Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Elisabeth Moss, Tiffany Haddish, Domhnall Gleeson, James Badge Dale, Alicia Coppola

In 1978, three Hell’s Kitchen housewives’ mobster husbands are sent to prison by the FBI. Left with little but a sharp ax to grind, the ladies take the Irish mafia’s matters into their own hands.

The 2019 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour is a program of seven short films selected from this year’s Festival, widely considered the premier showcase for short films and the launchpad for many now-prominent independent filmmakers for more than 30 years. Including fiction, documentary and animation from around the world, the 2019 program offers new audiences a taste of what the Festival offers, from sharply-written comedy and drama to edgy genre and an intimate family saga.

Fueled by artistic expression and limited only by their runtime, short films transcend traditional storytelling. They are a significant and popular way artists can connect with audiences. From documentary to animation, narrative to experimental, the abbreviated form is made for risk-taking. The Festival has always treated short films with the highest regard and gives a home to both established and new filmmakers with shorts for audiences to discover and celebrate.

The Festival’s Short Film Program has long been established as a place to discover talented directors, such as past alums Damien Chazelle, Wes Anderson, Jill Soloway, Spike Jonze, Paul Thomas Anderson, Dee Rees, Taika Waititi, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Lake Bell, Debra Granik, Jay and Mark Duplass, Todd Haynes, Lynne Ramsay, Andrea Arnold, and many others.

The Program:
sometimes, i think about dying
U.S.A., 13 minutes. Directed by Stefanie Abel Horowitz, written by Stefanie Abel Horowitz, Katy Wright-Mead, and Kevin Armento.
Fran is thinking about dying, but a man in the office might want to date her.

FAST HORSE
Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing
Canada, 13 minutes. Written and directed by Alexandra Lazarowich.
The Blackfoot bareback horse-racing tradition returns in the astonishingly dangerous Indian Relay. Siksika horseman Allison Red Crow struggles with second-hand horses and a new jockey on his way to challenge the best riders in the Blackfoot Confederacy.

Suicide By Sunlight
U.S.A., 17 minutes. Directed by Nikyatu Jusu, written by Nikyatu Jusu and R. Shanea Williams.
Valentina, a day-walking Black vampire protected from the sun by her melanin, is forced to restrain her bloodlust to regain custody of her estranged daughters.

Muteum
Estonia, Hong Kong, 4 minutes. Written and directed by Äggie Pak Yee Lee.
In an art museum, we learn—from outer to inner, from deep to its deepest, seriously and sincerely.

Crude Oil
U.S.A., 15 minutes. Written and directed by Christopher Good.
Jenny breaks free from a toxic friendship and learns to harness her magical, useless superpower.

The MINORS
Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing
U.S.A., 10 minutes. Written and directed by Robert Machoian.
A slice of life about a grandpa and his grandsons, the future and the past.

Brotherhood
Canada, Tunisia, Qatar, Sweden, 25 minutes. Written and directed by Meryam Joobeur.
When a hardened Tunisian shepherd’s son returns home after a long journey with a new wife, tension rises between father and son.

November 9, 2005: The Queen of Pop releases Confessions on a Dance Floor, arguably her 21st Century masterpiece, which ultimately peaks at number one in 40 countries, selling over 10 millions copies… Yet another renaissance for the virtuoso of re-invention, another imperial phase in her unprecedented career…

May 21, 2006: Madonna embarks on her seventh world tour to promote the record – nine months after a highly publicized horseback riding accident. Eight broken bones be damned: the Goddess descends upon us in a million dollar disco ball – and emerges an electro-punk dominatrix, with a body as stunning, svelte, and strapping as a stallion.

Collaborating with the likes of Steven Klein, Jonas Akerlund, Stuart Price, and director Jamie King, Madonna crafted a concert of poetic perfection: adorned with a crown of thorns and hung from a diamond crucifix, she returns to her familiar motifs of redemption and salvation… versions of Get Together and Erotica embody a sophisticated elegance hitherto unseen in her finest work… astounding, sumptuous iconography envelopes history’s greatest mistress of ceremonies, as she whips her audience into a frothy, disco-frenzy… and grinds a studded pommel-horse and glittering boom box into submission…

Get on your knees, for the Queen has one but question to ask: Have you confessed?

On the occasion of Madonna’s birthday, Nitehawk Williamsburg welcomes you to an intimate, midnite screening of the Grammy Award winning The Confessions Tour: Live From London, with pre-party at Lo-Res featuring DJ Chauncey Dandridge.

Hosted by Renaissance Boy, Michele Ruiz, Carlo of Icon Project and House of Dandridge!

Starring: Peter Robbins, Pamelyn Ferdin, Glenn Gilger, Andy Pforsich, Sally Dryer, Hilary Momberger

This is a special one day 50th anniversary screening of the original Peanuts film adaptation.

Charlie Brown and his fellow Peanuts make their feature film debut in this animated comedy that is based on Charles Schultz long-lived cartoon strip. The story centers on a national spelling bee. Lucky Charlie Brown is so excited that he is selected to participate in it, but will he be able to overcome his chronic bad-karma and actually win?

NoBudge is happy to present nine new narrative short films (including several NYC and Brooklyn premieres), a sampling of recent favorites from the film festival circuit and online premieres. Connected loosely around the theme of life not going as planned, this 92 minute block tends toward the comedic, but there are also moments of emotional resonance. A recently divorced father deals with the failure of his marriage in How It’s Goin’, while a visual artist reckons with the realities of not making enough money in the profound Unfinished,2017 (Mixed media). The lives of struggling artists are also tackled comedically in films such as Too Long at the Fair and Seven Dreams featuring performers with unusual approaches. Two films share a director (Doron Max Hagay, NoBudge Hall-of-Famer) while four take place in California, a visual nod to the summer screening. Screened with filmmakers in attendance for a post-film Q&A and Afterparty.

NoBudge is an online platform spotlighting the best in low-budget indie filmmaking. “One of the best places to sample what’s happening in low-budget cinema worldwide,” says Glenn Kenny of The New York Times. Its mission is to provide a supportive home for emerging indie filmmakers working with limited resources and without major industry connections, and to be a trusted discovery platform helping audiences find their new favorite movies and filmmakers.

The movies:
Rebound
New York Premiere.
Writer Wes Haney and director Doron Max Hagay present.
A burly stranger looking for a place to lay his head arrives at the home of a newly single mother renting out her guest house.
(3 minutes)

A Riveting Thriller
New York Premiere.
Writer/star Amy Zimmer and director Doron Max Hagay present.
A down-and-out reporter bemoans the current state of “this town.”
(3 minutes)

A Few Activities
Director Abigail Horton present.
A series of small, absurd moments in the lives of a handful of people.
(13 minutes)

Seven Dreams
New York Premiere.
Director Anthony Oberbeck present.
A nervous comedian seeks fame by sneaking into movie theaters to perform his stand-up act.
(9 minutes)

It’s Been Too Long
Director Amber Schaefer present.
Two ex-lovers meet at a rarely-used Aspen lodge to reignite their passions, but first they must confess their past sins.
(8 minutes)

How It’s Goin’
New York Premiere.
Directors Irene Kim Chin and Kurt Vincent present.
A recently divorced father drops off his daughter for the weekend with his ex-wife, then stumbles upon a 4/20 celebration in the park.
(13 min)

Nest Egg
New York Premiere.
Directed by Henry Loevner
When a young American woman decides to become a gestational surrogate to a couple from China, her insecure husband tries to torpedo the arrangement.
(13 minutes)

Unfinished,2017 (Mixed media)
Brooklyn Premiere.
Director Rafael Salazar Moreno present.
“Unfinished” captures the decisive and inevitable moment in which an artist faces her greatest fear: to stop making art.
(16 minutes)

Too Long at the Fair
Brooklyn Premiere.
Directors Jessie Barr and Lena Hudson present.
Charlie and Val, best friends and owners of a fledgling Princess Party business in L.A., meet a charming divorcee and spend the day together.
(14 minutes)

From the stacks of Strand to the screen at Nitehawk, we invite you to join us for a night of literary adaptations. These stories have lived on shelves at Strand Book Store for 92 years, and we’re excited to see them come to life in 10 original short films.

Enjoy the films, hang around for the award ceremony, and do some networking in the bar after! Thanks to our judges, all those who submitted, Nitehawk Cinema and book lovers everywhere who made our first ever film festival possible!

The program:

They’re Made out of Meat – directed by Stephen O’Regan
A humorous but thought-provoking story based on a conversation between two aliens about meat creatures.

The Hobbyist – directed by George Vatistas
A seemingly ordinary man seeks out a sagacious druggist in search of an untraceable poison, but winds up getting more than he bargained for. Based on the 1961 Short Story by Frederic Brown.

Dulcinea – directed by Francisco Lidón Plaza
A young knight and his shield bearer travel the country roads in search of adventures pretending to be in a chivalry novel. But these are very hard times and it won´t be easy to become Don Quixote and find the lady he loves, Dulcinea.

Thumbelina and the Ogre – directed by Cécile Robineau
A tale for kids & adults which offers a sensitive story about friendship. The film has also an ecological message as the ogre has learnt to care about everything in his gigantic garden and that’s why he considers with kindness Thumbelina, who was born in a flower.

We Are – directed by Abigail Karl
An experimental film built around excerpts from various works of Sylvia Plath read by young women from our time. These excerpts are supplemented by sexist advertisements and informational films from the 50s & 60s, which is the time Plath was a young woman.

Fleeting Autumn – directed by Vojtech Domlatil
Stopmotion poetry, oscilating between animation, documentary and experiment. Transforming Haiku poetry based on 5-7-5 syllables to the audiovisual form using 5-7-5 second shots structure. Shot during two month art residency in Japan.

Speak Thou Vast and Venerable Head – directed by Julia Oldham
An animated film that reimagines chapter 70 of Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, “The Sphynx,” in which Ahab addresses the severed head of a sperm whale.

Speaking Daggers – directed by Sally McLean
Eight characters from five different Shakespeare plays discuss love, revenge, deceit and power in overheard conversations, set against the backdrop of coffee, cakes and waitresses in crisp white shirts.

The Blue from Heaven – directed by Suzie Hanna
Glenda Jackson provides the voice of poet Stevie Smith in this animated interpretation of her extraordinary 1950’s poem ‘The Blue from Heaven’. Suzie Hanna has adapted and animated the poet’s own drawings to communicate her rueful, wistful, comic, and melancholy themes with music and sound design by Phil Archer. (See The Collected Poems and Drawings of Stevie Smith, Faber, 2015, edited by Will May.)

Father to Son – directed by Thomas Stokmans
In this musical debut film, there seems to be hardly any verbal communication between a father and his young son. But when dad plays his saxophone, the boy listens attentively. He gets a sip of dad’s coffee. A very small, intimate film with its heart in the right place.

The Yellow Wallpaper – directed by Janna Jesson
A woman is confronted with her anxiety after hey boyfriend disables access to her phone. Adaptation of a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Starring: The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Crosby Stills & Nash, Joe Cocker, Sly and the Family Stone, Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin

On the 50th anniversary of the concert, we’re screening the documentary Woodstock, an intimate look at the Woodstock Music & Art Festival. Held in Bethel, NY in 1969, the film documents the festival from preparation through cleanup, with historic access to insiders, blistering concert footage, and portraits of the concertgoers; negative and positive aspects are shown, from drug use by performers to naked fans sliding in the mud, from the collapse of the fences by the unexpected hordes to the surreal arrival of National Guard helicopters with food and medical assistance for the impromptu city of 500,000.

Starring: Lou David, Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua

Apart from early appearances by Jason Alexander and Holly Hunter, an interesting score by Rick Wakeman, and some typically effective work by effects icon Tom Savini, this slasher film is also among the more frightening of its kind. The plot concerns a summer-camp caretaker named Cropsy (Lou David) who is horribly burned by mischievous teen campers during a botched practical joke. Years later, he leaves the hospital as a disfigured gloppy mess with an axe (actually, hedgeclippers) to grind. After dispatching a local prostitute, Cropsy heads out to the wilderness to terrorize a group of campers. They’re the usual bunch of horny, obnoxious teenagers, but there are some interesting performances by Larry Joshua as a mean-spirited bully and Brian Backer (of Fast Times at Ridgemont High) as a put-upon nerd.

Starring: Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, Jerry Orbach

$5 from each cocktail special sold and a portion of popcorn sales will be donated to the National Network of Abortion Funds

Baby (Jennifer Grey) is one listless summer away from the Peace Corps. Hoping to enjoy her youth while it lasts, she’s disappointed when her summer plans deposit her at a sleepy resort in the Catskills with her parents. Her luck turns around, however, when the resort’s dance instructor, Johnny (Patrick Swayze), enlists Baby as his new partner, and the two fall in love. Baby’s father forbids her from seeing Johnny, but she’s determined to help him perform the last big dance of the summer.

Starring: Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Jim Carter, Brendan Coyle, Michelle Dockery, Kevin Doyle

The continuing story of the Crawley family, wealthy owners of a large estate in the English countryside in the early 20th century.