Showcase
This 90-minute panel features some of Brooklyn's most successful filmmakers in discussion about the ups and downs of independent filmmaking today. Topics include film funding, marketing, the changing world of technology and content distribution, as well as the Brooklyn filmmaking community and its resources.
The panel is moderated by Mark Rosenberg, founder and director of the Rooftop Film Festival, and features filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Half Nelson, Sugar) Cruz Angeles (Don't Let Me Drown), Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water) and Ramin Bahrani (Man Push Cart, Goodbye Solo).
This event is filled to capacity
Living the Independent Dream: Brooklyn Filmmakers Panel
05/06/09
7:00PM - 11:00PM
Followed by an awards presentation and closing reception sponsored by Rice.
PANELIST BIOS
Cruz Angeles
Angeles made his feature film directorial debut with Don't Let Me Drown which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. He participated as a directing and writing fellow at the 2005 Sundance Institute Filmmakers’ Lab. He is also an Annenberg Film Fellow and a recipient of the 2006 NHK/Sundance International Filmmakers Award. As an alumna of NYU's graduate film program, Angeles garnered various awards for his student short films including a Directors’ Guild
of America Award.
Ramin Bahrani
Bahrani received his BA from Columbia University in New York City before moving to his parents’ homeland of Iran for three years where he made his student thesis film, Strangers (2000). Bahrani then spent some time in Paris before returning to the States to begin work on his first feature film, Man Push Cart (2005), which premiered in the Venice Film Festival (2005) and then screened at Sundance (2006). The film won more than ten international prizes, was released theatrically around the world, and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards. He was recently nominated for this year’s Spirit Award for Best Director for his work on Chop Shop (2007). Goodbye Solo, his third feature film, premiered at The Venice Film Festival (2008) where it won the International Critics’ Award for Best Film. Roadside Attractions is releasing the film nationwide in spring 2009.
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Boden and Fleck's first dramatic feature film, Half Nelson, premiered in 2006 and went on to win numerous prizes, including three IFP Gotham Awards for Breakthrough Director, Actor, and Best Feature Film. The film also received two Independent Spirit Awards for its lead actors, Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Their second feature-length collaboration, Sugar, premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Sony Pictures Classics this April. The two have also collaborated on several short films and documentaries over the past six years, including Have You Seen This Man? (2003), Gowanus, Brooklyn (2004), and Young Rebels (2005).
Tia Lessin
The 2009 Oscar-nominated Trouble the Water is Lessin’s feature debut. She also directed and produced the documentary short Behind the Labels in partnership with Peter Gabriel’s human rights group Witness. She was awarded the Sidney Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism for the film, which is about labor trafficking of Chinese and Filipina women garment workers.
Lessin was a producer of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine. Her other film credits include line producer on Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home: Bob Dylan and coordinating producer on The Big One. Lessin is a Sundance Institute Fellow, an Open Society Institute Katrina Media Fellow, and was awarded the Women of Worth “Vision” Award by L’Oréal Paris and Women in Film.
Cruz Angeles
Angeles made his feature film directorial debut with Don't Let Me Drown which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. He participated as a directing and writing fellow at the 2005 Sundance Institute Filmmakers’ Lab. He is also an Annenberg Film Fellow and a recipient of the 2006 NHK/Sundance International Filmmakers Award. As an alumna of NYU's graduate film program, Angeles garnered various awards for his student short films including a Directors’ Guild
of America Award.
Ramin Bahrani
Bahrani received his BA from Columbia University in New York City before moving to his parents’ homeland of Iran for three years where he made his student thesis film, Strangers (2000). Bahrani then spent some time in Paris before returning to the States to begin work on his first feature film, Man Push Cart (2005), which premiered in the Venice Film Festival (2005) and then screened at Sundance (2006). The film won more than ten international prizes, was released theatrically around the world, and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards. He was recently nominated for this year’s Spirit Award for Best Director for his work on Chop Shop (2007). Goodbye Solo, his third feature film, premiered at The Venice Film Festival (2008) where it won the International Critics’ Award for Best Film. Roadside Attractions is releasing the film nationwide in spring 2009.
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Boden and Fleck's first dramatic feature film, Half Nelson, premiered in 2006 and went on to win numerous prizes, including three IFP Gotham Awards for Breakthrough Director, Actor, and Best Feature Film. The film also received two Independent Spirit Awards for its lead actors, Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Their second feature-length collaboration, Sugar, premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Sony Pictures Classics this April. The two have also collaborated on several short films and documentaries over the past six years, including Have You Seen This Man? (2003), Gowanus, Brooklyn (2004), and Young Rebels (2005).
Tia Lessin
The 2009 Oscar-nominated Trouble the Water is Lessin’s feature debut. She also directed and produced the documentary short Behind the Labels in partnership with Peter Gabriel’s human rights group Witness. She was awarded the Sidney Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism for the film, which is about labor trafficking of Chinese and Filipina women garment workers.
Lessin was a producer of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine. Her other film credits include line producer on Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home: Bob Dylan and coordinating producer on The Big One. Lessin is a Sundance Institute Fellow, an Open Society Institute Katrina Media Fellow, and was awarded the Women of Worth “Vision” Award by L’Oréal Paris and Women in Film.
MODERATOR
Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Founder & Artistic Director of Rooftop Films
Born and raised in New York City, Rosenberg received his BA from Vassar College. He has built Rooftop Films into one of the most innovative film companies in the country—a cutting-edge outdoor film festival, a forward-thinking film production collective, and a full-service media center. Rooftop has shown over 1,400 films to more than 80,000 audience members, and has supported 60 emerging filmmakers through the Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund. As a curator and filmmaker in his own right, Rosenberg's taste and work favor low-budget, personal cinema.
Mark Elijah Rosenberg, Founder & Artistic Director of Rooftop Films
Born and raised in New York City, Rosenberg received his BA from Vassar College. He has built Rooftop Films into one of the most innovative film companies in the country—a cutting-edge outdoor film festival, a forward-thinking film production collective, and a full-service media center. Rooftop has shown over 1,400 films to more than 80,000 audience members, and has supported 60 emerging filmmakers through the Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund. As a curator and filmmaker in his own right, Rosenberg's taste and work favor low-budget, personal cinema.
This screening is part of Scene: Brooklyn, Independent Film and Media Arts (April 29 - May 6, 2009), BAC's new film series that celebrates the borough's thriving film community, and features a seminar for filmmakers, a panel discussion, and screenings. 19 films bring fantastical animations, thought provoking short films, and eye opening documentaries about local issues to the screen.
View Complete Scene: Brooklyn Schedule
View Complete Scene: Brooklyn Schedule
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