About Us
We are a group of optimists who believe that sharing stories about real people and real issues makes us stronger.
Annie Roney
Founder and CEO
Annie Roney is the founder and CEO of ROCO Films, a highly-curated global documentary distribution company. She is co-founder of Film Platform, a global subscription streaming service for colleges and universities allowing students and faculty to actively use documentaries in the classroom and for research. She is President of the Board of the non-profit In Real Life Movies, which aims to release documentaries in the public interest to theaters nationwide using a non-profit model that supports art house theaters, filmmakers and audiences who want to connect in real life. The In Real Life Movie Club will have its first nationwide screening of the film “Join or DIe: Why You Should Join a Club” on September 15th, 2024, the International Day of Democracy.
Annie is known for her curatorial eye. Since founding ROCO Films in 2000, ROCO has distributed and/or Executive Produced hundreds of award-winning documentaries with 18 consecutive years receiving an Oscar nomination for at least one of their films. Films in the collection include Born Into Brothels, Hoop Dreams, Jesus Camp, The Weather Underground, Promises, Street Fight, How to Survive a Plague, Particle Fever, Inequality for All, The Hunting Ground, RBG, Q: Into the Storm, Dolores, Deep Rising, Beyond Utopia, The Grab, Food Inc 2, 32 Sounds and Common Ground.
In 2013, Annie screened the documentary Particle Fever and for the first time understood how the yearning to make sense of our place in the universe is no different for physicists as it is for artists. The documentary proved what she loves most about the genre: the very personal experience of growth that comes from witnessing other people’s stories in film. She is now producing Particle Fever the Musical with Megan Kingery, book by David Henry Hwang, music & lyrics by Bear McCreary and Zoe Sarnak, with Leigh Silverman directing. The New York Time science section recently publicized the development of the musical in this article.
“Called “a straight-up Samurai Love Warrior with incisive and honest guidance” by filmmaker Peter Bratt, Annie has cultivated documentary filmmaker relationships for over two decades, building a solid brand of trust in an industry skeptical of distributors one one hand; and, on the other hand, she has forged meaningful distribution relationships with all relevant media, globally, from broadcasters to theatrical distributors, educational institutions and research databases, film festivals, TVOD platforms, streamers and funders.
Cristine Platt Dewey
Managing Director, ROCO Educational
Nicole Askeland
Director, Operations and Digital Services
Mikalia Wood
Manager, Communications
Kristin Cooney
VP, Impact and Engagement
Adiba Khan
Director, Impact and Engagement
Tarji Rodriguez
Client Services and Account Manager
