Made in America” is a radical film about the history of African-Americans in the infamous neighborhood of South Central, Los Angeles. The film outlines the early migrations of former slaves to Los Angeles, and discusses the post-WWII boom of skilled industrial careers which brought large numbers of blacks to LA for the first time. But […]

Rooftop showed Chris Waitt‘s humorous narrative short “Dupe” a couple years ago, so I was very eager to check out his debut feature. The slick short starred Chris as an extremely lazy hipster who orders off the internet a cloning machine (that looks like an crappy old photocopier) so he can send his dupes off […]

Jay and Mark Duplass’ “Baghead” is a miraculous film that succeeds in two genres for one simple reason: the characters are amazing. Four struggling actors–two guys and two girls–head off to a cabin in the woods to write a screenplay in the hopes that it will launch their careers. But flirtations, lust, jealousy, competitiveness and […]

Katrina Browne can trace her family’s history back to the early American colonial days . . . back when they ran one of the largest slave trade operations in the world. What do you do with knowledge like that? It’s been at least 140 years since anyone in your family owned or traded other human […]

Sunday, January 20, 6:30 PMMonday, January 21, 6:30PMSundance New Frontier on Main333 Main St. (Lower Level) Animation with live music by CalifoneFREE Brent Green is the closest thing I’ve got to a religion. His animations, performed with live scores, with Brent shrieking out the stories, scare the hell out of me, and fill me with […]

The film world migration to Utah is underway, but my journey is hung-up. On my trip out here, I’ve run into director Gabe Rhodes (August in the Empire State, co-directed by long-time Rooftop collaborator Michael Galinsky) and video artist / Rooftop Alum Seth Price, but neither were going to Sundance. Good for them. Because meanwhile, […]

Rooftop’s core artistic staff (Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Dan Nuxoll and Genevieve DeLaurier) will be out in Park City this week, supporting our alumnae filmmakers (see below), scouting for new work, hanging out with filmmakers, festival programmers, funders and friends, and doing what we love best–watching great films. If you’re going to be out there, drop […]

Do you ever look at the people around you and think, “My friends are doing pretty amazing stuff”? That’s the way I think we all feel at Rooftop Films right now. Entering our 12th year, the community of filmmakers who have shown work at Rooftop now numbers over 1,400, and the films they are making […]