STAFF
Kate Gellene, Head of Operations
Kate (she/her) joined the Rooftop Films team as an intern in the fall of 2011 and wore many hats before heading the operations department in 2014—including event management, fundraising & membership, and social media. Born and raised in New Jersey, Kate studied Cinema Studies with a minor in French at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. During the summer, Kate can (occasionally) be found making your drink at the after-party. Or at the beach.
Saidah Russell, Head of Programming
Saidah (she/her) joined the Rooftop Films team in 2022 and previously worked full time in film exhibition at an arthouse theater in Westchester, NY. She has experience working on screening committees for several festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival, and Indie Memphis Film Festival. She is the Director of Programming for the TIDE Film Festival, an emerging Brooklyn-based festival dedicated to showcasing work by filmmakers of color.
Kristen Kelley Rand, Head of Marketing and Communications
Originally from just north of Boston, Kristen (she/her) is an actress and writer who earned her bachelor’s at New York University’s Gallatin School, where—pursuing as well-rounded an arts education possible—she designed her own interdisciplinary program marrying the studies of performance, production, and marcom. She came to Rooftop following tenure at Universal Pictures, W Magazine, and inside the halls of the McKittrick Hotel with Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More. She credits her maternal gram (and Julia Roberts) with helping shape her into the rom-com savant she is today, and firmly believes you should eliminate the term “guilty pleasure” from your vocabulary if you haven’t already.
Langston Sanchez, Head of Technical Operations
Langston (he/him) is a media technician and event producer who strives to combine a DIY ethos with seamless production to create high-quality, accessible events in his native New York City. After graduating from Hampshire College with a B.A. in Film and Video Art, Langston’s work has spanned both production and media education, with experience at institutions such as the Cooper Union, Apollo Theater, DOC NYC, Maysles Documentary Center, and the Sundance Film Festival. When not working alongside his team, Langston attempts to strike a balance between chronically online and blissfully unaware.
Isabella Jackson, Programmer
Isabella (she/her) is a writer and dancer from a tiny town in Pennsylvania. She came to New York to study Dance and Film at The New School, and went on to get her MFA in Screenwriting from Brooklyn College. She’s passionate about independent filmmaking, having worked in and around the industry since 2014 with IFP, The Hamptons International Film Festival, Montclair Film Festival, NewFest, and DOCNYC. Outside of festivals, she works in TV as a Writer’s Assistant and Script Coordinator. In the world, you can find her listening to disco, writing strange stories, or watching a campy horror flick.
Hilina Kidane, Programmer
Hilina (she/her) began with Rooftop Films as Volunteer Coordinator before joining the programming team. She’s worked across a number of film festivals and is currently full-time at the New York International Children’s Film Festival, where she supports youth-enrichment programs.
Darby Puckett, Programmer
Darby (she/her) is an actress and filmmaker from Virginia Beach, VA. She started at Rooftop as an intern, and that’s when the addiction to watching short films began. Aside from film watching, she’s usually training for a random half marathon, memorizing lines, or dream-casting Broadway musicals.
Mariales Diaz, Programming Assistant
Mariales Diaz (they/them) is a gender-expansive Dominican writer, director, producer, and programmer living in New York. Their storytelling explores experiences that exist at the intersection of survival and love. Diaz has worked on the production and post-archival teams at companies such as Pilgrim Media Group, Religion of Sports, HBO Max, and Proximity Media. They are a graduate of the SUNY Purchase Film Conservatory and a 2024 Sundance Institute Trans Possibilities Fellow. They also have participated in fellowships and artist programs such as Film at Lincoln Center’s Artist Academy, Sundance Ignite, Creative Culture at The Jacob Burns Film Center, and NeXt Doc.
C. “Meaks” Meaker, Venue Manager
Meaks (they/them) is a writer whose work often explores queerness, monstrosity, and the end of the world. Their plays have been performed and developed across the United States, including the Kennedy Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre, San Francisco Playhouse, Annex Theatre in Seattle, and About Face in Chicago. They are a Stranger Award Genius Nominee and Gregory Award Outstanding New Play Nominee. They are a former Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center, an alumna of Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Writers Group, and former Walter E. Dakin Fellow at Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Their essay “S(wallow)” won the Editor’s Prize at Porter House Review and they were a Creative Nonfiction Fellow at Lambda Literary. They received an MFA in Playwriting from University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop. When they’re not managing venues for Rooftop, they teach writing at City College of New York.
Madeline Chandler, Volunteer and Local Partnerships Coordinator
Madeline (she/her) does not stop talking about being from Pittsburgh, doing her undergrad at Penn State, and doing her post-grad degrees at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. If you ever want to talk about coffee, hippos or other round animals, ice breakers, or why teen movies are misunderstood, Madeline’s your girl!
Tess Meersman, Festival Assistant
Tess (she/her) is a filmmaker and artist who began working for Rooftop Films in 2024 after graduating from Emerson College with a degree in Film Production and double minor in Gender & Sexuality Studies and Literature. Her work has been featured in the GRRL HAUS Cinema screening series, Revolutions per Minute festival, Huret & Spector Gallery, Karen Aqua Gallery, and the Gravitational Lensing film series. When not at work, you can find her rewatching The X Files or making a collage with her beautiful cat, Hitch.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Chair
Filmmaker, Founder and Former Artistic Director of Rooftop Films
Sara Christoph, Vice Chair
Business Development Manager, Morgan Stanley
Ryan Smith, Treasurer
Managing Director, Piper Sandler
Camille Bernier-Green
Head of Development, A Touch More
Jamie Dennison
Hayden Goldblatt
Jess Jacobs
Kay-B
Entertainment Journalist/Critic/Producer/Host
Adam Kersh
Co-Founder, Fusion Management
Eric Kohn
Evan List
Vice President & Client Advisor, Bernstein Global Wealth Management
Rachel Meierovich
Molly Thompson