Rob Nilsson

Directing

Rob Nilsson

Born

1939-10-29 (86)

Place of birth

Rhinelander, Wisconsin, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

62 titles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Rob Nilsson (born October 29, 1939, Rhinelander, Wisconsin) is an American independent film director, writer, and sometimes actor. He has won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize. Description above from the Wikipedia article Rob Nilsson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Known for

Beverly Hills, 90210 poster
7.3

Follow the lives of a group of teenagers living in the upscale, star-studded community of Beverly Hills, California and attending the fictitious West Beverly Hills High School and, subsequently, the fictitious California University after graduation.

Beverly Hills, 90210

1990

Miami Vice poster
7.4

The story of the Miami Police Department's vice squad and its efforts to end drug trafficking and prostitution, centered on the unlikely partnership of Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs - who first meet when Tubbs is undercover in a drug cartel.

Miami Vice

1984

Profiler poster
7.0

Rachel Burke is a criminal profiler, one of the best, actually. She, along with a sophisticated team of specialists on the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force in Atlanta, investigates crimes throughout the country. Together, they solve the toughest of cases while trying to live their lives as best they can.

Profiler

1996

Copycat poster
6.5

An agoraphobic psychologist and a female detective must work together to take down a serial killer who copies serial killers from the past.

Copycat

1995

Good Men poster
1.0

After the birth of his grandson, Bobby Roth undertakes a cinematic investigation as to what constitutes being a "good man" in today's world. This voyage of discovery leads him to interview more than fifty of his friends, both men and women who he considers to be "good people," about their views on everything from how they were parented to their thoughts on feminism, change, and regrets they might have. Their answers both surprises and enlighten both the viewers and Bobby, himself.

Good Men

2024

The Inheritance poster
5.5

A beautiful orphan of mysterious parentage is asked by her adoptive family to help find a husband for their niece, but when two suitors both fall for the orphan girl, the niece instigates a scheme to discredit her in the eyes of her guardians. Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott.

The Inheritance

1997

Film credits

2020s · 3 titles

2010s · 3 titles

Ezer Kenegdo poster
4.5

Frictions develop when Yisroel "Izzy" Jonigkeyt, a Chassidic Jew from Crown Heights, travels to San Francisco to visit Polish-born Catholic friend Marek Wisniewski with the intent of discovering why a Bay Area art-world iconoclast named Harry Kierk seeks to destroy a lifetime's worth of his own work. As the visit progresses, Izzy and Marek discover for the first time that complex historical baggage impinges on their curious friendship and, soon, they begin to understand why Kierk is driven towards destruction. Continued encounters with Marek's vaguely anti-Semitic cousin Irek (who is their only gateway to contact Kierk) only compound these tensions.

Ezer Kenegdo

2017

Sacred Blood poster
4.3

For Natia, firing bullets at her sister's head and narrowly missing is all in a days work. After taking over the family business, her sharp shooting act is the only thing keeping the declining Orbeliani Circus afloat. When a stranger and his dog drifts into her home town of Batumi, Georgia from the Black Sea, peddling his own act, Natia wonders if a change of fortune is finally on the horizon. As the circus's prospects begin to rise so do suspicions that the stranger is not who he seems. A fateful interaction forces changes upon Natia and she must leave her family to protect them from what she is becoming. Soon, she is traveling to a different city-by-the-bay, San Francisco, where confrontation and opportunity release a violent darkness rooting within her. Fighting against her loneliness and the rules of this new world, she is befriended by a troubled young artist with an innocent soul. Will this tenuous love lead her out of the darkness? Or, are they merely two halves of broken whole?

Sacred Blood

2015

The Fourth Movement poster
NR

Four interlocking stories with a Jazz theme. Four Women go out to visit the sites of the jazz clubs where Lou, 65 and dying of cancer, claims she once performed as a young singer. It's election night, Nov. 8, 2016 and the women follow the results on their cell phones. It's also opening night for the C Flat jazz club where they end the evening up as their worst fears are realized: Trump has won the election.

The Fourth Movement

2017

2000s · 4 titles

Sophisticated Acquaintance poster
8.0

Mixing elements of narrative, experimental, pseudo-documentary and essayist cinema, Sophisticated Acquaintance tells the story of a tormented individual whose short life and long death were affected by a great many factors. Klaus Mann (John Gross), a present-day Philadelphia avatar of the real-life European author of Mephisto, lives in the shadow of his father, the eminent intellectual, novelist and Nobel Laureate Thomas Mann (Ernst Hohmann). When Klaus pens a controversial essay on "revolutionary suicide" and then acts on it, in protest of the world's selfishness, a group of his contemporaries speak up in filmed interviews about what led him down that path. It is a film about the creative process, the tragic depiction of a strained father-son relationship and, most of all, it is a film about individuality.

Sophisticated Acquaintance

2007

Berkeley poster
5.5

Just as sex, drugs, rock & roll, hippies, and Vietnam enter our consciousness, so it does for Ben Sweet, the shy, 18-year-old son of conservative businessman, Sy. Ben enters UC Berkeley in 1966 to avoid the draft, but finds himself smack in the middle of a home-grown revolution.

Berkeley

2005

No artwork available
10.0

A physics professor named Robert St. John struggles to complete his "cosmology," only to find that love must be part of any mathematical equation.

Clouds

2000

No artwork available
6.5

With David Schickele's dreamy, retro soundscape, CINE MANIFEST captures a resilient group of artists reminiscing about a time when people weren't afraid to fight for their ideals, while also creating a stirring tribute to American independent filmmaking.

Cine Manifest

2006

1990s · 4 titles

Undated · 2 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

On the Edge poster
6.1

In one final attempt to achieve victory, an aging professional runner is training vigorously for a very tough marathon race.

On the Edge

1986

On the Edge poster
6.1

In one final attempt to achieve victory, an aging professional runner is training vigorously for a very tough marathon race.

On the Edge

1986

A Town Has Turned to Dust poster
4.1

In a futuristic desert hamlet, a ruthless town boss lynches a falsely accused Native American teen, setting the stage for revolt and a clash with a troubled, drunken sheriff.

A Town Has Turned to Dust

1998

The Method poster
10.0

Anna Reringer leaves her husband and goes to San Francisco to fulfill her dream of becoming an actress.

The Method

1987

Presque Isle poster
NR

Tortured manchild Danny returns to his family's abandoned island retreat and finds himself beset by fantasies of deceased ancestors, former lovers and concerned friends. Frazier is Danny's enigmatic father-figure, and the man Danny's deceased mother Alicia passionately loved but could not let herself have. Both men are prisoners of their pasts; neither can abandon their passionate devotion to Alicia.

Presque Isle

2008

Presque Isle poster
NR

Tortured manchild Danny returns to his family's abandoned island retreat and finds himself beset by fantasies of deceased ancestors, former lovers and concerned friends. Frazier is Danny's enigmatic father-figure, and the man Danny's deceased mother Alicia passionately loved but could not let herself have. Both men are prisoners of their pasts; neither can abandon their passionate devotion to Alicia.

Presque Isle

2008

Presque Isle poster
NR

Tortured manchild Danny returns to his family's abandoned island retreat and finds himself beset by fantasies of deceased ancestors, former lovers and concerned friends. Frazier is Danny's enigmatic father-figure, and the man Danny's deceased mother Alicia passionately loved but could not let herself have. Both men are prisoners of their pasts; neither can abandon their passionate devotion to Alicia.

Presque Isle

2008

Heat and Sunlight poster
4.7

A man confronts jealously and rage as a love affair falters.

Heat and Sunlight

1988

Heat and Sunlight poster
4.7

A man confronts jealously and rage as a love affair falters.

Heat and Sunlight

1988

Winter Oranges poster
9.0

A resident (Ryuki "Duke" Tenmaya) of a small Japanese island dreams of leaving his wife, heading to Tokyo and pursuing an acting career.

Winter Oranges

2000

Love Twice poster
5.0

"What do you do when the spark touches down-brief and hot?" So begins award-winning director Rob Nilsson's (Permission to Touch, MVFF 2015; A Bridge to a Border, MVFF 2014) provocative meditation on the Möbius relationship of fiction to reality, and the notion of creative control. In Love Twice, Luz and Ken are star-crossed lovers in screenwriter Sal's script, until their desire takes shape, inscribing itself into a movie of their own design. Risking his sanity to save the screenplay, Sal struggles to regain control of his characters and satisfy the demands of his producer Lester (legendary Velvet Underground founder John Cale), driving a wedge between the lovers with a desperate attempt to seduce Luz.

Love Twice

2016

Love Twice poster
5.0

"What do you do when the spark touches down-brief and hot?" So begins award-winning director Rob Nilsson's (Permission to Touch, MVFF 2015; A Bridge to a Border, MVFF 2014) provocative meditation on the Möbius relationship of fiction to reality, and the notion of creative control. In Love Twice, Luz and Ken are star-crossed lovers in screenwriter Sal's script, until their desire takes shape, inscribing itself into a movie of their own design. Risking his sanity to save the screenplay, Sal struggles to regain control of his characters and satisfy the demands of his producer Lester (legendary Velvet Underground founder John Cale), driving a wedge between the lovers with a desperate attempt to seduce Luz.

Love Twice

2016

The Way Things Seem to Be poster
2.0

An in-depth look at documentarian Rob Nilsson.

The Way Things Seem to Be

2026

The Way Things Seem to Be poster
2.0

An in-depth look at documentarian Rob Nilsson.

The Way Things Seem to Be

2026

Imbued poster
NR

Don tries to solve a beautiful young woman's problems.

Imbued

2009

Imbued poster
NR

Don tries to solve a beautiful young woman's problems.

Imbued

2009

Chalk poster
6.0

After learning his stepfather has throat cancer, a lazy pool hustler takes on a high-stakes contender.

Chalk

1996

Chalk poster
6.0

After learning his stepfather has throat cancer, a lazy pool hustler takes on a high-stakes contender.

Chalk

1996

Words for the Dying poster
8.0

An 80-minute documentary following John Cale and Brian Eno in Moscow, London, and Wales during the creation of the album "Words for the Dying."

Words for the Dying

1993

Northern Lights poster
6.2

The bittersweet story of young lovers caught up in a political struggle waged by farmers against the grain trade, the banks, and the railroads. Set in 1915–16 North Dakota, a largely forgotten era of American history.

Northern Lights

1978

Northern Lights poster
6.2

The bittersweet story of young lovers caught up in a political struggle waged by farmers against the grain trade, the banks, and the railroads. Set in 1915–16 North Dakota, a largely forgotten era of American history.

Northern Lights

1978

Northern Lights poster
6.2

The bittersweet story of young lovers caught up in a political struggle waged by farmers against the grain trade, the banks, and the railroads. Set in 1915–16 North Dakota, a largely forgotten era of American history.

Northern Lights

1978

Bill's Gun Shop poster
9.0

A job at Bill's Gun Shop, a permit to carry, and a chance to ride "shotgun" on a bounty-hunt seem like 23-year-old Dillon McCarthy's dream come true. When the gun kills, Dillon is forced to decide for himself: "What's the price of a permit to carry?"

Bill's Gun Shop

2001

Arid Cut poster
NR

Sky-high housing costs, rents no one can pay, urban development, and street crime make life difficult for RV dwellers in Berkeley, California. City bureaucrats collaborate with real estate agents to gentrify neighborhoods forcing out already marginalized people living in cars, trucks, and RVs. With no more West to escape to, they contemplate turning back East.

Arid Cut

2019

Arid Cut poster
NR

Sky-high housing costs, rents no one can pay, urban development, and street crime make life difficult for RV dwellers in Berkeley, California. City bureaucrats collaborate with real estate agents to gentrify neighborhoods forcing out already marginalized people living in cars, trucks, and RVs. With no more West to escape to, they contemplate turning back East.

Arid Cut

2019

Center Divide poster
NR

Center Divide is the second film in Rob Nilsson's multi-character Nomad Trilogy. In the first film, Arid Cut (2019), our refugees of the American Dream leave the city. In Center Divide, with no more West to escape to, they're now on the road heading East.

Center Divide

2021

Center Divide poster
NR

Center Divide is the second film in Rob Nilsson's multi-character Nomad Trilogy. In the first film, Arid Cut (2019), our refugees of the American Dream leave the city. In Center Divide, with no more West to escape to, they're now on the road heading East.

Center Divide

2021

No artwork available
10.0

Estranged from his longtime girlfriend, suburban accountant Perry wanders into the Tenderloin at night and is drawn into a series of dangerous and erotic encounters.

Singing

2000

No artwork available
10.0

Estranged from his longtime girlfriend, suburban accountant Perry wanders into the Tenderloin at night and is drawn into a series of dangerous and erotic encounters.

Singing

2000

No artwork available
NR

A small band of dysfunctional renegade homeless people led by charismatic "Pan" befriends a lonely youngster, a fatherless "Bobby" who stumbles upon their homeless encampment nestled by the railroad tracks. The busy socialite mother, Barbara instantly disapproves of "Bobby" & "Pan's" budding friendship, while secretly and somewhat unwillingly developing feelings for Pan.

Pan

2006

No artwork available
3.8

Petite struggles to hold onto her relationship with Tyrone, a pool hustler, while Jane works as a stripper in the Gold Club. Lou, Jane’s mother and a heroin addict, is a renegade aging prostitute who works the streets and bars in defiance of the pimps. Francesca manages an escort service and does phone sex.

Need

2005

Rebel Earth poster
NR

Henry Martinson accompanies a young North Dakota farmer searching for the sites of his past. The second part of John Hanson and Rob Nilsson's Prairie Trilogy.

Rebel Earth

1980

Rebel Earth poster
NR

Henry Martinson accompanies a young North Dakota farmer searching for the sites of his past. The second part of John Hanson and Rob Nilsson's Prairie Trilogy.

Rebel Earth

1980

Survivor poster
NR

The final segment of the Prairie Trilogy, about a veteran North Dakota poet and socialist organizer, who fought against economic exploitation. Finished the year before Martinson’s death, it focuses on the biography of its subject, here found in a funny and expansive mood.

Survivor

1980

Prairie Fire poster
NR

The first segment of what would eventually be the Prairie Trilogy, about veteran North Dakota poet and socialist organizer Henry Martinson, who fought against economic exploitation. Martinson recounts the 1916 birth of the Socialist Nonpartisan League, his narrative accompanied by images shot by Nilsson’s own grandfather, Frithjof Holmboe.

Prairie Fire

1977

Faultline poster
NR

A ten-year drought brings local ranches to the brink of disaster. The search for Bert Neville takes its toll on Rail and Mitra. They break up and Rail continues on alone. Travis, Ziggy and Karin hitchhike in high country and get lost in a burnt out forest. Taylor travels with Ukrainian gallery owners looking for the prototypical western artist. Dane introduces Rail to his mother, Violet, a full blood hewise, who remembers the horrors of the Indian schools. Her ex-husband Bedford refuses to give his real name to a white man. Her daughter April broadcasts a tribal blog on indian affairs. Dane and Rail are stopped by local militia types. Entrepreneurs propose a geothermal plant to ranchers and locals divided by political views. Rail finds an old map in an abandoned ranch and Mitra, now recovered, rejoins him. Is the mystery of Bert Neville about to be solved?

Faultline

2022

Faultline poster
NR

A ten-year drought brings local ranches to the brink of disaster. The search for Bert Neville takes its toll on Rail and Mitra. They break up and Rail continues on alone. Travis, Ziggy and Karin hitchhike in high country and get lost in a burnt out forest. Taylor travels with Ukrainian gallery owners looking for the prototypical western artist. Dane introduces Rail to his mother, Violet, a full blood hewise, who remembers the horrors of the Indian schools. Her ex-husband Bedford refuses to give his real name to a white man. Her daughter April broadcasts a tribal blog on indian affairs. Dane and Rail are stopped by local militia types. Entrepreneurs propose a geothermal plant to ranchers and locals divided by political views. Rail finds an old map in an abandoned ranch and Mitra, now recovered, rejoins him. Is the mystery of Bert Neville about to be solved?

Faultline

2022

Celebrate Cinema 101 poster
NR

This film project was made in 1996 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the cinema.

Celebrate Cinema 101

1996

Noise poster
8.0

Convicted counterfeiter Ben Malafide gets out of prison after 20 years and ends up in the Tenderloin. Seeking the bare essentials to make ends meet, he confronts the Information Age, a barrage of images and noises that offer neither knowledge nor heart.

Noise

2002

No artwork available
NR

Go Together chronicles the sinking fortunes of an Oakland art cinema. Michelle, co- owner with her husband Denny, wants to continue programming the high minded films she believes in while her husband flirts with the idea of a highly profitable “vintage porn” night promoted by St. Tre, owner of a strip club and escort service. Meantime, St. Tre’s boy friend Ben Malafide aka Aldo Modisco, on parole from prison, begins to think that life in prison is preferable to the illusory “freedoms” of life in society.

Go Together

2007