This summer, Rooftop Films will present over 100 short films in 13 programs, with each program curated thematically.  On Saturday, May 19th, Rooftop Films will kick off the 2018 Summer Series in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery with This Is What We Mean By Short Films, a selection of dynamic shorts from around the world, including Rooftop Filmmakers Fund grantee The Burden.

Rooftop Films will present a dozen more carefully curated programs throughout the summer, each with a specific focus or theme. Highlights of the 22nd Summer Series include two nights of documentaries (including Rooftop’s signature New York Nonfiction program); Net Positive, a program of internet-related short films co-presented with The Mozilla Foundation; two evenings of short films about unlikely romances; selected shorts from the Sundance Film Festival; two programs of animated short films; and Come and Take It, a program short films by and about bold and uncategorizable women.

“Rooftop Films has championed the short film from the start,” said Dan Nuxoll, Artistic Director of Rooftop Films, “and many of the filmmakers whose shorts we have screened have gone on to create some of the most exciting independent feature films of the last twenty years. But though we are thrilled by the potential on display in the short films we will show this summer, we are equally excited by the magnificent things these filmmakers have already accomplished with these daring, perfectly constructed gems.”

Every Summer Series event will include live musical performances and all ticketed screenings will have after-parties featuring Freixenet and signature drinks by Ketel One Family Made Vodka.

Venues this year include Green-Wood Cemetery in Greenwood Heights, The William Vale in Williamsburg, The Old American Can Factory in Gowanus, Industry City and Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park, MetroTech Commons in Downtown Brooklyn, New Design High School in the Lower East Side, and Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City.

SHORT FILM PROGRAMS

THIS IS WHAT WE MEAN BY SHORT FILMS: OPENING NIGHT
Opening Night 2018! It’s a graveyard smash!

The Burden (Min börda) (Niki Lindroth von Bahr – The Cutest Dog in the World (Julian Glander) – Irony (Amy Nicholson) – Julius Caesar Was Buried in a Pet Cemetery (Sam Green) – Milk and Cookies (Patrick Mulvey, Andrew Scott Ramsay) – Rebirth is Necessary (Jenn Nkiru) – So You Like the Neighborhood (Jean Pesce) – The Town I Live In (Matt Wolf, Guadalupe Rosales) – To the Dead (Mauricio Arango) – Ultraviolet (Marc Johnson)

NO ESCAPE: UNCANNY MINDBENDERS
The eternal return of our short film collection of eerie existential thrillers.

Allen Anders – Live at the Comedy Castle (circa 1987) (Laura Moss, Tony Grayson) – Awasarn Sound Man (Death of the Soundman) (Sorayos Prapapan) – Find Fix Finish (Sylvain Cruiziat, Mila Zhluktenko) – Lance Lizardi (Xander Robin) – LaZercism (Shaka King) – Mwah (Nina Buxton) – Paco (Catalina Jordan Alvarez) – Rabbit’s Blood (Sarina Nihei) – The Tesla World Light (Tesla: lumière mondiale) (Matthew Rankin)

DARK TOONS
Twisted animated short films that walk you to the brink of the abyss… then push you over the edge.

A Brief Spark Bookended by Darkness (Brent Green) – Born in a Void (Alex Grigg) – Call of Cuteness (Brenda Lien) – Glucose (Jeron Braxton) – JEOM (Kangmin Kim) – Negative Space (Ru Kuwahata, Max Porter) – Nachtstück (Nocturne) (Anne Breymann) – Paradise (Ton Meijdam, Thom Snels, Béla Zsigmond)- SOG (Jonathan Schwenk) – Solar Walk (Réka Bucsi) – Wednesday with Goddard (Nicolas Ménard, Manshen Lo)

LOVE IS WEIRD: ROMANTIC SHORT FILMS
A sweaty night of sweet loving in short film form.

Dressed for Pleasure (Je fais où tu me dis) (Marie de Maricourt) – Ghosting the Party (Carlos Alberto Fernandez Lopez) – Gros Chagrin (Céline Devaux) – High Summer (Plein Été) (Josselin Facon) – Knockstrike (Rigol Genis, Anglada Pau, Torices Marc) – The Mangina Exit (Byron Brown) – My Cucumber Inside the Fridge (Austin Hamilton) – Oh Hey (Sean Pecknold) – Welcome to Bushwick (Henry Jinings) – Who’s the Daddy 你要熱烈地親親爹哋 (Wong Ping)

LOVE IS SHORT (FILMS)
Short films about hasty, lusty, slightly awkward encounters.

The Climb (Michael Covino) – Dolls Don’t Cry (Toutes les poupées ne pleurent pas) (Frédérick Tremblay)- Garfield (Georgi Banks-Davies) – Ocean Swells (Sverre Matias Glenne) – Onion (Kandis Fay) – Perfectly Normal (Joris Debeij) – Wyrm (Christopher Winterbauer)

DANGEROUS DOCUMENTARIES
Short documentaries about people doing some crazy-ass shit.

Graven Image (Sierra Pettengill) – Hypnodrom (Richard Wilhelmer) – The Last Honey Hunter (Ben Knight) – LOVE GOES THROUGH THE STOMACH (Neozoon) – Marfa (Greg McLeod, Myles McLeod) – My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes (Charlie Tyrell) – The Water Slide (Nathan Truesdell)

NEW YORK NONFICTION
Brooklyn It’s your city. Take a look.

3,000 Miles (三千哩) (Sean Wang, Breton Vivian – A Garbage Story (Olivier Bernier) – Brother K & The Uncut Truth (Billy Linker, Ben Carey)- Crosswalker (Paul Gale, Dustin Molina) Flatbush Misdemeanors (Kevin Iso, Dan Perlman) – I LIVED: Brooklyn – Deborah (Jonathan Nelson, Danielle Andersen) – Jonas Mekas: Always Beginning (Michael Sugarman) – Kayla in 1A (Travis Wood) – Libre (Anna Barsan, Iva Radivojevic) – Oh, What A Beautiful City (A City Symphony) (Lucy Walker) – The Road to Magnasanti (John Wilson) – Slice Thing (David Wanger)

ADDITIONAL SHORT FILM PROGRAMS

SUNDANCE SHORTS
Highlights from Sundance 2018 include these wild, weird and wonderful short films.

[O] (Mario Radev, Chiara Sgatti) – Emergency (Carey Williams) – The Fisherman (El pescador) (Ana A. Alpizar) Great Choice (Robin Comisar) – Volte (Monika Kotecka, Karolina Poryzal) – War Paint (Katrelle N. Kindred) -– More titles to be announced soon!

COME AND TAKE IT
Unbecoming short films by and about bold women.

Call of the Wild (Neozoon) – Le Clitoris (Lori Malépart-Traversy) – Come & Take It (Ellen Spiro, PJ Raval) – Hair Wolf (Mariama Diallo) – Hercules (Lisa Duva) – Into My Life (Ivana Hucíková, Sarah Keeling, Grace Remington) – Normal Appearances (Penny Lane) – Slap Happy (Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli)

ROOFTOP SHOTS: CLOSING NIGHT
All good things must end before they begin again. Closing Night!

A Night At The Garden (Marshall Curry) – The Fall of Lenin (Svitlana Shymko) – Fauve (Jérémy Comte) – How to Live with Regret (John Wilson) – I Was In Your Blood (Joseph Sackett) – Managed Retreat (Nathan Kensinger) – Mother’s Day (Elizabeth Lo, R.J. Lozada) – Ugly (Nikita Diakur)

ADDITIONAL SHORT FILMS AND SHORT FILMS BEFORE FEATURES:

160 Characters (Victoria Mapplebeck) – Centauro (Nicolás Suárez) – Fire Mouth (Boca de Fogo) (Luciano Pérez Fernández) – Gokurōsama (ご苦労様) (Aurore Gal, Clémentine Frère, Yukiko Meignien, Anna Mertz, Robin Migliorelli, Romain Salvini) – Maude (Anna Margaret Hollyman) – Polonaise (Polonez) (Agnieszka Elbanowska) – Skybaby (Julian Glander) – Weekends (Trevor Jimenez) – Symphony of a Sad Sea (Carlos Morales Mancilla) – Wave (TJ O’Grady Peyton, Benjamin Clear)

FEATURE FILM PROGRAMS FOR MAY AND JUNE

AMERICAN ANIMALS (Bart Layton)

NANCY (Christina Choe)
*NY Premiere
*Filmmaker Christina Choe in attendance
*Free Event
*Recipient of the 2014 Rooftop Films and Eastern Effects Equipment Grant

DAMSEL (David Zellner, Nathan Zellner)

HEARTS BEAT LOUD (Brett Haley)

WRESTLE (Suzannah Herbert, co-directed by Lauren Belfer)

EXIT MUSIC (Cameron Mullenneaux)

THE GOSPEL OF EUREKA (Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher)

EN EL SÉPTIMO DÍA (Jim McKay)

FAMILY (Laura Steinel)

WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY (Madeleine Olnek)