Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mark Rosman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Mark, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I wake up each morning driven by my passion to make my next movie project, which I’m excited to say will shoot this fall. This is an autobiographical film that has some fictional elements to it but is largely based on the journey I went through about 10 years ago when my then teen daughter spiraled downwards into substance use disorder. I’ve been a director of family movies like “A Cinderella Story” and “The Perfect Man” and was blindsided when my wife and I discovered that there was a problem in our own family. As our daughter went into treatment, my wife and I sought out support from parent groups, addiction counselors, and parent workshops. During this journey, we learned an incredibly important lesson that is the theme of my film: when we started to look at our own behavior and began making changes, that opened a space for our daughter’s recovery to start. She is now over five years substance free, thriving, and recently got married. My movie, “Keep Coming Back”, will be the first feature film to focus on the crucial role families play in recovery. It’s a unique look at the addiction crisis, and one that offers a lot of hope and healing for families. This film is so meaningful for me not only because I’m so grateful for where our daughter’s life is at right now, but also because this is the first film in my over thirty-year directing career that will be both entertaining and have an important and life-changing message for people all over the world. That’s what feeds my passion every morning and I can’t wait for the next day to begin.

Mark, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve been a writer and director in features, TV movies, and TV series for over 30 years, known mainly for working in the family/romance/comedy genres. I grew up in Los Angeles and knew I wanted to be a director when I was 12 years old. No one else in my family was in the film business or any creative business but just growing up in the world center for moviemaking somehow influenced me. I started making short super-8 films, graduated to 16mm films in high school, and then directed my first feature on 35mm when I was 24 – a horror film called “The House on Sorority Row”. Although my passion was to make suspense/thriller/sci fi/action films, the horror genre offered me the opportunity to break in. After that film, my friend from NYU film school called saying he had a producing deal at the new Disney Channel and asked if I have anything to pitch them. I switched gears and came up with a family friendly story about a boy who goes back in time to save the life of his bi-plane pilot grandfather who died in 1927 trying to beat Lindbergh across the Atlantic. Disney bought “The Blue Yonder” and that started my work in the family genre, which it turns out I was much more suited for. I went on to make more Disney TV movies and a bunch of “straight to video” thrillers, but mainly my work focused on family comedies. Nowadays, when I run into women of a certain age (late twenties/early thirties) and I tell them my credits, it seems they’ve all grown up on my movies, like “Life-Size” with Lindsay Lohan and Tyra Banks and “A Cinderella Story” and “The Perfect Man” with Hilary Duff. More recently I’ve made TV movies for Hallmark and Lifetime and TV series like “Ghost Whisperer” and “Greek”. But starting a few years ago, I made a big shift in my career and decided to focus on personal stories that I am passionate about. I’m thrilled that my next movie will be “Keep Coming Back”, a unique and powerful story I wrote and will direct about drug addiction that is loosely based on the journey I went through with my daughter. I’ve always been passionate about making movies, but now that I’m telling personal stories I know will resonate with many people, my enthusiasm and commitment has only grown larger.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

For the past thirty years, my goal in making films was to direct the most entertaining projects I could. But at this point in my life, I’ve realized that I want to add another dimension to what I do. Although I still want my movies to be entertaining, I also want them to have social relevancy and make a positive impact. By choosing stories that come from my own personal experiences and struggles, I’m able to create projects that will not only touch people emotionally but will also bring understanding and even healing to the world. I know it sounds rather lofty and idealistic, but hey, if you don’t reach for something challenging, you’ll never get it. With the films I’ve made up to this point, I’m already blessed to have people come up to me (mainly women) who have grown up on my films and feel they have added something positive to their lives. But I can’t wait to be able to have my films go beyond that – to inspire people and bring some help, healing, and hope to the world. These are the goals that drive me every day to succeed.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I’ve always loved being a visual storyteller. Bringing a movie to life and seeing that people are entertained and moved by it are the most rewarding aspects of what I do as a filmmaker. Whether I’ve written the script or not, as a director I get to turn words on a page into memorable scenes on a screen. To do that means I get to collaborate with some of the most talented artists in the film business – people like cinematographers, producers, production designers, costume designers, editors, composers, and of course actors. Working with skilled and creative performers is probably the most thrilling thing I do because they are the ones who most directly bring the written word to life. As the director, I have a front row seat to watching that process unfold and sometimes it literally takes my breath away. And then being able to help shape those magical performances into something that improves upon what the writer contributed is truly an amazing feeling. Then I get to experience that all over again in the editing room as I work with a talented editor and mold each scene like working with clay. When the end result works, and you get a movie that entertains and touches people at the same time, what can be better than that?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://keepcomingbackfilm.com
• Instagram: keepcomingbackfilm
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Keep-Coming-Back/61556394303069/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marosman/

Image Credits

Pic #1 – Mark Rosman, Hilary Duff

Pic #2 – Mark Rosman, Amy Redford, exec producer “Keep Coming Back”