Comedian Kevin Maher presents a two-hour video variety show all about death.

Anniversary Note: Kevin first Geeked Out at Nitehawk in October 2014 with zombies!

Comedian Kevin Maher celebrates his one-year anniversary at Nitehawk Cinema with an evening dedicated to dying. This two-hour video-variety show features guests sharing memories of the scenes that most disturbed them. Plus murder motifs, death-as-a-character, Hollywood’s love affair with the dying girl, and a collection of unforgettable “dummy deaths” (ranging from haunting to hilarious.) Featuring clips from 80s action movies to romantic dramadies, cult horror and dark comedies.

With special guests:

Doug Bost & Adam Bernstein (from the “Grown Ass Men” podcast)
Travis Alexandra Boatright (award-winning costume designer)
Caroline Fulford (host, “Loose Canon” podcast)
Matt Glasson (editor, filmmaker)
Al Kievsky (Man of Mystery)
Kseniya Yarosh (“I Love Bad Movies” zine, “Bonnie & Maude” podcast)

As part of Nitehawk’s 5th anniversary celebration, LIVE SOUND CINEMA is proud to present Sergei Eisenstein’s BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN with an original live score performed by MORRICONE YOUTH.

Anniversary Note: Morricone Youth first performed at Nitehawk for a LIVE SOUND CINEMA screening of Jean Rollin’s Fascination in June 2012. Battleship Potempkin marks their 15th performance here.

Sergio Eisenstein’s Battleship Potempkin, centered by revolutionary rhythmic editing, is now considered one of the greatest films ever made. After the success of Strike, he was commissioned by the Soviet Government to make a film commemorating the 1905 Odessa uprising and so he focused on the loyal crew of the battleship Potemkin. The film shows the sailors stage a violent mutiny seizing control of the ship to raise the red flag of revolution as they are fed up with the deplorable conditions and extreme cruelties of their officer. This, in turn, sparks a citizens’ revolt under the boot heels of the Czarist Cossack regime. When the ruthless White Russian cavalry arrive to crush the rebellion on the sandstone Odessa Steps, one of the most famous and quoted film sequences in cinema history is born.

Morricone Youth is a New York City band formed in 1999 dedicated to performing and recording old film and television soundtrack and library production music.

NOTE: This will be an experimental soundtrack featuring a new original score. The original soundtrack or audio will not be played.  

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)