Robert Rippberger

Robert Rippberger (born September 7, 1988) is an American film director and film producer from Boulder, Colorado. He is the director/producer of 7 Days in Syria ^[1][2][3] and the executive producer of the Magnolia Pictures acquired South by Southwest documentary Alive and Kicking along with Jason Blum.^{[4][5][6][7][8]}

Rippberger is also the director of the 2014 music video Ab Laut Aa by EDM DJ Sanjoy featuring Sunidhi Chauhan.^[9] The video has 1.4 million views on YouTube.^[10]

Early life

Rippberger began filmmaking at age 13. As a freshman in high school, he enrolled in filmmaking classes at the University of Colorado Boulder. In 2005, at age 16, he made his first feature film, “The Hoodwink”. The film had a premiere that sold out on the opening night, as an additional theater was added to accommodate the crowd. For the film, Rippberger rented a helicopter and hired a pilot to fly it so he could shoot a chase scene up Flagstaff Mountain.^[11]

Rippberger received a B.A. in philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley in 2010, where he was awarded in 2009 the Roselyn Schneider Eisner Prize for his film In the Middle. It is the "highest achievement in the creative arts" given on the UC, Berkeley campus.^[12]

Career

Rippberger co-created and then sold a documentary archive site called ThinkingAloud.com, asking politicians and world leaders about the biggest crisis facing the world today and asking what is to be done? The series was published in 7 parts by the New York Times.^[13][14]

He was the 2012 recipient of the Dan Eldon Activist Award for producing and directing Breaking the Cycle, a documentary feature about Huntington’s Disease. The award is given to filmmakers for best use of media to effect positive change.^[15][16]

In 2014, Rippberger published a novel with Regent Press called Escape to Anywhere Else with a foreword by Mariel Hemingway.^[17][18]

Rippberger co-founded and is acting Editor-In-Chief of the film magazine and podcast Cinema of Change.^[19]

He is also the festival director of the annual I Imagine Film Festival and conference in New York that coincides with the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.^[20]

Filmography

Robert Rippberger at the 2015 I Imagine Film Festival in New York.

Features

• "Alive and Kicking (2016 film)" (executive producer)^[21]
• "7 Days in Syria (2015 film)"^[22]
• "Slave to Chocolate (2015 film)"
• "Face of Unity: Nelson Mandela (2014 film)"
• "Breaking the Cycle (2013 film)"
• "Visions for the Future (2013 film)"
• "The Hoodwink (2006 film)"

Shorts

• "A Night at the Office (2012 film)" (co-producer)
• "ThinkingAloud (2011 film)"
• "Haven (2011 film)"
• "Noor (2011 film)" (co-director)
• "In the Middle (2009 film)"
• "R.I.P. (2005 film)"
• "Grave (2004 film)"

Music videos

• "Set Me Free" by Sanjoy (2014)^[23]
• "Ab Laut Aa" by Sanjoy featuring Sunidhi Chauhan (2013)^[24]

Commercials

• Trumbull Studios (2012)^[25]

References

External links

• Robert Rippberger at the Internet Movie Database
• Robert Rippberger website
• The Huffington Post
• 7 Days in Syria documentary film website
• Cinema of Change website