Nitehawk’s LOCAL COLOR hosts a screening of the best underdog shorts by New York filmmakers with SCREW IT, WE’LL DO IT OURSELVES!

Anniversary Note: Nitehawk’s series that highlights independent New York filmmakers, LOCAL COLOR, began in August 2013 with Flex is Kings. Nitehawk became committed to short films with our annual NITEHAWK SHORTS FESTIVAL in November 2013.

A collection of short films that delve into the darker side of human nature – in darkly comedic and twisted ways. Inspired by Bill O’Reilly’s now-legendary freakout and viral sensation, Screw It, We’ll Do It Ourselves!, stubbornly brings you a program short films made by emerging New York filmmakers that, for whatever reason, did not receive their desired film festival platform – and have a real hankering to have their shorts screened in all of their underdog glory!

After-party for Screw It! will be in Lo-Res with drink specials courtesy of Jameson Irish Whiskey. 

PROGRAM: SCREW IT, WE’LL DO IT OURSELVES!

DEAD-END
Jose F Rodriguez | 2015 | 13 minutes
An out-of-shape young man goes on a run one evening and quickly finds himself lost in a deserted neighborhood – where he is confronted by his innermost fear.

THE HAMSTER
Ryan Barger | 2015 | 11 minutes, 17 seconds
A father buys his young daughter a pet hamster. When it dies, they have a frank discussion about death, life, and humanity’s futile search for meaning in the universe.

RAMONA
Mikaela Martin & Richard Vallejos | 2015 | 14 minutes, 14 seconds
An elderly woman comes to terms with the loss of a close friend. Through her grief she discovers the true nature of their friendship, and perhaps her own sexuality.

CONSOMME
Catherine Fordham | 2015 | 5 minutes, 40 seconds
A young woman’s fiercest self takes over to fight for her life when she’s attacked.

A GOOD FISH
Nicholas Payne Santos | 2014 | 8 minutes, 37 seconds
Left with nothing by their recently deceased father, two aimless brothers head home to face his funeral.

GO TO HELL
Jacob Bittens | 2015 | 20 minutes
When David winds up in Hell for being too boring, he must vie for a second chance at Heaven by becoming the most interesting man in the underworld.

Total Run Time: 72 minutes

Nitehawk’s MUSIC DRIVEN presents a special screening of Bruce Weber’s LET’S GET LOST featuring a Q&A with director Bruce Weber and cinematographer Jeff Preiss.

Traveling with the elusive jazz vocalist and trumpeter Chet Baker, Bruce Weber weaves together the life story of a jazz great. The film uses excerpts from Italian B-movies, rare performance footage, and candid interviews with Baker, friends, battling ex-wives and his children in what turned out to be the last year of his life. Winner of the 1989 Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival and nominated for an Academy Award, Let’s Get Lost has become an important document in the career of the filmmaker on the life of a jazz legend. Since its release in 1989, Let’s Get Lost has introduced a whole new generation of jazz enthusiasts to the timeless talent of the late Chet Baker.

Music Driven in presented with our media partner, MASS APPEAL.

Nitehawk’s MUSIC DRIVEN presents a special screening of LOS PUNKS: WE ARE ALL WE HAVE. Director Angela Boatwright will be here for a Q&A following the film.

Los Punks: We Are All We Have is a documentary feature film honestly and sincerely portraying this vibrant, “DIY” community. Punk rock is thriving in the backyards of South Central and East Los Angeles. A cobbled­together family of predominantly Latino teens and young adults comprise the scene: bands, fans, production, marketing, and security interwoven into a sub­-culture of thrash and noise and pits. The sense of belonging is palpable, emotional bonds fostered among good families and those broken, poverty and wealth, adolescence and maturity, with the music emanating a magnetic chorus for all to sing together.

Music Driven in presented with our media partner, MASS APPEAL.

Nitehawk’s presents midnite screening of Ben Wheatley’s dystopic vision of the J.G. Ballard novel, HIGH-RISE.

Based on J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel, High-Rise shows Dr. Robert Laing, the newest resident of a luxurious apartment in a high-tech concrete skyscraper whose lofty location places him amongst the upper class. Laing quickly settles into high society life and meets the building’s eccentric tenants: Charlotte, his upstairs neighbor and bohemian single mother; Wilder, a charismatic documentarian who lives with his pregnant wife Helen; and Mr. Royal, the enigmatic architect who designed the building. Life seems like paradise to the solitude-seeking Laing. But as power outages become more frequent and building flaws emerge, particularly on the lower floors, the regimented social strata begins to crumble and the building becomes a battlefield in a literal class war.

Watch Nitehawk’s HIGH-RISE Q&A with Ben Wheatley on our blog!

The beauty and beauty-obsessed in Los Angeles construct Nicolas Winding Refn’s latest film, THE NEON DEMON.

Q&A with director Nicolas Winding Refn following the 9:30pm screening on Friday, June 24.

When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will use any means necessary to get what she has. “One morning I woke and realized I was both surrounded and dominated by women. Strangely, a sudden urge was planted in me to make a horror film about vicious beauty. After making DRIVE and falling madly in love with the electricity of Los Angeles, I knew I had to return to tell the story of THE NEON DEMON.” Nicolas Winding Refn, November 2014

Sexts, lies, and Carlos Danger: WEINER shows the wildest political meltdown in recent history as it unfolds.

It’s 2013 and Anthony Weiner—still reeling from the sex scandal that ended his political career two years earlier—is back in the spotlight as he mounts an audacious comeback campaign for New York City mayor. But it’s not long before history repeats itself and new sexting allegations leave Weiner and his aides scrambling to contain the damage. Granted unfettered access to the candidate and his campaign, filmmakers Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg capture a jaw-dropping, behind-the-scenes look at the political machine as it breaks down. Winner of the 2015 Sundance Grand Jury Prize.

Nitehawk Cinema’s series on New York filmmakers LOCAL COLOR and Tribeca Film Festival present a special preview screening of MA. Q&A with director CELIA ROWLSON HALL. 

In this modern-day vision of Mother Mary’s pilgrimage, a woman crosses the scorched landscape of the American Southwest. Reinvented and told entirely through movement, the film playfully deconstructs the role of this woman, who encounters a world full of bold characters that are alternately terrifying and sublime. MA is a journey into the visceral and the surreal, interweaving ritual, performance, and the body as sculpture. The absence of dialogue stirs the senses, and leads us to imagine a new ending to this familiar journey. The virgin mother gives birth to our savior, but is also challenged to save herself.

Celia Rowlson Hall is a New York based Director, Choreographer and Bessie award winning performer. Celia has choreographed for film and television, working with directors such as Gaspar Noe and Lena Dunham as well as VMA award winning music videos for bands such as MGMT, Chromeo, and Sleigh Bells and for fashion publications Vogue, Vanity Fair and Glamour. She has written and directed over fifty short films and videos that have garnered several awards including an Emmy nomination and have been screened at festivals such as SXSW, SFIFF, MFF, Rooftop Films, Glasgow, Dance on Camera at Lincoln Center, and art fairs such as the Armory Show, Performa, and the New Museum. She was named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine, 2015. MA is her debut feature.

A video variety show that will leave you sore in the morning. (From laughing.)

Comedian Kevin Maher welcomes his wife and co-host (romance novelist Rebecca Rogers Maher) for a two-hour video variety show looking at pop culture’s most memorable sex scenes. From teen sex comedies to serious art-house films, they’ll watch all kinds of encounters: the good, the bad, the vulnerable, the gratuitous, and more! The one-night-only event includes G-rated innuendos and X-rated surprises.

With special guests:
Tanya Smith (co-host “Read It and Weep” podcast)
R. Sikoryak (cartoonist, Masterpiece Comics and iTunes Terms & Conditions: The Graphic Novel)
Doug Sakmann (AVN-award-winning director of The XXXorcist, Evil Head, Re-Penetrator)
Kristen Korvette (Editrix, Slutist.com)
Professor Geoff Klock (author, The Future of Comics, the Future of Men)
Steve Flack (Editor, Trivia Champion)

Spend the opening weekend of COMEDIANS IN FILM with Sarah Silverman and a host of other comics in SARAH SILVERMAN: JESUS IN MAGIC.

My sister was with two men in one night. She could hardly walk after that. Can you imagine? Two dinners! – Sarah Silverman

Comedian Sarah Silverman brings her patent, no-holds-barred humor to the stage in this performance film. Based almost entirely on Silverman’s successful show of the same name which appeared on Broadway and generated considerable buzz, the movie blends stand-up with prerecorded sketches and even some musical performances. For Silverman, seemingly no topic is off-limits, as she squeezes jokes out of subjects including rape, Sept. 11 and the Holocaust.

Falling in love poses a real challenge to a commitment-phobic career woman in TRAINWRECK.

[Female comics are| Just as good as the male comics: We put on our pants one leg at a time, just like them. And then we bleed in those pants. – Amy Schumer 

Written by Amy Schumer and directed by comedy film game-changer Judd Apatow, Trainwreck is a hilariously fresh and modern romantic comedy. From an early age, Amy followed her lovable scoundrel of a father’s advice to avoid monogamy at all costs and took it to the next level. Her messy lifestyle in commitment phobia catches up with her after a work assignment introduces her to a compassionate young doctor name Aaron. Here’s the rom-com twist: he’s the normal, level-headed one looking for love while Amy is the total boozy mess looking for the next hookup. One disaster after another proves to her that easing up on the self-centered train and giving in to love might make life more worth living.

Part of Nitehawk’s summer program COMEDIANS IN FILM (Women in Comedy).