Short Film Program

Sundance Short Films

Highlights from Sundance 2017 include these wild, weird and wonderful short films.

FREE

FriJUL218:00 PM

THE FILMS

The Sundance Film Festival continues to be one of the most important places for independent film. For the sixth consecutive year, Rooftop Films is excited to team with Sundance to present some of our favorite short films from their most recent edition. Hailing from the next generation of independent filmmakers and a few twisted minds. These magical-real ghost stories, backyard deer docs and brutal romances represent the best of independent shorts and a diverse array of storytelling from around the world.

ALONE

Garrett Bradley | U.S.A. | 13

With her fiancé in jail, single mother Alone Watts must decide whether to go through with their wedding. A documentary short filmed in black and white, “Alone” mines layers of mass incarceration and its shaping of love within the modern Black American family.

I KNOW YOU FROM SOMEWHERE

Andrew Fitzgerald | U.S.A. | 15

A young woman incurs the wrath of the internet after inadvertently becoming a viral sensation.

AND THE WHOLE SKY FIT IN THE DEAD COW'S EYE

Francisca Alegría | Chile, U.S.A. | 19

Emeteria (85) is visited by the ghost of her patrón, Teodoro. She believes he has come to take her to the afterlife, but he has more devastating news. A visual and deeply moving journey of a mother trying to save her son's life. Magical realism filmed in rural and rugged Chile as a backdrop that shows the long walk of a hard working woman giving her life for her son when death comes to town.

DEER SQUAD: THE MOVIE

Scott J. Ross, Pipus Larsen, Kenneth Gug | U.S.A. | 5

Kelvin Peña, a charismatic 17-year-old from rural Pennsylvania, shares his story of going viral after befriending a group of wild deer in his backyard.

HOT SEAT

Anna Kerrigan | U.S.A. | 13

To commemorate Daphne’s eighteenth birthday, she invites a handful of students from her all-girls high school to watch a male stripper at her family home. Among them is Andrea, who has been vying for Daphne’s attention for years. After stripper Jonny Ca$h has completed his main act, he asks his captive audience for a special volunteer to sit in “the hot seat”, where that lucky gal can get a private viewing of what Jonny has been hiding under his thong. When her other attempts to impress Daphne fail to pay off, Andrea volunteers to sit in the hot seat and bravely goes where none of her friends have gone before. She may lose a little innocence but ultimately, she gains the respect and admiration from Daphne that she’s been craving.

AND SO WE PUT GOLDFISH IN THE POOL

Makoto Nagahisa | Japan | 28

The true story of 400 fish that were found in a high school pool in Saitama, Japan, and the four fifteen-year-old girls who put them there. Winner of the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2017.

MUSIC

JANE CHURCH

Jane Church is the solo project of a Queens NY resident named Matt. “Demolition USA” the project’s first single, debuted digitally on June 11th. An LP called “Calimocho Molotov” is currently in production and should be completed by the end of summer.