Biography
Richard L. "Rick" Rosenthal, Jr. (born June 15, 1949) is an American film and television director. He is also a producer, actor, and writer.
Known For
Complete Filmography

Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
2025
Executive Producer
Out of the underground dance clubs on the South Side of Chicago, a group of friends turn a new sound into a global movement.

I Hate Myself and Want to Die
2024
Producer
A depressed young guy is trying to kill himself but he keeps getting interrupted by his unsuspecting family and friends.

Food and Country
2024
Co-Executive Producer
America's policy of producing cheap food at all costs has long hobbled small independent farmers, ranchers, and chefs. Worried for their survival, tra...

The Shepherd and the Bear
2024
Executive Producer
High in the French Pyrenees, the reintroduction of wild bears in a traditional shepherding community provokes deep conflict. An aging shepherd struggl...

The Grab
2024
Executive Producer
An investigative journalist uncovers the money, influence, and alarming rationale behind covert land grabs by some of the world’s most powerful countr...

Alien Contact
2024
Emmy award-winning filmmaker and marine biologist Rick Rosenthal teams up with science fiction writer Chris Carter on an investigative journey to expl...

Alien Contact
2024
Director
Emmy award-winning filmmaker and marine biologist Rick Rosenthal teams up with science fiction writer Chris Carter on an investigative journey to expl...

Invisible Beauty
2023
Executive Producer
Fashion revolutionary Bethann Hardison looks back on her journey as a pioneering Black model, modeling agent, and activist, shining a light on an unto...

Stay Awake
2023
Executive Producer
Set against the backdrop of the prescription drug and opioid crisis in the USA, Jamie Sisley depicts the individual consequences of a societal tragedy...

The Cow Who Sang a Song into the Future
2023
Executive Producer
A Chilean family is shaken by the sudden return of a long-dead matriarch.

Art for Everybody
2023
Executive Producer
Thomas Kinkade’s pastoral landscapes made him the most collected and despised painter of all time. After his shocking death, his family discovers a va...

Citizen Ashe
2021
Executive Producer
Follows the life and career of Arthur Ashe.

Small Engine Repair
2021
Producer
The seemingly casual reunion of three old friends at an out-of-the-way repair shop masks a hidden agenda fuelled by the arrival of a privileged young ...

Rebel Hearts
2021
Executive Producer
A group of pioneering nuns bravely stand up to the Catholic Church patriarchy, fighting for their livelihoods, convictions and equality against an all...

Civil War (Or, Who Do We Think We Are)
2021
Executive Producer
A journey across the United States to explore the story of the Civil War of Americans from President Obama's final year in office through the present.

Love & Stuff
2020
Co-Executive Producer
Seven months after helping her terminally ill mother during the end of her life in home-hospice, filmmaker Judith Helfand becomes a "new old" single m...

The Boy Behind The Door
2020
Producer
Bobby tries to save himself and his best friend when they are kidnapped on their way home from school.

Feels Good Man
2020
Executive Producer
When indie comic character Pepe the Frog becomes an unwitting icon of hate, his creator, artist Matt Furie, fights to bring Pepe back from the darknes...

Standing Up, Falling Down
2020
Producer
An unlikely friendship kindles between a struggling stand-up comedian from L.A. — forced to move back home to Eastern Long Island with his tail betwee...

Won't You Be My Neighbor?
2018
Executive Producer
For more than thirty years, and through his television program, Fred Rogers (1928-2003), host, producer, writer and pianist, accompanied by his puppet...

Dark Money
2018
Executive Producer
'Dark money' contributions, made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, flood modern American elections — but Montana is showing...

Halfway There
2017
Director, Executive Producer
Jimmy Bishop runs a sober living facility and is forced to take in his wealthy alcoholic mother as a client.

Saving Capitalism
2017
Executive Producer
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich meets with Americans from all walks of life as he chronicles a seismic shift in the nation's economy.

Punching Henry
2017
Producer
Comedian Henry Phillips is lured to LA by a renowned TV producer who wants to bring his story of failure to the screen. But when a major network gets ...

Bending the Arc
2017
Executive Producer
About the extraordinary doctors and activists—including Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, and Ophelia Dahl—whose work 30 years ago to save lives in a rural H...

First Girl I Loved
2016
Executive Producer
Seventeen-year-old Anne just fell in love with Sasha, the most popular girl at her L.A. public high school. But when Anne tells her best friend, Clift...

Band of Robbers
2016
Producer
A comedic thriller that re-imagines Mark Twain's iconic literary characters of "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" as grown men in current day.

Aram, Aram
2015
Executive Producer
The first American independent drama to take viewers inside the Armenian Community of Los Angeles: Suddenly uprooted from his home, 12 year-old Armeni...

King Jack
2015
Executive Producer
Growing up in a rural town filled with violent delinquents, Jack has learned to do what it takes to survive, despite having an oblivious mother and no...

7 Minutes
2014
Producer
When three young criminals lose a stash of drugs, they end up owing money to a ruthless drug lord. With time running out, they plan a daring robbery t...

Lost After Dark
2014
as Sheriff
A group of teens sneak out of their high school dance to cruise around and have some unsupervised fun. When their car runs out of gas on a deserted ro...

Match
2014
Producer
A Seattle couple travel to New York to interview colorful former dancer Tobi for research on a dissertation about dance. But soon, common niceties and...

Big Men
2014
Executive Producer
For her latest industrial exposé, Rachel Boynton (Our Brand Is Crisis) gained unprecedented access to Africa's oil companies. The result is a gripping...

Big in Japan
2014
Executive Producer
Big in Japan is a comedic rock-and-roll road movie about struggling Seattle rock band, Tennis Pro, who decide to sell their tour-van and head to Tokyo...

Drones
2013
Director, Producer
Drones begins in the Nevada desert, where new girl Sue Lawson joins airman Jack in a hot, windowless bunker from which they manoeuvre unmanned drones ...

Cold Comes the Night
2013
Executive Producer
A struggling motel owner and her daughter are taken hostage by a nearly blind career criminal to be his eyes as he attempts to retrieve his cash packa...

Afternoon Delight
2013
Executive Producer
Rachel is a quick-witted and lovable stay-at-home mom, frustrated with the responsibilities of her son's preschool, a lacklustre sex life and a career...

Open Heart
2013
Executive Producer
Eight Rwandan children leave their families behind to embark on a life-or-death journey seeking high-risk heart surgery in Sudan. Their hearts ravaged...

California Solo
2012
Executive Producer
Lachlan MacAldonich is a self-described “lazy Scotsman” and former guitar player for a once-popular 1990s rock band. No longer famous, he now lives a ...

Fat Kid Rules The World
2012
Producer
A dropout comes to the aid of a chubby and suicidal high-school kid by recruiting him as the drummer for his upstart punk-rock band.

The Procession
2012
Executive Producer
A mother and son attend a funeral for someone they really don't know, and intend to leave right after, but end up leading the procession to the burial...

The Nightmare Isn't Over! The Making of Halloween II
2012
as Self
Retrospective documentary about the making of "Halloween II."

Arcadia
2012
Executive Producer
Greta's dad Tom is moving the family cross-country in a dented station wagon, promising a California paradise to his kids. All that's missing is Mom.

On the Ice
2011
Executive Producer
In Barrow, Alaska, teenagers Qalli and Aivaaq find their bond tested when a seal-hunting trip goes wrong.

According to Greta
2009
Producer
Dumped on her grandparents for the summer by her indifferent mother, acerbic and self-destructive teenager Greta disrupts the elderly couple's staid l...

Kabluey
2007
Producer
Leslie is left with few options when her husband is sent back to war in the Middle East. A modest amount of help arrives in the form of his brother, S...

Nearing Grace
2006
Director
Having recently lost his mother, teenager Henry Nearing develops a crush on seductive classmate Grace, who toys with him. Though he has been friends w...

Mean Creek
2004
Producer
Teenagers living in small-town Oregon take a boat trip for a birthday celebration. When they get an idea to play a mean trick on the town bully, it su...

Halloween: Resurrection - WebCam Special
2002
Director
Alternate cut of Rick Rosenthal's "Halloween: Resurrection" that solely consists of webcam footage including alternate scenes and dialogue.

Halloween: Resurrection
2002
as Professor
Reality programmers at DangerTainment select a group of thrill-seeking teenagers to spend one night in the childhood home of serial killer Michael Mye...

Halloween: Resurrection
2002
Director
Reality programmers at DangerTainment select a group of thrill-seeking teenagers to spend one night in the childhood home of serial killer Michael Mye...

Just a Little Harmless Sex
1999
Director, Producer
A young married couple faces a serious break-up when the husband is caught committing adultery with a prostitute.

The Birds II: Land's End
1994
Director
Ted and his family have just moved to the sleepy coastal town of Gull Island so that he can complete work on his thesis. Everything couldn’t seem more...

Devlin
1992
Director
A troubled cop is framed in the murder of his brother-in-law, whose father is a political boss.

The Witches of Eastwick
1992
Director
An unsold TV series pilot about three single witches living together who try to conjure up their idea of the "perfect man." One day, their wish comes ...

Nasty Boys
1989
Director
When a narcotics team sent to bust some drug dealers are massacred. The police department form a special unit of undercover cops whose identities are ...

Distant Thunder
1988
Director
A troubled Vietnam war vet deserts his wife and child shortly after he returns from the war. He returns after 10 years, where he's been living like an...

Russkies
1987
Director
A group of American boys discovers a Russian sailor washed up on the coast of Florida and decide to befriend him, assuming that he is friendly and wil...

Better Off Dead...
1985
as Smity
High school student Lane Meyer sinks into suicidal depression when his girlfriend dumps him for jock Roy Stalin, the high school ski racing champion. ...

Code of Vengeance
1985
Director
A Vietnam veteran who has become a drifter helps a young, single mother avenge her brother's murder and finds himself the target of a gang of dope smu...

Johnny Dangerously
1984
as Judge
An honest, goodhearted man is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills.

American Dreamer
1984
Director
American housewife Cathy Palmer loses her memory on a trip to Paris after being hit by a car. She wakes up in the hospital believing she's the fiction...

Best Revenge
1984
Writer
When his best friend is kidnapped and held for ransom by a drug kingpin, an American hustler embarks on a suicide mission to smuggle four million doll...

Bad Boys
1983
as Judge
Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug deal...

Bad Boys
1983
Director
Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug deal...

Fire on the Mountain
1981
Producer
A young real estate developer returns to his hometown to make a land killing but soon takes up the cause of a crusty old-timer in his struggles with t...

Halloween II
1981
Director
After failing to kill stubborn survivor Laurie and taking a bullet or six from former psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis, Michael Myers has followed Laurie t...

Lindsay Wagner: Another Side of Me
1977
Assistant Camera
Television special in which Lindsay Wagner sings, re-enacts her wedding day, plays in a silent-comedy spoof, meets Paul Anka, swims a la Esther Willia...

Video Vixens!
1975
as Slate Man
Video Vixens purports to be a satire of the phony liberalism that resulted in the permissiveness of the 1980s. A libidinous TV executive decides to st...