Rooftop Films to Host Two Free Nights of Retrospective Short Films in Celebration of 20th Anniversary

Over the past 20 years Rooftop Films has hosted over 600 events, screened over 2600 films, and entertained hundreds of thousands of audience members. In celebration of reaching this milestone the organization will present two, free, short-film programs that highlight some of the best and most memorable short films to screen at Rooftop in the past two decades.

The first event, on Friday, July 29th will feature the best of our annual New York Non-Fiction program at Brookfield Place's Waterfront Plaza. From Laura Terruso's heartfelt portrait of Albanese Rudolph in The Last Butcher in Little Italy, to Last Address, Ira Sachs' meditation on the homes of New York artists at the time of their AIDS-related deaths, these documentary short films trace the dramatic changes that New York has undergone over the past two decades.

The second retrospective screening, 20 Years of Rooftop Short Films, will feature the early works of some of Rooftops highly-acclaimed alumni filmmakers, including Egg by Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild) and Pioneer by David Lowery (Pete's Dragon), as well as a collection of short documentaries that trace the evolution of Rooftop Films and the changes in the community surrounding the venue and New York City, including Warriors: The Bike Race, a hilarious documentation of the New York's wild bicycle culture of the early 2000's. The event will take place on Monday, August 8th on the Beach at Coney Island.

"By hosting two nights of short films from our archive, Rooftop Films is inviting audiences to remember the past with us, or discover a history they never knew," says Rooftop Films founder and Artistic Director emeritus Mark Elijah Rosenberg. "We'll be presenting films that show the raw and real New York in which we grew up, as seen by the artists who lived through two decades of transformation, and movies that heralded the beginnings of new wave of filmmaking, as forged by directors first discovered at Rooftop, now heralded as young masters. It's an exciting year for our organization, looking back on our amazing past, and looking forward to many more years of incredible events."

To post a comment, you must register and login.