Rooftop Films has announced the Opening Weekend and select highlights for the 17th Annual Summer Series presented by AT&T featuring more than 45 outdoor screenings promising large crowds live music spectacular venues and the best in new independent and foreign films. This year’s edition kicks off with some of the greatest new short films from all around the world on May 10 at Open Road Rooftop at New Design High School in the Lower East Side. May 11 will feature a special sneak preview screening of Frances Ha directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Greta Gerwig also at Open Road Rooftop. Baumbach and Gerwig will be in attendance for a Q&A. “We realize that filmmakers and audiences want more than just a movie screening ” says Rooftop’s founder and artistic director Mark Elijah Rosenberg. “We’re going to astound people with this year’s lineup of events running the gamut from wild and daring to thoughtful and inspiring with a whole lot of fun throughout. We’re building something new at Rooftop this year.” Rooftop will host a sneak preview screening of Crystal Fairy starring Michael Cera and Gaby Hoffmann directed by Sebastián Silva (Old Cats The Maid) winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s award for Best Director Award in World Cinema. The director and cast members will be in attendance. On July 13 the documentary Brasslands will be presented with Arts Brookfield as part of the River To River Festival 2013 on the waterfront of Brookfield Place (formerly World Financial Center) with live performances by four Balkan brass bands recreating the experience of the massive Serbian music festival that the film documents. On May 25 Jordan Vogt-Roberts returns to Rooftop with his feature film debut The Kings of Smmer (formerly Toy’s House) starring Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally. Continuing their partnership Rooftop and BAMcinématek will host a party with a sneak preview of Drinking Buddies directed by Rooftop alum Joe Swanberg and starring Anna Kendrick and Olivia Wilde on June 27 outdoors across the street from BAM. The filmmaker will be in attendance for the event. Rooftop is on the cutting edge of supporting filmmakers in ways unlike any other festival including via the ever-expanding Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund which uses community-generated funds and creative partnerships to assist emerging directors. Audiences will get to see work by filmmakers that they have helped support since the start of their careers. Rooftop will be screening many works by grantees in 2013 including two films that premiered at Sundance: the hit western Ain’t Them Bodies Saints directed by David Lowery and Newlyweeds a stoner romantic comedy directed by Shaka King. “The films that we will be screening at Rooftop this year are more dynamic than ever before ” says Rooftop’s program director Dan Nuxoll. “These movies explode off the screen with tremendous energy and we thought it was important to feed off that energy and present each of them in a manner that amplifies their impact. With novel new venues innovative modes of exhibition exciting new partners and live entertainment that is perfectly matched to the films this year’s Summer Series builds on the ideas that we have been developing for 17 years and takes our organization to another level.” For the last two years AT&T has been the proud presenting sponsor of the Rooftop Films Summer Series and the Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund AT&T Feature Film Grant helping Rooftop to expand their exhibition of great independent films fund and support the work of up-and-coming filmmakers and bring communities together via immersive cinema events staged in spectacular outdoor venues. Dates and full feature line-up will be announced in the next week.
