Buy a Rooftop Films Membership today.">Buy a Rooftop Films Membership today.">

Rooftop Alums at Sundance

Meet the Sundance stars of tomorrow: Buy a Rooftop Films Membership today.

As a film lover, you may have heard the buzz around Sundance announcing their 2011 line-up. You may have heard about a schedule littered with stars like Demi Moore, Sigourney Weaver, Jeremy Irons, Pierce Brosnan, and Paul Rudd. You may have heard about the films by household name directors like Kevin Smith and Morgan Spurlock. But what you may not have heard about is how this year’s line-up is studded with 25 Rooftop Films Alumni.

That’s more Rooftop Films alumni at Sundance than ever before, and we think that this shows that Rooftop Films is the best place in New York City to meet the indie film stars of tomorrow.

The list includes filmmakers whose films we have shown in the past, such as Todd Rohal, Matthew Lessner, Steve James and Calvin Lee Reeder.

It also includes films we’ve funded and helped produce through the Rooftop Filmmaker’s Fund, like competition feature Martha Marcy Mary Marlene, directed by Sean Durkin, and Crazy Beats Strong Every Time, directed by Moon Molson. In addition, the festival will feature films by Filmmaker’s Fund grantees such as Emily Carmichael and Kelly Lynn Sears, both of whom have been screening films as part of the Rooftop Summer Series for years.

Not only that, several of the short films at Sundance this year are films that Rooftop already showed last summer, including amazing shorts by Ruben Ostlund and Jonas Odell, which screened as part of our 2010 Swedish Week back in July.

You can scroll down to the bottom to see the full list of Rooftop alums who are included in this year’s Sundance festival.

So what does all this mean for you? It means that if you want see the best independent films being made anywhere in the world before they ever get to theaters, the best way to do it is to buy a Rooftop Films Membership. Our limited time holiday pricing of $45 gets you free entry to a whole summer’s worth of great, new independent cinema, a $500 value.

And, by purchasing a Rooftop Membership, you’re helping to support our Rooftop Filmmaker’s Fund, which goes towards helping filmmakers whose work we have shown in the past make their next movie–movies that keep ending up at Sundance.

So if you’d like to enjoy ridiculous savings on great movies in gorgeous outdoor settings, all while helping to support the next wave of award-winning independent cinema, it’s kind of a no-brainer.

Buy a Rooftop Films Membership today.

Membership Levels:
*Special introductory pricing available only through December 31st, 2010. Become a Member today and save. Check our Membership FAQ page for more info

Single Member:  $45*
($45 Tax deductible)
• Free entry for member to all regularly priced Summer Series shows
• Guaranteed priority entry with RSVP
A $500 value.

Double Member:  $90*
($85 Tax deductible)
• Free entry for member plus any guest to all regularly priced Summer Series shows
• Guaranteed priority entry with RSVP
• Rooftop Films limited edition 2011 T-Shirt
A $1010 value.

Triple Member:  $135*
($120 Tax deductible)
• Free entry for member plus any two guests to all regularly priced Summer Series shows
• Guaranteed priority entry with RSVP
• Rooftop Films limited edition 2011 T-Shirt and Sweatshirt
A $1530 value.

Sustaining Member: $250 and above
($235+ Tax deductible)
All the benefits of a Triple Membership, plus your name on our website, printed program, and on screen at every show.

Student Member: $30

($30 Tax deductible)
All the benefits of a Single Membership, at a special student price. Available to anyone with valid student ID.

*Holiday pricing expires December 31st, 2010.

DONATIONS
Or, if you would like to give to Rooftop without receiving the above benefits you can make a 100% tax deductible donation. You can be confident that your support counts: 65% of your donation covers the artistic expenses of putting on film screening events. 15% of our income comes from members and donors like you. Your donation, whether $1,000 or $100 or $10, is crucial to our mission of engaging and inspiring diverse communities by showing new, innovative, independent films in unique outdoor locations, producing new films, and teaching filmmaking to young people.

DONATE TODAY.

Rooftop Alums at Sundance 2011

1.Martha Marcy May Marlene (Director and screenwriter: Sean Durkin) — Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman struggles to re-assimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult. Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Brady Corbet, Hugh Dancy, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson.

2.Crazy Beats Strong Every Time (Director and Screenwriter: Moon Molson) – An African-American twenty-something finds his Nigerian-immigrant stepfather passed out drunk in their project-building hallway and is pressured by a friend into murdering him.

3.The Hunter and the Swan Discuss Their Meeting (Director and Screenwriter: Emily Carmichael) – A Brooklyn couple have dinner with a hunter and his girlfriend, a magical swan woman. It doesn’t go well.

4.The Interrupters/U.S.A. (Director: Steve James) — From the Academy Award-winning director of Hoop Dreams comes a story of ex-gang members who are now protecting their communities from the violence they themselves once employed.

5.The Woods/U.S.A. (Director and Screenwriter: Matthew Lessner) — When promised change that did not come, eight young Americans move deep into to the woods to start their own society. Cast: Justin Phillips, Toby David, Adam Mortemore, Nicola Persky, Chris Edley. World Premiere.

6.The Oregonian/U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Calvin Lee Reeder) — After surviving a brutal car accident, a simple farm woman limps down the road into the nightmarish unknown. Cast: Lindsay Pulsipher, Robert Longstreet, Matt Olsen, Lynne Compton, Barlow Jacobs, Chadwick Brown, Jed Maheu, Roger M. Mayer. World Premiere

7.The Catechism Cataclysm/U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Todd Rohal) — After becoming disinterested with the church, a priest tracks down his old classmate, a former metalhead whom he idolized in high school. When the two embark on a canoeing trip together, all hell breaks loose. Cast: Steve Little, Robert Longstreet, Walter Dalton, Miki Ann Maddox, Koko Lanham. World Premiere

8.Pariah (Director and screenwriter: Dee Rees) — When forced to choose between losing her best friend or destroying her family, a Bronx teenager juggles conflicting identities and endures heartbreak in a desperate search for sexual expression. Cast: Adepero Oduye, Pernell Walker, Kim Wayans, Charles Parnell, Aasha Davis.

9.The Lie/U.S.A. (Director: Joshua Leonard; Screenwriters: Jeff Feuerzeig, Joshua Leonard, Mark Webber and Jess Weixler, based on the short story by T. Coraghessan Boyle) — A man overwhelmed and disappointed with life tells a lie to avoid going to work… what could possibly go wrong? Cast: Joshua Leonard, Jess Weixler, Mark Webber, Alia Shawkat, Jane Adams and Kelli Garner.

10.The Future/Germany, U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Miranda July) — When a couple decides to adopt a stray cat their perspective on life changes radically, literally altering the course of time and space and testing their faith in each other and themselves. Cast: Hamish Linklater, Miranda July, David Warshofsky, Isabella Acres, Joe Putterlik.

11.HERE (Director: Braden King; Written By: Braden King and Dani Valent) — On assignment to create a new, more accurate satellite survey of Armenia, an American cartographer forms a powerful bond with an Armenian expatriate and art photographer. Cast: Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal with Narek Nersisyan, Yuri Kostanyan and Sofik Sarkisyan.

12.The Last Mountain (Director: Bill Haney; Screenwriters: Bill Haney and Peter Rhodes) — A coal mining corporation and a tiny community vie for the last great mountain in Appalachia in a battle for the future of energy that affects us all.

13.Pioneer (Director and Screenwriter: David Lowery) – A father tells his little boy the most epic bedtime story ever.

14.We’re Leaving (Director and Screenwriter: Zachary Treitz) – Rusty has to find a new place to live with his wife and his teenage American Alligator, Chopper.

15.YEARBOOK (Director: Carter Smith) – Something strange is going on at Rockdale high school…

16.Animals Distract Me (Director and Screenwriter: Isabella Rossellini) – A day in the life of animal-obsessed Isabella Rossellini as she visits with Mario Batali, Andre Leon Talley, Charles Darwin and a host of urban creatures in New York City.

17.The Majestic Plastic Bag (Director: Jeremy Konner; Screenwriters: Sarah May Bates and Regie Miller) – A plastic bag encounters enemies and escapes death on its epic migration to its final destination, the great Pacific Garbage Patch.

18.Bike Race (Director: Tom Schroeder; Screenwriters: Tom Schroeder and Hilde De Roover) – Two friends decide to stage a bicycle race to determine who is the best racer of all time, Eddy Merckx or Lance Armstrong. A love triangle develops during the race and the stakes of winning grow in importance.

19.Something Left, Something Taken (Directors and Screenwriters: Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter) – Everyone who enters a crime scene leaves something behind and takes something away, which proves true during a vacationing couples’ encounter with a man they believe to be the Zodiac killer.

20.Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (Director: Dean Fleischer-Camp; Screenwriters: Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp) – A short conversation with Marcel, a shell with shoes on.

21.Baby / United Kingdom (Director and Screenwriter: Daniel Mulloy) – A young woman intervenes when she witnesses men mugging a girl. Now they won’t leave her alone.

22.Protoparticles / Spain (Director and Screenwriter: Chema Garcia Ibarra) – The experiment was a success: protomatter exists.

23.Stardust / Belgium (Director and Screenwriter: Nicolas Provost) – An investigation of the boundaries between fiction and reality. The camera ventures to Las Vegas and uses the glorious and ambiguous power of the gambling capital to turn everyday life into an exciting crime story.

24.Incident by a Bank / Sweden (Director and Screenwriter: Ruben Oestlund) – A detailed and humorous account of a failed bank robbery.

25.The External World / Germany (Director and Screenwriter: David O’Reilly) – A little boy practices playing the piano.

26.Tussilago / Sweden (Director and Screenwriter: Jonas Odell) – In 1977 West German terrorist Norbert Kroecher was arrested for having planned to kidnap the Swedish politician Anna-Great Leijon. Among the people arrested during the following raids was Kroecher’s former girlfriend ‘A.’