Comedian Kevin Maher hosts a two-hour variety show celebrating Rip-Off Cinema, that bold cross-genre phenomenon of copycat films, knockbusters and rushed productions that borrow from popular films. The evening includes all kinds of cash-grab films, including the best, the worst, the weirdest and the most shameless. Plus the Bollywood re-telling of a classic American horror.
Guests include:
- John Cribbs (writer from ThePinkSmoke.com)
- Marcus Pinn (writer, PinnlandEmpire.com)
- Jamie Righetti (host of THE SCREAM SQUAD podcast)
- Bob Sikoryak (Creator of MASTERPIECE COMICS)
- Kate Wilkinson (Writer, Wig Wurq)
Nitehawk and Shudder team up for the New York City premiere of the ultimate J-Horror showdown between the vengeful spirits of Ringu and Ju-On: The Grudge in SADAKO VS. KAYAKO.
Introduction by Shudder Curator, Sam Zimmerman. Screening also includes Shudder subscriptions giveaways to select audience members!
After viewing a legendary cursed videotape, Natsumi discovers she has only two days before she will be killed by the demonic entity known as Sadako. The only way to break the curse: pitting the demon Sadako against Kayako, an accursed spirit possessing a haunted house where everyone who enters disappears.
Sadako vs. Kayako brings the characters from Ringu and Ju-On: The Grudge back to the big screen in a wildly fun, tongue-in-cheek thrill ride that finally answers the question: whose curse is stronger?
As part of our Harry Potter 20 celebration series, Nitehawk has teamed up with The Strand to co-host an epic debate on the ye old question: which is better, the books or the films? Books versus Film: Harry Potter will see two teams face off in a battle royale to the finish line and you will help decide. There will be topics, there will be drinks, and there will be blood.
Please note that Matt Zoller Seitz (Film side has been replaced by Erin Whitney from Screen Crush).
BOOKS TEAM – THE STRAND
ALISE MORALES
Alise Morales is a comedy writer and performer based in Brooklyn, NY. She is an improviser on UCBT’s Lloyd Night, and a contributing writer for websites such as Betches and Reductress. You can see her performing all over the city and in festivals across the country.
ALIZA WEINBERGER
Aliza Weinberger comes to you from the Internet, where she does audience development and books coverage for Mashable.com. She spends her free time on the creative team of Mischief Management, a company that puts on fan conventions including the annual Harry Potter event LeakyCon. One time she wrote a full-length Potter fanfiction play for them about Teddy Lupin.
FILM TEAM – NITEHAWK CINEMA
MATT JACOBS
Matthew Jacobs is an entertainment reporter at The Huffington Post, where he primarily writes about film. A Louisiana native, Matt enjoys Mike Nichols movies, Julia Louis-Dreyfus sitcoms and Madonna minutiae. His favorite “Harry Potter” character is Dobby.
ERIN WHITNEY
Erin Whitney is the Senior Editor of ScreenCrush.com, where they write about film and TV. When not talking Game of Thrones theories or waiting for the next Terrence Malick film, Erin’s probably binge-watching Law & Order: SVU. Their favorite Harry Potter film is The Half-Blood Prince.
Nitehawk’s MUSIC DRIVEN series presents a screening of the new documentary on The Melvins, THE COLOSSUS OF DESTINY – A MELVINS TALE.
Q&A with director Bob Hannam.
The Colossus Of Destiny – A Melvins Tale is a film about a band who have defied all the rules, for over 33 years and counting, and still managed to succeed and do it their own way. This is the journey of band members King Buzzo and Dale Crover which leads us from the backwards-waters of the Chehalis River in Washington State, down through the = Golden Gate of Northern California, finally settling into the Los Angeles River Basin of Southern California with the rest of the world thrown in along the way.
Witness first hand the beliefs and attitudes, values and obscenities, slows and fasts, triumphs and toils, loves and hates, wits and giggles of a hugely talented and highly influential band. Hear what the countless number of peers, collaborators, understudies, admirers, even haters, have to say about their encounters with The Melvins over the past 3 decades and more. And come away with a lesson in how to survive in the wicked world of the music biz without taking yourself too damn seriously.
Starring: William Holden, Gloria Swanson, Erich von Stroheim, Nancy Olson, Fred Clark, Jack Webb
Are you ready for your close up? Sunset Boulevard is Billy Wilder’s essential Hollywood noir about the bizarre relationship between a down-and-out screenwriter and a silent movie star has-been. Starring real-life silent era actress Gloria Swanson, the film weaves together a changing moment in the movie business with the extreme things people will do to hold on or gain industry success. It’s pretty unique in the fact that the audience knows the fate of the leading man from the very first scene and, from that point on, his ghost leads us through his unfortunate journey.
MUSIC DRIVEN presents a screening of the new doc on Paul “HR” Hudson from Bad Brains in HR “FINDING JOSEPH 1.”
Include a Q&A with Paul H.R. Hudson & Director James Lathos.
HR “Finding Joseph I” is a documentary chronicling the eccentric life and struggles of punk rock reggae singer, Paul “HR” Hudson from Bad Brains. The charismatic frontman’s explosive live performances helped pioneer hardcore punk while delivering an enlightening message of positive mental attitude. HR’s heavy devotion to the Rastafarian faith guided him in a spiritual direction leaving the band several times to explore his love for reggae music. Over the years HR’s increasingly unpredictable and abnormal behavior has many convinced that he his suffering from mental illness. Finding Joseph I delicately illustrates the true story behind the legendary lead singers life, career and struggles with never before seen archival footage, photography and exclusive interviews.
Just in time for Thanksgiving. Nitehawk salutes the great Herschell Gordon Lewis with midnite screenings of his classic BLOOD FEAST.
Presented on 35mm!
Get ready for a splatter-feast! In the sleepy suburbs of Miami, seemingly normal Egyptian immigrant Fuad Ramses runs a successful catering business. He also murders young women and plans to use their body parts to revive the goddess Ishtar. The insane Ramses hypnotizes a socialite in order to land a job catering a party for her debutante daughter, Suzette Fremont, and turns the event into an evening of gruesome deaths, bloody dismemberment and ritual sacrifice.
The feature documentary SOUR GRAPES, co-directed by Jerry Rothwell and Reuben Atlas, pops the cork on a the world’s greatest wine fraud.
Q&A with director and Cara Cusumano (Director of Programming, Tribeca Film Festival) to also include a special wine tasting presentation.
With youthful charisma and pockets full of cash, Rudy Kurniawan earns the reputation of a wine savant, ingratiating himself with some of high society’s most fervent connoisseurs. His Gatsbyesque path collides with US billionaire Bill Koch, and Laurent Ponsot, a Burgundian winemaker, resulting in a humorous and suspenseful investigation into one of the most ingenious cons of our time.
Part of Nitehawk’s LOCAL COLOR series, in partnership with Tribeca Film Festival.
The MATINEE TWO section at the Nitehawk Shorts Festival features eight short films that deal with the power of relationships (of all sorts).
The Nitehawk Shorts Festival MIDNITE screening features shorts most appropriately viewed after the clock strikes twelve.
