Rooftop Films at 20

Rooftop Films started showing movies at Industry City in 2015. Photo: Ethan Judelson
It all started with a few flyers, a bed sheet and a rooftop.
In the summer of 1997, Mark Elijah Rosenberg founded Rooftop Films on the top of his East Village apartment building. He and a few friends, he said, “used a 16mm projector, tied a sheet to the wall, opened the door to the roof, and we had a film festival.” The turnout to see the collection of short films that Rosenberg had selected for the