Mark Elijah Rosenberg is the Founder and Artistic Director of Rooftop Films. Born and raised in New York City, Mark received his BA in Film Studies at Vassar College before returning to the City to translate his study of film into an artistic and curatorial career. In twelve years, Mark has built Rooftop Films from an off-the-cuff idea into a cultural institution with an international reach.As Artistic Director of Rooftop Films, Mark has brought over 1,400 films by more than 1,100 filmmakers to over 60,000 audience members. He has supported nearly sixty new and emerging filmmakers through the Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund and Production Collective that he established. He has forged collaborations with more than 30 film festivals, schools, and social service organizations throughout New York’s five boroughs and across the country, including Sista II Sista, Automotive High School, the Van Alen Institute, and Electronic Arts Intermix. In 2007, Mark served on the short film jury at the Sundance Film Festival.
Mark has published several articles on filmmaking and short films, including “How to Make a Film in Seven Days” and “How Long is a Short Film” in publications such as A Companion Guide to Rooftop Films magazine, The Zine Yearbook, and the Ms. Films DIY Guide. Mark has lectured on topics ranging from narrative devices in experimental films to the logistics of running a film festival, at places such as the Allied Media Conference, the Grassroots Media Conference, Univesity of Texas, Austin, Collegiate School, Skidmore College and Vassar College. Mark has served on film grants panels for the Brooklyn Arts Council and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and serves on the Artists Advisory Council for Fractured Atlas, a 501c3 Arts Service Organization. Mark has programmed film screenings across the world, including shows at the National Building Museum (Washington, DC), 911 Media (Seattle), The Detroit Film Center, Makor (New York) and Ewha University (Seoul, Korea).
An independent filmmaker in his own right, Mark has shot, directed, and edited dozens of films, including Heartbreaker, a reclaimed-footage music video; Unhappiness, a romantic, black comedy ghost story; I Nightly to Nothingness Do Sing, an experimental travel narrative; The Man Who Shouted Teresa, a modern-day, Manhattan-based adaptation of Italo Calvino‚s short story of the same title; and Hide Your Kids While the Dogs Run Wild, a “home movie” about a puppy and a bag of chips. Mark was a producer-editor on the WNYE television show IMNY, where he taught video production to New York City public school students and supervised production on twenty episodes. He is currently co-producing a feature documentary titled Gary and the Romans about one man’s struggle to self-finance an epic Roman gladiator film. The film appeared at the 2005 Independent Feature Project Conference. Mark’s films have screened as part of film festivals nationally and internationally.
Mark is also the second baseman for the New York Giants of the Tri-Borough Baseball league, and the proud father of a dog named Rizzo.