Starring: Tipper Newton, Robert Longstreet, Kynzie Colmery, George Sample III, Steve Little
An X-Rated descent into demented comedy and maniacal horror, as a desperate mother drags an innocent stranger into an absurd, filthy nightmare beyond comprehension. An unflinchingly loyal adaptation of transgressive artist Johnny Ryan’s joyfully disgusting comic book. Adults only.
Starring: Maren Heary, Jim Kaplan, Karsen Liotta, Dominic Bogart, Tenley Kellogg, Emily Hall
The FOFIF presents a special Brooklyn screening of its second release, Sierra Falconer’s debut feature film, SUNFISH (& OTHER STORIES ON GREEN LAKE). Includes a Q&A with cast members Adam LeFevre and Marceline Hugot. To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.
Cradled by the woods and water of Green Lake, Michigan, SUNFISH (& OTHER STORIES ON GREEN LAKE) unfolds over the course of a summer where the intertwined stories of locals and visitors linger at the edge of personal transformation.
Sierra Falconer’s assured directorial debut casts a steady, sun-dappled gaze on the interconnected summers of a fourteen year-old girl at her grandparents’ lake house, a young virtuoso at music camp, a listless bartender, and two sisters running a bed and breakfast; fleeting moments imbued with humanity and introspection. Like the birds and the trees quietly observing life around the lake, Falconer’s sensitivity as a director allows the characters to be studied in all their restlessness and yearning for connection.
Starring: Boris Karloff, Elsa Lanchester, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson
Prepare to be haunted, hypnotized, and maybe a little hysterical. For one night only, the delightfully deranged Spook Show with Zabrecky takes over Nitehawk Prospect Park, blending vintage spook show vibes, surreal stage magic, and a screening of the 1935 gothic horror masterpiece Bride of Frankenstein.
Zabrecky; part magician, part absurdist, part ghost of vaudeville past, is a seven-time Magic Castle award-winner and a bona fide cult figure in the world of theatrical séances and experimental magic. Think: David Lynch meets Harry Houdini by way of Steven Wright.
This midnight mash-up mixes mind-bending illusions, dark comedy, and audience interaction with the iconic black-and-white beauty of James Whale’s Bride of Frankenstein, a film as weird and wonderful as Zabrecky himself.
A multidisciplinary force, Zabrecky has left his eerie fingerprints across indie film and TV, with scene-stealing turns in A Ghost Story, A Desert, Lost River and on series like Strange Angel, Fallout and GLOW. He’s also a musician, because of course he is.
If you like your magic strange, your horror classic, and your horror movies full of left-field spectacle, this is the one to crawl out of your crypt for.
And for those wondering what exactly a Spook Show is: from the 1930s through the 1960s, macabre themed magic shows, presented together with horror films, played in movie theaters at midnight throughout the United States. They were known as Spook Shows. Today they are nearly forgotten.
Presented by Doc N Roll
Roll Bus Roll casts an eye at the life and art of Jeffrey Lewis, one of the most prominent musicians associated with NYC’s anti-folk scene. The film opens with an exploration of the anti-folk, offering a glimpse into the unique movement that challenges traditional folk conventions. Then the viewer follows Jeffrey on tour, across cities and continents. Jeffrey, is a self-deprecating genius, introduced through contrasting narratives: his own modest self- assessment, and the views of fans and fellow artists such as Adam Green.
The documentary reaches its emotional climax as Jeffrey opens up about a lost love, revealing his mental health struggles that impacted his relationship.
Socio-cultural hub, consumer mecca and source of existential dread; the video rental store forever changed the way we interact with movies. With narration by Maya Hawke over footage culled from hundreds of sources (from TV commercials to blockbuster films), Alex Ross Perry’s Videoheaven tells the story of an industry’s glorious, confusing, novel, sometimes seedy, but undeniably seismic impact on American movie culture.
NYC premiere
Hyper: The Stevie Hyper D Story is the definitive tale of the UK’s original junglist soldier. A massive stage presence and a musical pioneer, Stevie Hyper D supercharged UK rave culture into one of the most significant global musical movements of the last 30 years. Stevie’s nephew Darrell Austin goes on a highly personal and emotionally-charged journey to uncover the legacy of the one and only bad boy MC Stevie Hyper D.
Starring: Catherine Cohen, Aristotle Athari, Chloe Cherry, Ruby McCollister, Jon Rudnitsky, Ikechukwu Ufomadu
Valerie and Doug (Cat Cohen & Aristotle Athari) are a long-time couple in their 30s who live in a teeny tiny New York City apartment, where they are frequently annoyed by their loud downstairs neighbors, a younger couple (Chloe Cherry & Jon Rudnitsky) who fight all the time and, oh yeah, sing karaoke constantly…
Valerie and Doug hate them, but at the same time are totally obsessed with understanding the couple’s volatile dynamic. After months of being tortured, they give up their apartment and move to the suburbs, looking forward to resuming their lives and focusing on careers and friendships. But first, a little revenge.
One of the neighbors, Mary, is an actress, so with the help of a theater-minded friend named Wendy (played by Ruby McCollister), Val and Doug decide to put on a fake play to humiliate her. However, the two soon get sucked into the process of producing theater and start to believe that becoming artists is their true calling.
The French Italian is a talky, New York comedy: light, colorful, and fast-moving. The cast is stacked with favorites from the NYC comedy scene, including Cat Cohen, Aristotle Athari, Chloe Cherry, Ruby McCollister, Jon Rudnitsky, Larry Owens and more.
Starring: Carole Lombard, Randolph Scott, Vivienne Osborne, H.B. Warner
Our spooky season selection features screwball queen Carole Lombard in an uncharacteristically tenebrous role as a grieving heiress who becomes possessed by the vengeful spirit of an executed murderess!
When death row killer Ruth Rogen (Vivienne Osborne) agrees to donate her body to a scientist interested in the afterlife, her svengali ex-lover sets his sights on the wealthy Roma Courtney (Lombard), inadvertently turning her into the perfect vehicle for Ruth’s restless soul. From the highwire director of White Zombie, this underseen pre-code horror ranks among the era’s most bizarre one-hour fright shows!
Starring: Björk, Bryndis Petra Bragadóttir, Valdimar Örn Flygenring, Guðrún Gísladóttir, Geirlaug Sunna Þormar
Join the Future of Film is Female for a celebration of witchcraft with the 4k restoration of THE JUNIPER TREE. To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.
“Set in medieval Iceland, director Nietzchka Keene’s film has, until now, been known mostly as a celebrity curio; it’s Icelandic superstar Björk’s first on-screen performance, shot in 1986 when she was a fresh-faced twenty-one-year-old, mere months before she and a group of friends started The Sugarcubes. As Margit, Björk plays a young girl whose mother has been executed for witchcraft and now must forge a new life with her older sister, Katia (Bryndis Petra Bragadottir). Katia quickly takes control of the pair’s destiny, casting a spell to find herself a husband, Johan (Valdimar Örn Flygenring). But Johan’s son, Jonas (Geirlaug Sunna Þormar), is suspicious of Katia’s intents and fights her presence viciously while simultaneously finding himself drawn to Margit.
“Björk’s Margit is, fittingly, a visionary; her performance demonstrates the early stages of Björk’s now-familiar yet still-otherworldly charm. She gazes deeply into the fire to see what an increasingly desperate Katia cannot: the guiding spirit of their mother. Maternal relationships are the phantom backbone of the film. Jonas is young and still acutely grieving the death of his own mother; he warns Katia, ‘My mother will make you go,’ a premonition Katia takes to heart. But these are two divergent kinds of grief; while Jonas has his mother’s grave to tend to, Margit and Katia have no idea where their mother is buried. Absent such a material marker, Margit begins to see visions of her mother near their new home, following her. The spirit cannot speak, but Margit can hear her messages loud and clear.” —Dana Reinoos, BOMB Magazine
The Carl Craig Story is a vibrant and soulful documentary chronicling the life of Carl Craig — techno pioneer, visionary producer and one of the most influential figures in modern electronic music. Born and raised in Detroit, Craig emerged from the city’s rich Black musical legacy to help define the second wave of Detroit techno, blending influences from jazz, classical, funk, and experimental sound. As Detroit’s fortunes rose and fell, Craig’s career mirrored the city’s resilience and creativity. From underground clubs to the Carnegie Hall and to MOCA, his work transcends genre and redefines the boundaries of techno music. At its heart, Desire is more than a music documentary—it’s a celebration of African-American innovation, the global influence of Detroit, and one artist’s lifelong mission to challenge the mainstream, uplift his community, and turn electronic music into high art.
