Starring: Godfrey Cambridge, Raymond St. Jacques, Calvin Lockhart, Judy Pace, Redd Foxx
Harlem’s African-American population is being ripped off by the Rev. Deke O’Malley (Calvin Lockhart), who dishonestly claims that small donations will secure parcels of land in Africa. When New York City police officers Gravedigger Jones (Godfrey Cambridge) and Coffin Ed Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques) look into O’Malley’s scam, they learn that the cash is being smuggled inside a bale of cotton. But the police, O’Malley and lots of others find themselves scrambling when the money goes missing.
Starring: Helen Slater, Christian Slater, Keith Gordon, Richard Bradford, Peter Coyote, Martha Gehman, Yeardley Smith, Dean Stockwell
A wild ride of teenage rebellion, rock anthems, and justice punctuated by a powerful haircut reveal.
When Billie Jean Davy (Helen Slater), a 16-year-old high schooler from a small Texas town, is wronged by a rich, spoiled bully named Hubie, she decides she’s had enough of being pushed around. With the help of her troublemaker brother (Christian Slater) and loyal friends, she transforms from a local girl-next-door into a full-blown folk hero. Sporting a white T-shirt, a headband, and an unapologetic attitude, Billie Jean’s quest for justice turns her into a media sensation. She becomes the face of teenage disillusionment, with the press dubbing her “The Legend.” Along the way, she faces off with authority, defies the system, and inspires a generation to stand up for what’s right – the embodiment of Pat Benatar’s song “Invincible.”
A wondrous journey, through realms natural and mystical, Flow follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet. From the boundless imagination of the award-winning Gints Zilbalodis (Away) comes a thrilling animated spectacle as well as a profound meditation on the fragility of the environment and the spirit of friendship and community. Steeped in the soaring possibilities of visual storytelling, Flow is a feast for the senses and a treasure for the heart.
Warning: Images are not from the movies we’re showing. Trust us, you can’t imagine what we’re showing!
We’re starting 2025 off by setting it on fire then running it over with a car! Welcome to this year’s Sundays on Fire and the first movie we’re screening is quite literally on fire. A lot! This rarely-seen, down-and-dirty, ’80s action picture packs its frames with gory shoot-outs, grimy locations, and a cast of B-listers bringing their A-game to deliver one of the most hard-hitting unsung exploitation flicks in Hong Kong history. Directed by a man who has become Hong Kong’s most famous director back in the ‘80s when he was still finding his feet and produced by Hong Kong’s most ground-breaking director then at the peak of his powers, it was shot in the wake of the Sino-British Joint Declaration returning Hong Kong to China in 1997 and it’s slick with the sweat of characters desperate to betray anyone and do anything to get out with their cash before getting caught in the steel jaws of the law.
A night of psychedelic graffiti featuring the trippy short films of tape delay, and a screening of the lesser known classic forbidden rebels. With a conversation to follow with Mike Delmar and style master Sharp & Bob Harris via Zoom. Hosted by Sacha Jenkins.
Magic Bluebird (2024)
35 min
A journey back into the shadowy heart of early 70’s New York City, pure 70’s madness from the depths of Fear City. Through a hallucinatory blend of raw archival footage and vibrant animation, the viewer is pulled into a kaleidoscopic descent where gangs rule the night, neon signs flicker on the streets, and reality blurs into a fever dream of subway writing, music, and surreal visions.
Forbidden Rebels (1983)
29 min
by Rii Kanzaki with Bob Harris 1983
A lyric, impressionistic portrait of five New York City graffiti artist/writers in 1983. Filmed in the subways, streets and parks of New York, G-Man, Delta II, Sharp, Spin, and DEZ tell stories of their lives as young Black men, about their creative community, about style, about gaining respect, getting up, about survival, and about their aspirations and their dreams. Imagery combines documentary street realism with Image-Processed video’s painterly analog of a Krylon color spray. Video image processing by Rii Kanzaki at the Experimental Television Center/Owego, NY.
Night Flight’s Second Annual Music Video Film Festival will present the 10 winners of the Music Video competition. The music videos have been selected from those submitted from more than 13 countries and we are thrilled by the musical and visual creativity they represent. The audience in attendance will vote for the grand prize winner who will receive a cash prize of $500 and an Audio Technica Sound Burger.
There will be an introduction by Night Flight’s Stuart Shapiro and all ticket holders will receive a special coupon for Night Flight Plus subscription.
The feature film presentation will be a new super cut – Night Flight Born Again 2, edited by John Mark, one of last year’s finalists, followed by a the announcement of the Grand Prize winner and a Q&A with Stuart Shapiro joined by music video director Rich Murray, who directed more than 100 music videos.
Smoked with timeless jewels of artistic buds, Night Flight has always been a rite of passage, a trip of counterculture discovery, old and new. Night Flight Plus, is the exclusive home of original episodes of Night Flight and offers a one-of-a-kind collection of content that spans genres and eras. It’s a mix of cult classics, avant-garde films, retro horror classics, obscure documentaries, lost TV treasures, rare music performances, and much more!
Visit Nightflightplus.com for more information.
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti
Director Tim Burton reinvents one of the most acclaimed and beloved works of science fiction, Pierre Boulle’s classic novel “Planet of the Apes.” Burton’s Planet of the Apes begins with the famed original’s premise — a pilot finds himself in a world turned upside down after landing on a strange planet.
Starring: Ray Liotta, Lauren Holly, Brendan Gleeson, Hector Elizondo, Rachel Ticotin
90s cinema is replete with airplane-set thrillers, many of which involve transporting dangerous convicts, but there’s only one Christmastime dose of mayhem in which Ray Liotta is unleashed – now boarding for Turbulence!
When a notorious serial killer (Liotta) is being transported on a commercial flight, things quickly go from bumpy to out of control as he breaks free, taking the passengers and crew hostage. Enter Teri (Lauren Holly), a resourceful flight attendant who becomes the last hope for survival, all while the plane is caught in a violent storm.
Starring: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, Isaach De Bankolé, Alessandro Nivola
Escaping post-war Europe, visionary architect László Toth arrives in America to rebuild his life, his work, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet after being forced apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes. On his own in a strange new country, László settles in Pennsylvania, where the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren recognizes his talent for building. But power and legacy come at a heavy cost.
United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided in this magnificent essay film, a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congo’s leader Patrice Lumumba. Richly illustrated by eyewitness accounts, official government memos, testimonies from mercenaries and CIA operatives, speeches from Lumumba himself, and a veritable canon of jazz icons, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat interrogates colonial history to tell an urgent and timely story of precedent that resonates more than ever in today’s geopolitical climate.
