Clockwise from top left: Nikyatu Jusu, Lucy Walker, Jean Pesce, Laura Moss
Rooftop Films, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that supports independent cinema, has announced four Grad Film alumni as 2020 grant recipients:
Nikyatu Jusu, NANNY
Rooftop Films and Eastern Effects Equipment Grant
Aisha is an undocumented nanny caring for a privileged child on the Upper East Side of New York. As she prepares for the arrival of the son she left behind in her native country, a violent supernatural presence invades her reality, threatening the “American Dream” she’s painstakingly pieced together.
Laura Moss, birth/rebirth
Rooftop Films and Adrienne Shelly Foundation Grant For Women
birth/rebirth is a psychological horror film about motherhood and creation, inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The film is centered around two female protagonists, a single mother and a childless morgue technician who are bound together by their relationship to a re-animated little girl.
Jean Pesce, Cuttlefish
Rooftop Films and NYCEDC Production Office Grants
A broke, bumbling dog-groomer discovers a money-laundering scheme and soon finds herself on the run with a beautiful mobster.
Lucy Walker, Untitled Wild Fire Documentary
Rooftop Films Water Tower Feature Film Grant
Told through dramatically riveting and emotional characters-drive vertié, this feature documentary is a combination of dynamic investigation into our landscape’s hidden fire stories and on-the-ground experiences of firefighters and residents struggling through hellish and deadly fires gripping the world.
Find a full list of winners at Variety.