Rooftop Films began as a one night Short Film program on a roof in the Lower East Side. 19 years later we’ve grown a lot; we now have live music, after-parties, and a stellar features lineup, but we still maintain our dedication to shorts, a medium ripe with innovation, experimentation, and opportunity.
Throughout the summer, we will present a number of carefully curated short films directed by new and established indie filmmakers from around the world, including Lovisa Sirén’s fearless Pussy Have the Power, Anastasia Kirillova’s gorgeous Sleeper’s Beat, and Rooftop Film Alum Kazik Radwanski’s inventive and impactful Cutaway. Each night will be programmed with a specific focus or theme; documentaries that challenge how the world is observed, two nights of romance shorts, and a program featuring some of best shorts from this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
“Often, you find the most innovative, original cinema in short films,” says Rooftop Films Founder and Artistic Director Mark Elijah Rosenberg. “Emerging directors and established veterans dare to take chances and make bold statements in shorts. I’m excited because in this year’s Rooftop Films short film programs we bring together a wide array of visions into coherent and dynamic shows. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
The full schedule, including locations, dates, and ticket sales will be announced in the coming week. Rooftop Films members are admitted free of charge. Memberships are available at Kickstarter.
19th Annual Summer Series – Complete List of Short Films
(dates, programs and venues to be announced soon)
102A: Couple Fucking (Peter Modestij)
A man in search of status buys a copulating couple at an auction. But every action has consequences.
A Horse Throat (David Barlow-Krelina)
A small horse in a restaurant can’t stop coughing. Everybody is irritated.
A Million Miles Away (Jennifer Reeder)
Melancholy as a survival strategy in the American Mid-West: An adult woman (the conductor) on the edge of failing and a pack of teenage girls (the choir) simultaneously experience a supernatural version of coming-of-age. The transformation is equal parts tense and tender. It unravels patiently to the infectious beat of an 80s era heavy metal anthem rearranged as a lamentation.
Actor Seeks Role (Michael Tyburski*)
An aspiring method actor (Alex Karpovsky) in New York City resorts to medical acting, a part-time gig performing the symptoms of various illnesses for student doctors. Although his talents are overlooked for traditional roles on stage and screen, they catch the attention of a medical instructor (Dylan Baker) with a flair for the theatric.
All Your Favorite Shows! (Danny Madden)
Anything you wanna watch in the palm of your hand! Crazy convenient! . . . crazy.
American Renaissance (Jarred Alterman* & Ryan Scafuro*)
Explore the fantastic world of Elizabethan England… in a small town in upstate New York. A rollicking journey through one of the largest renaissance faires in the US, and a portrait of the characters that return year after year.
Applied Metacinema (Nieto*)
There has not yet been any applied work of Metacinema. It was necessary to give the path to methodological problems. That is the reason why I decided to chose the purest subject to analyze. That is a subject composed of a single “substance.”
Bath House (Niki Lindroth von Bahr)
Six animals meet at the swimming pool.
Blobby (Laura Stewart)
A man is followed around by a blob as he goes about his daily life.
Bloedhond (Mees Peijnenburg)
Gijs’ aggression is becoming more and more of a problem. If he doesn’t take action now his explosive temper will cause irreversible damage.
Bottom Feeders (Matt Reynolds)
A day in the life in a terrible world. Divided by a barrier of fog, two disparate species fight to adapt and survive in an alien ecosystem.
Brontosaurus (Robert Putka*)
A movie about face-licking, Barbie dolls, and whether or not Jeff Goldblum rode a Brontosaurus in Jurassic Park.
Buffalo Juggalos (Scott Cummings)
An experimental exploration and celebration of the Juggalo subculture in Buffalo, New York.
Butter Ya’Self (Julian Petzchek)
A banana and a hot dog bun are famous.
Bär (Pascal Flörks)
A grandfather’s past is retold in the present with an inventive and loving lens.
Call of Duty (Matt Lenski*)
Jury Duty. Damn it.
Calls to Okies: The Park Grubbs Story (Ben Steinbauer* & Bradley Beesley)
In the early 1980s, before the Jerky Boys brought prank phone calls to a mainstream audience, a group of Oklahoma teenagers were conducting strange backwoods experiments with their landline telephone.
Canis (Marc Riba & Anna Solanas)
Teo survives isolated in a house constantly besieged by a horde of stray dogs.
Color Neutral (Jennifer Reeves)
A color explosion sparkles, bubbles and fractures.
Cruising (Zachary Zezima)
An extrovert’s dream and an introvert’s nightmare; the chaotic and cacophonous world of forced-fun aboard an insular cruise ship.
Cutaway (Kazik Radwanski*)
Some of life’s memorable moments conveyed with striking simplicity via close-ups of hands and objects
Day 40 (Sol Friedman )
In this animated retelling of the Noah’s Ark story, various unholy activities fill the great ship, as the animals discover the darker side of their nature.
Dead Dog (Hannah Jacobs)
A dead dog. A dead dog in the field out the back of our houses and Leah said we should go and see it…
Démontable (Douwe Dijkstra)
War is waged on the kitchen table while a man drinks coffee. The world’s on fire. Helicopters shred his newspaper, a drone fires at a plate of broccoli.
Eric, Winter to Spring (Danya Abt)
A character study of Eric Martine, a Brooklyn cab driver, former punk-rocker and recovering addict who has discovered writing as an outlet for self-expression.
everything & everything & everything (Alberto Roldan)
The oppressively vapid life of Morgan is forever transformed when a mystical blue pyramid – that inexplicably produces doorknobs – appears in his apartment.
Feelings (Hannah Jacobs)
A tiny man loves a beautiful swan.
Fifteen (Maurilio Martins)
Luiza will turn 15. Raquel dreams of having the freedom of a 15-year-old.
Gary Has an AIDS Scare (Joe Callander*)
She said she was allergic to latex.
Gun Shy (Sam Goetz*)
Every cop has that one event, that one memory they just can’t shake…
Half-Sour (Sean McGing)
A group of young skateboarders find direction in their lives when they move to New York and start a pickle business.
Heartless (Nara Normande & Tião)
Leo goes on vacation to his cousin’s fishing village. There, he meets a girl called Heartless.
Hopkins & Delaney LLP (Sean Buckelew)
An important client visits the law offices of Hopkins & Delaney LLP to discuss his copyright infringement suit.
Hotel 22 (Elizabeth Lo)
Each night in Silicon Valley, a public bus transforms into an unofficial shelter for the homeless. Hotel 22 captures a single, dramatic night on the Line 22 route.
I Turn to You (Victor Lindgren)
Elin and Jennie’s parents are separated and have an infected relationship. Depicted from the two sister’s perspective we follow them through their everyday life dealing with parental intrigues.
Interior.Family. (Esteve Soler)
A couple of loving parents wake up their son in the middle of the night. They need to talk to him about an urgent and horrifying matter that will change his life forever.
Jiro Visits the Dentist (Gina Kamentsky*)
Jiro has a dream about the artist formerly known as Prince and visits the dentist with his friend the lighthouse=phone man. There is sushi along the way.
Kukka&Hauta (Tomi Malkki*)
“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left.” -Albert Einstein”
Kung Fury (David Sandberg)
Arcade-robots, dinosaurs, nazis, vikings, norse gods, mutants and a super kung fu-cop called Kung Fury, all wrapped up in an 80s style action packed adventure.
La nuit américaine d’Angélique (Joris Clerté & Pierre-Emmanuel Lyet)
When she saw François Truffaut’s La nuit Américaine, Angélique discovered that it was possible to dream up her life.
Last Base (Aslak Danbolt)
Joachim is retiring from base-jumping to become a father for the first time, but first he goes on one last adventure with his best-friend Øyvind.
Le Mal du Citron (Jeremy Rosenstein & Kaspar Schiltknecht)
Florence and Etienne visit Florence’s dead father’s house. He has hung himself from a tree. Etienne will soon discover that the couple’s excursion brings up the challenge to open up to each other about unspoken truths.
Lesley the Pony Has an A+ Day! (Christian Larrave)
Lesley the Pony goes on a fun-filled adventure through the town of Merryville while making lasting memories with his friend, The Duke.
Lopapeysa (David Scott Kessler)
An exploration in to a travelers mind, as they experience an unknown land.
Manhattan One Two Three Four (Tomonari Nishikawa*)
A study in visual rhythm with buildings in Manhattan.
Meat (Michael Forstein)
Desperate for work, Darren agrees to a one day trial as a door to door meat salesman.
Midnight Three & Six (Joe Callander*)
Every night a mother wakes up at midnight, 3am, and 6am, so that her daughter will wake up in the morning.
Minor Monuments (Joe Kowalski & Zoe Logan)
In this unconventional love story, a failed relationship is reminisced upon through the otherwise banal objects and places that defined it.
Mulignans (Shaka King*)
“mulignan(s) /moo.lin.yan(s)/
n.1. Italian-American slang for nigger.
Derived from Italian dialect word for eggplant.
See also moolie.
*source: urban dictionary and pretty much every mob movie ever”
MY BBY 8L3W (Neozoon)
Overly cutesy collage of YouTube videos in which women overenthusiastically introduce their pets to the world. They all openly declare their love of their pedigree dogs and cats.
My Gal, Rosemarie (Jason Tippet*)
Somewhere on the outskirts of Los Angeles, Rosemarie and Ray pass time in an apartment packed and cluttered with the detritus of a half century of marriage.
Mynarski Death Plummet (Matthew Rankin*)
The final minutes in the life of Winnipeg’s doomed Second World War hero, Andrew Mynarski (1916-1944).
Myrna the Monster (Ian Samuels)
A heartbroken alien dreamer from the moon transitions into young adult life in Los Angeles like any other 20something.
NENA (Alauda Ruiz de Azúa)
Javier Gorrigaramendi was the first big who broke Ana’s heart. Sixteen years later he appears. Ana Teenager doesn’t want to open the door. What does Ana Adult want?
Nugget (Sarah Salovaara)
A food conscious shut-in has a rather aggressive neighbor who needs a lift to the locksmith.
OM Rider (Takeshi Murata)
In a vast desert bathed in neon hues, a misfit werewolf tears full speed ahead over forbidding terrain while his hoary counterpart awaits.
On the Spot: Gaza – Chronicles of a Conflict (Eszter Cseke & Andras S. Takacs)
The birth of hatred and hope – the chronicles of a conflict in Gaza.
Palm Rot (Ryan Gillis)
Investigating a mysterious explosion in the Florida Everglades, a crop-duster named Bill discovers a lone crate that survived the wreckage. Curiosity gets the better of him and he pulls the crate unto his airboat. That’s just the first in a series of decisions he learns to regret.
Papa Machete (Jonathan David Kane)
A glimpse into the life of Alfred Avril, a poor farmer who lives in the hills of Jacmel, Haiti. He also happens to be a master of the mysterious martial art of Haitian machete fencing, known in Creole as tire machèt.
Playground (Dan Bogoslavsky)
A young couple moves between reality and imagination as the two are planning a role-play. Together they create drama that is lacking in their everyday life, and escape to an emotional fantasy that takes them to the end of the game.
Pond (Josh Shaffner)
A surrealist animated painting. The story is an amalgam of myths, used to describe the demise of a romance.
Pop-Up Porno: f4m (Stephen Dunn)
A breast cancer survivor tries to reclaim her sexuality on an online dating website.
Pop-Up Porno: m4f (Stephen Dunn)
A painfully ill Dutch Montrealer has to use the bathroom while his date is in the shower.
Pop-Up Porno: m4m (Stephen Dunn)
A lonely traveler on a business trip to New York finds himself in a heated Grindr chat with his worst nightmare.
Prends Moi (Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette & André Turpin)
A nurse working in a center for the disabled is confronted to his principles when he-s asked to accomplish a particular task.
Pussy Have the Power (Lovisa Sirén)
Four girls improvise a song in a recording studio. When an established music producer walks in, they face the choice of selling out their work to something that could lead to success, while they risk losing their own message.
Santa Cruz del Islote (Luke Lorentzen)
Santa Cruz del Islote is a three-acre island about fifty miles off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia. It is a community of about 600 people making it one of the most densely populated islands in the world; a peaceful way of life that can no longer continue with ease.
Sea Devil (Dean Marcial & Brett Potter)
Immigration is hell.
Serenity (Jack Dunphy)
An animated memoir recounting first love, addiction, loosing one’s virginity, and turning to pizza in times of crisis.
She Walks (Victoria Visco)
Marion was actually pretty happy in the ‘banlieue’ with her friends, her part-time job and her boyfriend, but something has changed since she witnessed a local boy jump of some fats. She wants to leave, go somewhere else; what’s stopping her really?
Sleepers’ Beat (Anastasia Kirillova)
In this cinematic ode to the Trans-Siberian railway, the train staff seem unable to live without the hypnotic beats and rattle of the train.
Sleeping Giant (Andrew Cividino)
Fourteen-year-old Adam is spending the summer in a small beach community on the North shore of Lake Superior. His dull summer routine shatters when he meets local boys Foster and Rizzo, two smart alecks who fill their long days with adventures and reckless stunting.
Slope Park (Dudi Dorham)
This is not the first time that 30-year-old Erez and 12-year-old Arbel have met at a local park. Only today, Arbel refuses to return to her home and puts the nature of their relationship to the test.
Small People with Hats (Sarina Nihei)
There are small people wearing hats in the society.
SMILF (Frankie Shaw)
A young single mother struggles to balance her old life of freedom with her new one as mom. It all comes to a head during one particular naptime when Bridgette invites an old friend over for a visit.
Sound of a Million Insects, Light of a Thousand Stars (Tomonari Nishikawa*)
I buried a film under fallen leaves alongside a country road, 15 miles away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, for one night in June 2014.
Spearhunter (Adam Roffman* & Luke Poling)
Deep in the wilds of rural Alabama, a spear-hunter proclaims himself the world’s greatest and erects a museum dedicated to his own bizarre obsession.
Sports (Brian Smee)
24.09.2154: Observe the conclusion to today’s marathon.
Starting Point (Michal Szcześniak)
By talking to an old lady, Aneta realizes how much she has in life and starts to believe in herself before the hard test which is ahead of her.
Stop (Reinaldo Marcus Green)
A young man’s livelihood is put to the test when he gets stopped by the police on his way home from practice.
Sun Elephant (Peter Millard*)
Once the Sun spoke to me.
teeth (Tom Brown & Daniel Gray*)
The life of a misguided and intensely focused man, chronicled through his oral obsessions.
Thank Ewe (Keith Wilson)
A barrage of whiteness and niceness, Thank Ewe is too much of a good thing.
The Breath (Fabian Kaiser)
Deep underground the action force is preparing for the imminent case of emergency. Surveillance cameras are tracking the descent. The head is burning. Constriction puts pressure on the chest. In the vacuum of depth delusion is pulsating.
The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul (Kitty Green)
Adorned in pink sequins, little girls from across a divided, war-torn Ukraine audition to play the role of gold medal-winning figure skater Oksana Baiul, whose tears of joy once united their troubled country.
The Golden Legend (Olivier Smolders)
Collector of cursed musicians, unreasonable murderers, fairground freaks, paranoid revolutionaries, flatulists and suicidal hermits, a psychiatric patient presents a gallery of the historic figures he is haunted by.
The Land (Erin Davis*)
At The Land, a Welsh “adventure- playground, children climb trees, light fires and use hammers and nails in a play-space rooted in the belief that kids are empowered when they learn to manage risks on their own.
The Sucklord (Joey Garfield)
An afternoon with The Sucklord, talking Star Wars, Gay Rights, and why Super Villains have the upper hand.
Toro (Lynn Kim*)
A closer look into the bullfight. Hand drawn and stop motion animation.
Unhittable: Sidd Finch and the Tibetan Fastball (Peter Sillen*)
A breakdown of the tale of a Mets prospect that was so phenomenal, he was too good to be true.
Unicorn (Grace Nayoon Rhee)
GIRL and BOY meet little strangers.
Upon the Rock (James Bascara)
A man leading a Sisyphean life suddenly has a euphoric vision, then undergoes a dysphoric transformation.
Videos Of Strange Caliber (Josh Freed*)
Why be a schmuck and ask a girl out yourself, when you can just pay strangers on the internet to do it for you?
Volta (Stella Kyriakopoulos)
A mother and daughter start out from downtown Athens and head to the northern suburbs of the city. Nina thinks she’s going on a walk.
We Will Stay In Touch About It (Jan Zabeil)
What happens when realizing that we kill – without being confronted with the dead?
{The AND} (Topaz Adizes*)
A short documentary that brings the viewer into the emotional space of a modern day relationship.
* Rooftop Alumni