The shocking story of two imaginative girls whose fantasy world turns deadly in Peter Jackson’s HEAVENLY CREATURES.

Twenty years before we knew him best for Lord of the Rings or before Kate Winslet was a household name, Heavenly Creatures burst onto the world with the chilling true-life drama about an obsessive friendship. When circumstances bring together two imaginative teenage schoolgirls, they quickly form an unwavering bond, creating a fantasy world that only they can share. But when their parents become disturbed by the intensity of the friendship and threaten to keep them apart, the girls vow to stay together and devise a secret plan that leads to shocking consequences.

Part of Nitehawk’s 1994 September series.

Starring: Brandon Lee, Michael Wincott, Rochelle Davis, Ernie Hudson, Bai Ling

The night before his wedding, musician Eric Draven (Brandon Lee) and his fiancée are brutally murdered by members of a violent inner-city gang. On the anniversary of their death, Eric rises from the grave and assumes the gothic mantle of the Crow, a supernatural avenger. Tracking down the thugs responsible for the crimes and mercilessly murdering them, Eric eventually confronts head gangster Top Dollar (Michael Wincott) to complete his macabre mission.

Twenty years ago, two very dumb friends set out on a cross-country adventure together in the Farrelly Brothers’ DUMB AND DUMBER.

Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels) are well-meaning but super dimwitted friends who travel from their home of Rhode Island across the country to Aspen, Colorado so that they can return a briefcase full of money to its owner. Of course there’s a bigger controversy surrounding the briefcase and its beautiful owner May and the two dumb friends find themselves being pursued by a group of criminals. If only they were smart enough to realize it…

Part of Nitehawk’s 1994 September series.

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Bill Paxton, Tia Carrere

Twenty year ago, before you knew him as the Governor of California, Schwarzenegger was all about the action packed good times! To his family, Harry Tasker is a boring and ordinary computer salesman. But to the world, he’s a powerful secret agent for the Omega Sector with the power to kill! All this secrecy unravels when Harry’s wife begins seeing another man and his has him kidnapped. Realizing his true identity, the couple goes from dull to adventurous as Harry fights terrorists who are after nuclear warheads. Don’t fret, the good guys, romance and the one-liners win!

Three friends discover a dead roommate and lots of money in Danny Boyle’s SHALLOW GRAVE.

Two decades ago, before he was an Academy Award winner, Danny Boyle made his directorial debut with the black-comedy crime thriller, SHALLOW GRAVE. We’re not going to ruin the plot for those who haven’t seen it but the film centers around three roommates (very tight friends) who get a new mysterious flatmate. But after a couple of days of this new guy locking his door and never seen again, they start investigating and get a whole lot more than they bargained for. Very original for its time, it starts off very funny but then gets more sinister as things unfold.

Part of Nitehawk’s 1994 September series.

Get into the Halloween spirit with Nitehawk’s LIVE SOUND CINEMA presentation of the silent horror classic VAMPYR with a live score performed by BLACK LODGE.

With Vampyr, Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer’s brilliance at achieving mesmerizing atmosphere and austere, profoundly unsettling imagery (The Passion of Joan of Arc and Day of Wrath) was for once applied to the horror genre. Yet the result—concerning an occult student assailed by various supernatural haunts and local evildoers in a village outside Paris—is nearly unclassifiable, a host of stunning camera and editing tricks and densely layered sounds creating a mood of dreamlike terror. With its roiling fogs, ominous scythes, and foreboding echoes, Vampyr is one of cinema’s great nightmares. – Criterion 

Providing the live score to Metropolis is Black Lodge, a collective of musicians led by guitarist/composer Geoff Gersh, who re-score films then perform live to them.

Also part of our upcoming October FINAL GIRL series that looks at the central role of women in horror film.

Featuring Absolut Vodka Cocktails.

Nitehawk Cinema & Tribeca Film Institute Summer Documentary Series present a film about magical deception, AN HONEST LIAR.

Q&A following the screening with Director/Producer Justin Weinstein, moderated by Cara Cusumano (Programmer, Tribeca Film Festival). Introduction by John Woods (Cinema Director/Bookings, Nitehawk Cinema).

For the last half-century, James “The Amazing” Randi has entertained millions of people around the world with his remarkable feats of magic, escape and trickery. Schooled in the techniques of deception, Randi saw his beloved magician’s tricks being used by faith healers, fortune-tellers, and psychics — not for entertainment, but to steal money from innocent people and destroy lives. Enraged by this, he dedicated his life to exposing those frauds, and would do so with the wit and style of the great showman that he is.

AN HONEST LIAR is a film about deception, told through Randi’s life and acts using never-before-seen historical footage and many of the original people involved. The film also follows Randi and his partner through this latest dramatic – and potentially devastating – twist in their lives. With appearances by Adam Savage, Penn & Teller, Bill Nye, Alice Cooper and others, AN HONEST LIAR is an exciting and thought-provoking film: part detective-story, part biography, and a bit of a magic act itself.

An Honest Liar screens as part of a new initiative by Tribeca Film Institute and Nitehawk Cinema that presents a curated series of documentaries from the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. More information can be found here.

Nitehawk Cinema & Tribeca Film Institute Summer Documentary Series present the unique story of an art forger in ART AND CRAFT.

Q&A following the screening with Directors Jennifer Grausman and Sam Cullman along with Co-director Mark Becker, moderated by Caryn Coleman (Senior Film Programmer, Nitehawk Cinema). Introduction by Cara Cusumano (Programmer, Tribeca Film Festival).

Mark Landis has been called one of the most prolific art forgers in US history. His impressive body of work spans thirty years, covering a wide range of painting styles and periods that includes 15th Century Icons, Picasso, and even Walt Disney. And while the copies could fetch impressive sums on the open market, Landis isn’t in it for money. Posing as a philanthropic donor, a grieving executor of a family member’s will, and most recently as a Jesuit priest, Landis has given away hundreds of works over the years to a staggering list of institutions across the United States. But after duping Matthew Leininger, a tenacious registrar who ultimately discovers the decades-long ruse and sets out to expose his philanthropic escapades to the art world, Landis must confront his own legacy and a chorus of museum professionals clamoring for him to stop.

Art and Craft screens as part of a new initiative by Tribeca Film Institute and Nitehawk Cinema that presents a curated series of documentaries from the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. More information can be found here.

Nitehawk Cinema & Tribeca Film Institute Summer Documentary Series present the winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, POINT AND SHOOT.

Q&A following the screening with Director Marshall Curry via Skype and Matthew VanDyke in person, moderated by Beth Janson (Executive Director, Tribeca Film Institute). Introduction by Max Cavanaugh (Technical Director/Programmer, Nitehawk Cinema).

Winner of the Best Documentary Award at the Tribeca Film Festival, POINT AND SHOOT follows Matt VanDyke, a timid 27-year-old with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, who left home in Baltimore in 2006 and set off on a self-described “crash course in manhood”. He bought a motorcycle and a video camera and began a three-year, 35,000-mile motorcycle trip through Northern Africa and the Middle East.

While traveling, he struck up an unlikely friendship with a Libyan hippie, and when revolution broke out in Libya, Matt joined his friend in the fight against dictator Muammar Gaddafi.  With a gun in one hand and a camera in the other, Matt fought in — and filmed — the war until he was captured by Gaddafi forces and held in solitary confinement for six months. Two-time Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry tells this harrowing and sometimes humorous story of a young man’s struggle for political revolution and personal transformation.

Point and Shoot screens as part of a new initiative by Tribeca Film Institute and Nitehawk Cinema that presents a curated series of documentaries from the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. More information can be found here.

I’d like to tell you the story of eyes that changed this world.

I ORIGINS, the second feature film from writer and director Mike Cahill, tells the story of Dr. Ian Gray (Michael Pitt), a molecular biologist studying the evolution of the eye. He finds his work permeating his life after a brief encounter with an exotic young woman (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey) who slips away from him. As his research continues years later with his lab partner Karen (Brit Marling), they make a stunning scientific discovery that has far reaching implications and complicates both his scientific and spiritual beliefs. Traveling half way around the world, he risks everything he has ever known to validate his theory.