STAFF
Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Founder & Artistic Director
Born and raised in New York City, Mark received his BA at Vassar College and began showing movies on his roof in 1997. Mark has overseen the growth of Rooftop Films from a simple idea into one of the most innovative film companies in the country.
Mark has published articles on filmmaking and programming, and lectured at places such as the Allied Media Conference and the University of Texas. Mark has served on grants panels for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and Renew Media, and serves on the Advisory Council for Fractured Atlas, an arts service organization. Mark has programmed film screenings across the world, and in 2007 Mark served on the short film jury at the Sundance Film Festival.
As a curator and filmmaker in his own right, Mark's taste and work favor low-budget, personal cinema. Mark has shot, directed, and edited dozens of films, and was a producer-editor on the WNYE television show IMNY, where he taught video production to New York City public school students. Mark is also the second baseman for the New York Giants amateur baseball team, and the proud father of a dog named Rizzo.
Dan Nuxoll, Program Director
Dan grew up in Queens and attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, later moving on to Vassar College. Following his return to New York in 1997, Dan co-founded the legendary Peter's Car Corp. on the top floor of the McKibbin Street Lofts in Bushwick. PCC soon became the home of Rooftop Films and for the next 5 years Dan helped to bring hundreds of films to his roof in Brooklyn.
Dan took over as full-time Program Director of Rooftop Films in 2002 and in the past seven flourishing years has watched the film submissions rise to over 2,800 submissions a year. The programming for Rooftop Films has received increasing acclaim over the last years.
Dan is also proud to have helped in Rooftop's search and acquisition of stunning new venues. Negotiating contracts with spaces like El Museo Del Barrio, the Westbeth Community, Historic Harlem Parks, New Design High School, and dozens of other partners, has allowed Rooftop Films to collaborate in revitalizing and invigorating spaces across New York and beyond. He has overseen negotiations with Rooftop's sponsors for the last several years and has used his experience in sound engineering to help promote Rooftop Films technical commitment with its burgeoning rentals arm. He has also served on juries for both Slamdance and SXSW.
On the rare occasions that Dan has time outside of Rooftop, he works as a producer, composer and sound designer for films including the wildly entertaining feature documentary Kiss My Snake.
Genevieve Hsiao-Yung DeLaurier, Managing Director
In the summer of 2007 Genevieve joined Rooftop Films in the brand new position of Managing Director. Her responsibilities include staff management, marketing, public relations, finance and fundraising. Genevieve was raised in Ithaca, NY and attended SUNY Buffalo, graduating with a degree in American Studies and a minor in Dance. Prior to joining Rooftop Films, she spent over ten years in event and program development for a variety of nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. She has volunteered with numerous arts organizations including the Brooklyn Underground Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. A design and crafts junkie, Genevieve enjoys creating and working with textiles, refurbishing old furniture and sewing. She also has a insatiable appetite for books, actually enjoys watching C-SPAN and bakes delicious pastries.
Lauren Faria, Development Director
Lauren joined Rooftop in January, 2009. She has previously worked in development positions at the MacDowell Colony, Creative Capital, and most recently the Prospect Park Alliance. She studied English and Film at Wellesley, and has a Masters in Arts Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University. She hails from Boston, lives in Brooklyn, and loves to cook.
Chris O'Brien , Technical Manager
Chris grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, and graduated from James Madison University with a degree in philosophy. He has been living off and on in New York City since 1998 working as a high school theology teacher, a waiter, an actor, a carpenter, and an office temp. Currently he spends his time not at Rooftop Films working on fiction writing and playing music with his band Boyfriends USA.
Danielle Kourtesis, Music and Outreach Manager
Danielle grew up in Brooklyn, NY. After interning with Rooftop as an undergrad, she joined the team as one of our Music Coordinators. Last summer, Danielle directed and acted in Suzan Lori Park's 365 Plays with the Faux Real Theater Company. Danielle received her BA in Urban Studies from Brown University.
Daisy Rosario, Show Manager
Daisy is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Since she got her degree she has moved back and forth between NYC and Los Angeles, and traveled around the US and internationally to perform comedy, direct theatre, and work various festivals. Obviously, she loves adventure.
Amelia M. Winfree, Sponsorship Coordinator
Amelia has worked in the entertainment industry for 8 years. She has worked as a sales and marketing executive on a number of major film festivals and entertainment events, including the American Black Film Festival, the TNT-aired Black Movie Awards and the NYC-TV-aired Gotham Awards. Her experience also includes serving as Promotion Manager for the theatrical release of One Week, a highly acclaimed independent feature film. Her experience includes securing and managing corporate partners and assisting them with developing strategies to integrate their brands into the films and film-related events.
Chantel Hirter, Festival Coordinator
Chantel recently joined Rooftop Films from Toronto, Ontario where she had been working in the Canadian film and television industry ever since graduating film school in 2004. Chantel has shot various shorts and ultra realist documentaries on super 8mm. She often thinks of developing her film when riding the F train to and from work everyday.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jim Browne
Jim founded Argot Pictures in 2005, an independent film distribution company. He has been programming and producing film and video projects in New York City for the past 20 years. He is one of the producers of Fire Under the Snow, a documentary about Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese government for 33 years. He has been Associate Programmer for the Tribeca Film Festival for the past 3 years.
Bruce Levingston
Pianist Bruce Levingston is one of today's leading figures in contemporary music. Many of the country's most important composers have written works for him including Philip Glass and Pulitzer Prize winners William Bolcom, David Del Tredici, George Perle and Charles Wuorinen. His Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center world premiere performances of their works have won notable critical acclaim. The New Yorker describes him as "elegant and engaging", "a poetic pianist who has a gift for inventive - and glamorous - programming" while The New York Times calls his performances "graceful", "sensuous" and "hauntingly serene." Mr. Levingston is also Artistic Director of the Premiere Commission and has sat on the board of Rooftop Films since 2006. www.premierecommission.org
Catherine Martinez
Catherine was recently appointed the CFO of Downtown Community TV Center, a New York City Film and Video resource since 1972. She returns to DCTV after a 4-year stint as Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Orient-Express, a London-based luxury travel business. As CFO, Catherine oversees the financial operations for DCTV, as well as their production arm, Downtown Docs LLC. Catherine has also worked as a fashion designer, as a “cold-kitchen” Chef at an upscale restaurant in Stockholm, and as a tour guide in Paris. Catherine loves the short film format and has been attending Rooftop films events since 2001.
Casimir Nozkowski, Secretary
Casimir is a writer, director and Internet stuff-maker. The co-creator of the award-winning website www.cryingwhileeating.com, he has written and directed short films, music videos and commercials that have been seen on cable television, online and in festivals around the world. He has been interviewed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, MSNBC and NPR. His work has been featured in Entertainment Weekly, VH1’s Best Week Ever, MADtv, The LA Times, London Times, Slate.com, on IFC, FUSE, AMC and exhibited at the Larissa Goldston Gallery. His films “Ghetto Big Mac” and “First!” were recently featured on the Youtube main video pages. Casimir resides and works in New York City and can be most easily found at www.casimirnozkowski.com
Sarah Palmer, Treasurer
Sarah was the Festival Director of Rooftop Films from 2001 – 2006, as well as the photographer and image archivist for Rooftop from 2000 to the present. She has served as on Rooftop's Board of Directors since 2006. In 2008, she received her MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from School of Visual Arts. She now divides her time between being a photographer and artist and serving as the Photo Editor of Metropolis, an architecture, design, and culture magazine.
Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Chair
Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Rooftop Films.
BOARD ADVISORS
Joshua Breitbart
One of Rooftop's founders, Joshua is now the Policy Director for People's Production House, which teaches immigrants and public school students in New York City to be journalists and media policy experts. He writes a monthly column about media and technology for Gotham Gazette and he is on the board of Allied Media Projects, which hosts the annual Allied Media Conference for organizations like Rooftop Films from across the country. Joshua speaks regularly at industry gatherings, official hearings, public events, and media conferences, often to explain what the people in each place don’t understand about the goings-on at the other places.
Philip Rosenberg
Philip is a retired novelist and screenwriter. He has been involved with Rooftop Films since the very first screening, in part because of his commitment to independent cinema, in part because he is the father of Rooftop co-founder and Artistic Director Mark Elijah Rosenberg. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and their two dogs.
PANORAMA ADVISORS
J. Tad Barnes
Tad is the Director of Outreach and Community Relations at The River Project. He received his B.A. in Sociolinguistics for Public Relations from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in 1996, and his Masters in Public Administration at Columbia University in 2006. Tad has an extensive background in management in the non-profit sector, working for such organizations as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Funders Concerned About Aids, and the NYS Dept. of Health AIDS Institute. Tad has worked in the area of events and promotion for many large corporations, including Diesel, Stussy, Astralwerks and Playboy. Tad sits on the board of the Young Professionals Committee for Big Brothers/Big Sisters New York, and actively promotes and raises funds for the Cooper Bark dog run. Tad helped to bring Rooftop Films to Pier 26 on the Hudson River in 2004-05.
Amy Dotson
Amy is the Producer & Managing Director of Programming for IFP, a 30-year old not-for-profit membership and advocacy organization that supports and serves the independent film community. Dotson is on the programming & screening committees for Gen Art and Hamptons International Film Festival and has served on the juries of such film festivals as Slamdance, Ashland, Atlanta and Sidewalk. Amy enjoys eating Nutella straight out of the jar, collecting Tracy Morgan memorabilia, and producing her first feature documentary with director Brad Beesley (Fearless Freaks, Summercamp!) on the women of the Oklahoma State Prison Rodeo.
Lucila Moctezuma
Lucila is director of the Media Arts Fellowships at the Tribeca Film Institute, a program founded and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation that supports media artists in the US and Latin America. She has collaborated with the Margaret Mead Film Festival in NY, the Morelia Film Festival in Mexico, the Huesca International Film Festival in Spain. She serves on the Board of Trustees for the Flaherty Film Seminar and on the Advisory Boards for Forum Internacional de Cine de Monterrey and New Children/New York. Lucila has worked in different areas of production, including The New Americans, produced by Kartemquin Films for PBS, and Shocking and Awful produced by Deep Dish TV. Lucila has worked in New York's independent film community since 1996, including the IFP and the Latin American Video Archive. Lucila is originally from Mexico City.
Josh Penn
Josh is a Producer for Court 13 International, with which he has produced the film “Glory at Sea,” playing in Rooftop’s 2008 series. He has also produced several music videos for the band “MGMT” with Partizan and Columbia Records. He is currently producing the first features of two Rooftop alums, Matthew Lessner and Benh Zeitlin. When not producing movies, Josh runs Desolation Records and promotes concert and film events in Philadelphia.
Molly Thompson
Molly launched and runs A&E IndieFilms, the network’s feature documentary division. She executive produces the divisions original productions including: Jesus Camp, a film by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, which was nominated for an Academy Award; and American Teen, a film by Nanette Burstein which won best director at Sundance 2008 and will be released by Paramount Vantage this summer. Thompson also is EP on a film on Anna Wintour directed by RJ Cutler; and a film on Pat Tillman directed by Amir Bar Lev. Other A&E IndieFilms include the Oscar-nominated, Sundance Award-winner Murderball, and My Kid Could Paint That.
Nicole Tschampel
Nicole is a visual artist living and working in New York City. She received her Masters degree in Combined Media from Hunter College in the spring of 2005 and currently teaches there. Her sculptural works and videos have been included in the multiple national and international exhibitions most recently Feel Good, Feel Bad Boys and Girls, at Lange Gasse 28, in Augsburg, Germany, well-known treasures, a screening at Sara Meltzer Gallery in New York, and Painting 2008, at The Gallery Project, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
