Can you remember a time before Nirvana? In August of 1991 New York’s Sonic Youth invited Los Angeles filmmaker David Markey along on a two week summer festival tour of Europe.  The band was excited about their opening act, a little known band from the Pacific Northwest called Nirvana. Along the way they would cross paths with Dinosaur Jr., Babes In Toyland, Gumball, and The Ramones. 1991: The Year Punk Broke also features Mark Arm, Dan Peters and Matt Lukin of Mudhoney and roadie Joe Cole, who was murdered in a robbery three months after the tour ended. The film is dedicated to him.

Starring: Atsuko Tanaka, Akio Otsuka, Yutaka Nakano, Iemasa Kayumi

The year is 2029 and the connection between humans and information on the network is stronger than ever. Unfortunately, crime has also developed. Based on the manga by Masamune Shirow, the film anime version of Ghost in the Shell follows the hunt of public security agency Section 9 for a mysterious hacker known and the “Puppet Master.” With the assistance of her team, Motoko Kusanagi tracks and finds their suspect, only to be drawn into a complex sequence of political intrigue and a cover-up as to the identity and goals of the Puppet Master. In this technologically advanced world, Ghost in the Shell contains philosophical themes of sex, gender, and self-identity.

Tom Berninger chronicles his time spent on the road as a member of the tour crew for The National, the rock & roll band fronted by his brother, Matt.

Matt, the lead singer of the critically acclaimed rock band The National, finally finds himself flush with success. His younger brother, Tom, is a loveable slacker – a filmmaker and metal-head still living with his parents in Cincinnati. On the eve of The National’s biggest tour to date, Matt invites Tom to work for the band as a roadie, unaware of Tom’s plan to film the entire adventure. What starts as a rock documentary soon becomes a surprisingly honest portrait of a charged relationship between two brothers, and the frustration of unfulfilled creative ambitions.

A special murderous treat this Mother’s Day weekend as Nitehawk present the cult classic MOTHER’S DAY in 35mm!

Spend a very Troma Mother’s Day with us! In the vein of similar cabin-in-the-woods with a rape/revenge narrative like Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave, Charles Kaufman’s Mother’s Day shows how an innocent reunion amongst three young women turns into a bloody disaster. These lifelong friends just wanted some camping fun for the weekend but wind up battling for their lives and sanity against backwards two punkish hillbillies who will do anything to impress their sadistic granny mother…and this includes fulfilling her incessant demands for torture and deranged depravity on unsuspecting visitors into their woods! The girls don’t take this brutality without fighting back however, when they do, there’s another plot twist on the way. 

Part of Nitehawk’s May ASK ME ABOUT MY MOTHER midnite series.

Critically acclaimed documentary FINDING VIVIAN MAIER unearths the untold story of one of the greatest photographers of the 20th Century.

Who is Vivian Maier? Now considered one of the 20th century’s greatest street photographers, Vivian Maier was a mysterious nanny who secretly took over 100,000 photographs that went unseen during her lifetime. Since buying her work by chance at auction, amateur historian John Maloof has crusaded to put this prolific photographer in the history books. Maier’s strange and riveting life and art are revealed through never-before-seen photographs, films, and interviews with dozens who thought they knew her.

Following up on our February presentation of The Rape of Europa, Art Seen presents an unmissable look at one of the art world’s most fascinating controversies in THE ART OF THE STEAL. Playing before the feature is frieze video: Audience Appreciation. 

Don Argott’ gripping documentary The Art of the Steal chronicles the long and dramatic struggle for control of the Barnes Foundation (a private collection of art valued at more than $25 billion). In 1922, Dr. Albert C. Barnes formed a remarkable educational institution around his priceless collection of art located just five miles outside of Philadelphia. More than 50 years after Barnes’ death, a powerful group of moneyed interests went to court for control of the with the intention to bring it to a new museum in Philadelphia. Standing in their way was  a group of Barnes’ former students and his will, which contains strict instructions stating the Foundation should always be an educational institution, and that the paintings may never be removed. While we now know what ultimately happened, witness the still relevant battle between artistic intentions and cultural tourism.

In partnership with frieze. Featuring Absolut Vodka Cocktails.

Nitehawk’s LIVE SOUND CINEMA presents Fritz Lang’s science-fiction masterpiece Metropolis with a live score by Black Lodge.

Fritz Lang’s silent German Expressionist Science-Fiction masterpiece Metropolis is back at Nitehawk! In a towering dystopic city of the future, society is divided into two classes: one of planners and management, who live high above the Earth in skyscrapers; and one of workers, who live and toil underground, slaves to the whistle of Metropolis’s ten-hour clock. When the wealthy son of the city’s planners falls in love with the underground leader Maria, an attempt is made to overcome the vast divide between the two. Brigitte Helm plays double roles here as the prophet Maria and the “false” Maria, a robot who is sent to destroy the revolution. Note: we will be showing the 2010 restoration version that includes 25 extra minutes not seen since the film’s Berlin debut in 1927!

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.

Featuring Absolut Vodka Cocktails.

Nitehawk presents two screenings of RETURN TO NUKE ‘EM HIGH: VOL 1 with a Q&A with Director Lloyd Kaufman and cast!

Welcome to Tromaville High School where, unfortunately, the glee club has mutated into a vicious gang of Cretins. Chrissy and Lauren, two innocent lesbian lovers, must fight not only the Cretins, mutants and monsters but also the evil Tromorganic Foodstuffs Conglomerate. Can they and Kevin the Wonder Duck save Tromaville High School and the world?

Directed by Lloyd Kaufman, Return to Nuke ‘Em High: Volume 1 is a hilarious and thoughtful sci-fi “Event Film” with themes ripped straight from today’s headlines: the contamination and degradation of the world’s food supply, rampant bullying, and LGBTQ love triumphing over prejudice and violence. The film, a revisiting of Troma’s 1986 Class of Nuke ‘Em High is in the same vein as other classics such as Class of 1984, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, and Carrie, but seen through the unique vision of Lloyd Kaufman and the Troma Team. 

Nitehawk and Noisey present BREADCRUMB TRAIL, a new documentary on the band Slint, for the March MUSIC DRIVEN.

TWO SCREENINGS! MARCH 17 SCREENING includes Q&A with director Lance Bangs, David Pajo, and David Grubbs! Extra screening on MARCH 18 with giveaways (no guests)!

Feature length documentary about the band Slint and the Louisville music culture they emerged from. Throughout the 1980s, a group of friends in Louisville, Kentucky grew up forming bands, breaking up, and reforming in different configurations. They were playing hardcore shows at ages 10-12, touring with Samhain as 14 year olds, recording for Homestead as Squirelbait at age 15, then formed Slint in their late teens and recorded the classic album Spiderland before they were 21. They broke up before the album’s release, giving no interviews and vanishing into their own shadows. Two decades passed as filmmaker Lance Bangs assembled unseen footage of the teenagers writing and arranging Spiderland as well as the first on camera interviews with the band members and their contemporaries trying to decipher what they had been through. Featuring Slint, Steve Albini, Ian Mackaye, David Grubbs, David Yow, James Murphy and archival material from Will Oldham.

Part of Nitehawk’s MUSIC DRIVEN series. In partnership with Noisey. Sponsored by Absolut.

Starring: Julian Barratt, Peter Ferdinando, Richard Glover, Michael Smiley, Ryan Pope, Sara Dee

England during the Civil War. A small group of deserters flee from a raging battle through an overgrown field. They are captured by two men: O’Neil and Cutler. O’Neil, an alchemist, forces the group to aid him in his search to find a hidden treasure that he believes is buried in the field. Crossing a vast mushroom circle, which provides their first meal, the group quickly descend into a chaos of arguments, fighting and paranoia, and, as it becomes clear that the treasure might be something other than gold, they slowly become victim to the terrifying energies trapped inside the field.