A young boy searches to save his lost mouse from the Tower of London in THE BOY WHO TURNED YELLOW.
Similar to their lavishly beautiful films like The Red Shoes, acclaimed British directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (aka The Archers) produce a colourful children’s masterpiece in their last collaborative venture, The Boy Who Turned Yellow. Originally made for the Children’s Film Foundation as an educational tool to explain the science of electricity to children, this film tells the story of a young boy who is in search of his pet mouse that he lost while on a field trip to the Tower of London. Heading back to London to find “Alice”, he turns yellow on the Tube and finds a man who travels via electricity, also yellow. Adults can search for subtextual message about this dreamlike science film that certainly eschews narrative cohesive for gorgeous visuals while kids enjoy the adventurous spirit!
We’ll also be playing a short animated film before the feature!
Part of Nitehawk’s CHEEKY MONKEYS May brunch children’s series.
Please sir, I want some more…an orphan runs away to hook up with young pickpockets in late 1880s London.
This Best Picture Academy Award winning film is a huge musical production based off the book Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. In Act 1, we see young Oliver loses a bet to ask the cruel headmaster of the orphanage for some more gruel on behalf of the starving kids. Displeased with this gesture, Oliver is sent into labor at a funeral home where really awful acts cause him to escape. Heading into London in Act II, his life becomes more complicated as he falls into a seedy underworld helmed by a murderer and a pickpocket. It all may sound dark but, rest assured, Oliver gets the good life in the end! Although not as heavy as Dickens’ novel, the film retains some of the subtextual meaning for the adults while being more upbeat and entertaining for the kids.
Part of Nitehawk’s CHEEKY MONKEYS May brunch children’s series.
An apprentice witch, three kids and a cynical conman search for the missing component to a magic spell useful to the defense of Britain. Screening in 35mm!
Set in England during World War II, this Disney musical combines live action with lively animated sequences…and Angela Lansbury! The adventure in Bedknobs and Broomsticks starts during the Blitz when the three Rawlings children are sent to the safe Dorset village of Pepperinge Eye. There they are placed in the care of an apprentice witch, Eglantine Price, whose early attempts at magic create hilarious results (like turning young Charlie into a white rabbit). When she successfully casts a traveling spell on an ordinary bedknob something extraordinary happens…they fly to the animated Isle of Naboombu to find a powerful spell that will save England. Kids will be bewitched by the stunning visuals and creative storyline while adults will appreciate subtle nods like the two “ladies of the night” in the Portobello Road scene!
Part of Nitehawk’s CHEEKY MONKEYS May brunch children’s series.
Who will come out victorious in the battle to be the mother of…THE BABY? This cult classic screens in 35mm!
The Baby is arguably one of the most bizarre psychological horror movies ever produced and it’s a devilish delight to play a voyeur unto the madness. In addition to the main narrative premise revolving around a grown-up man-baby (and that’s enough!), there’s a bad ass mother, the molesting babysitter, incest, canned baby screams/laughter, tremendously bad hair, a swinging party, and duplicitous murder…essentially you have one hell of story on your hands. Laughing at this outlandishness while being completely in awe is part of The Baby’s irresistible charms. Bizarre from its very first moment, it descends into utter insanity with a twist ending that amps up the WTF factor exponentially. It’s camp without the pomp, horror without the gore, a bad movie gone awfully good.
Part of Nitehawk’s May ASK ME ABOUT MY MOTHER series.
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.
Starring: Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Jeannine Taylor
Things don’t go so well for the reopening of Camp Crystal Lake as the new counselors are stalked and slashed… but by whom? As the site for a young boy’s drowning many years earlier, someone or something is none-too-pleased that a new batch of sexually crazed young adults who will be the caretakers of young children. Stemming from tropes established in Italian giallo films like anonymous killer-point-of-view stabs and punishment for sexual activities, Friday the 13th produces one of the most iconic “Final Girls” in horror (Alice Hardy) and has enduringly made teenage activities a frightening cautionary tale. No real spoilers from us so you’ll have to wait until the end to discover why its maternal instincts are series worthy.
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.
How do you remake a film that never existed? Our June ART SEEN screening is Jamie Shovlin’s ROUGH CUT. Includes an introduction by the director in London via Skype. Also screening is a new version of Darren Banks’ short film, INTERIORS.
Rough Cut, the debut feature from artist Jamie Shovlin, explores the re-making of an exploitation film that never was. At its dark heart is Hiker Meat, an archetypal 1970s slasher movie imagined by Shovlin, complete with hitchhiking heroine, charismatic commune leader and a group of teens who disappear one by one. This tantalising film-within-a-film serves to both deconstruct and pay affectionate homage to the often-maligned exploitation style.
Having created a full screenplay, score and cut-and-paste prototype for Hiker Meat, Shovlin filmed key sections and a full trailer in an intense shoot in the Lake District in summer 2013. Rough Cut contrasts these re-made sequences with on-set footage and insights into the development of Hiker Meat’s script, soundtrack and design, to create a compelling mash-up of self-referencing processes, behind-the-scenes viewpoints and time-honoured slasher tropes.
Rough Cut is a co-commission between Cornerhouse Artist Film and TIFF: Toronto International Film Festival.
ART SEEN is in partnership with frieze. Featuring Absolut Vodka Cocktails.
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.
After spending 12 years in prison for keeping his mouth shut, notorious safe-cracker Dom Hemingway is back on the streets of London looking to collect what he’s owed.
Dom Hemingway (Jude Law) is a larger-than-life safecracker with a loose fuse, funny, profane, and dangerous. Back on the streets of London after twelve years in prison, it’s time to collect what he’s owed for keeping his mouth shut. Traveling with his devoted best friend Dickie (Richard E. Grant), Dom visits his crime boss Mr Fontaine (Demián Bichir) in the south of France to claim his reward. But Dom’s drunk and drug-fueled ego decides what he’s lost can’t be replaced. One car accident and a femme fatale later, Dom realizes his priority must be to reconnect with his long-lost daughter Evelyn (Emilia Clarke).
