This documentary brings forward a popular era while unearthing many artists, photographers, and stories that you may not already know. The 1980s art scene is famous for break-out artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, but there were many other artists who made a powerful impact.
Make Me Famous is the story of the Lower East Side art movement through an unknown artist, fully allowing the creativity itself to take centerstage. Set during arguably the last great art explosion in American history, Make Me Famous tells the story of unknown painter, Edward Brezinski in his quest for fame. Our film gives an intimate portrait of what it was like to be an artist in N.Y.C. in the 1980s. It delves into the spirit of the artists themselves, what drove their generation and what they were up against.
Make Me Famous follows the talented Edward Brezinski as he famously eats a Donut from a Robert Gober sculpture at the Paula Cooper Gallery and all that follows. Through a real time investigation in the South of France, we unearth the truth about what happened to Brezinski and his mysterious death in the Côte d’Azur.
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Moises Arias, Jason Genao, Karrueche Tran, Mike O’Hearn, Emily Willis, Scott Bakula, Bella Thorne
Set in an otherworldly human existence, scientist Sterling Pierce dedicated his life to the quest for immortality, slowly creating the building blocks of a groundbreaking serum named “Divinity.” Jaxxon Pierce, his son, now controls and manufactures his father’s once-benevolent dream. Society on this barren planet has been entirely perverted by the supremacy of the drug, whose true origins are shrouded in mystery. Two mysterious brothers arrive with a plan to abduct the mogul, and with the help of a seductive woman named Nikita, they will be set on a path hurtling toward true immortality.
Starring: Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Julian Sands, Denholm Elliott, Daniel Day-Lewis
A young, independent-minded Edwardian woman (Helena Bonham Carter) is torn between her feelings for the free-spirited romantic (Julian Sands) she meets on vacation in Florence and the priggish intellectual (Daniel Day-Lewis) to whom she becomes locked into an engagement with back home in Surrey in filmmaker James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant’s Academy Award-winning adaptation of the novel by E. M. Forster. A massive box office hit that helped to propel more traditionally arthouse fare to the mainstream, A Room with a View is one of the greatest—and most romantic—romantic comedies ever made.
Two-for-One Admission Price
Last Movie watched by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (d. 1982)
20,000 Years in Sing Sing (Michael Curtiz, 1932) 78m
Archival 35mm print courtesy of the Library of Congress
Last Movie watched by Bette Davis (d. 1989)
Waterloo Bridge (James Whale, 1931) 81m
35mm print courtesy of Park Circus
Light Industry, Nitehawk Cinema and Spectacle Theater are co-hosting a day-long suite of screenings, films bound together by a single, shared characteristic: they are Last Movies. The phrase is evocative, rhyming with those familiar designations so often pinned to auteurs and their work (first films, late style), but here we refer to something else entirely. From morning to midnite, we will be presenting the last movies of Franz Kafka, John Dillinger, Charlie Parker, Boris Vian, Lee Harvey Oswald, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Sergio Leone, Bette Davis, and Stanley Kubrick—that is, the last film they saw before they died.
This organizing principle came to us via the artist and curator Stanley Schtinter, who previously oversaw London’s Liberated Film Club. His research into the subject has brought to light many other Last Movies, resulting in our screening series and, now, a book, newly published by Tenement Press, which will be available at all three venues. Schtinter is joining us in New York for the latest iteration of his project, providing introductions to every show.
Full day’s schedule
Starring: Cassie Hamilton, Zarif, Lisa Fanto, Chris Asimos
The Future of Film is Female presents the NY premiere of Outfest 2023’s emerging talent award, fiercely independent Australian trans icon Alice Maio Mackay’s fourth feature film, SATRANIC PANIC. This screening includes a recorded introduction by the director. To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.
A bloody, demon-infested road movie about the power of claiming one’s identity and the importance of chosen family, Satranic Panic exposes the hypocrisy of the status quo with biting wit, killer drag, and incredible tits.
When Max, trans queen Aria’s found brother and the love of artist Jay’s life, is ruthlessly slaughtered by a shadowy cult in a ritual to summon a cadre of demons, two friends will follow a mysterious note promising answers and hit the road. Together they will slay the demons that oppose them, perform at drag gigs, make uncertain allies, and uncover a conspiracy of prejudice and self-hatred that leads closer to home than they’d ever imagined.
Starring: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Ayano Shiraishi, Yoshiko Shinohara, Akemi Yamaguchi
A devastating meditation on the human cost of war, this animated tale follows Seita (Tsutomu Tatsumi), a teenager charged with the care of his younger sister, Setsuko (Ayano Shiraishi), after an American firebombing during World War II separates the two children from their parents. Their tale of survival is as heartbreaking as it is true to life. The siblings rely completely on each other and struggle against all odds to stay together and stay alive.
Starring: Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, Grégoire Colin
Foreign Legion officer, Galoup, recalls his once glorious life, leading troops in the Gulf of Djibouti. His existence there was happy, strict and regimented, but the arrival of a promising young recruit, Sentain, plants the seeds of jealousy in Galoup’s mind. He feels compelled to stop him from coming to the attention of the commandant who he admires, but who ignores him. Ultimately, his jealousy leads to the destruction of both Sentain and himself.
Starring: James Duval, Rachel True, Nathan Bexton, Chiara Mastroianni
The 4K restoration of Gregg Araki’s Nowhere is a stylized foray into the nightmare world of adolescent highs and lows, but more than that, it functions as a study of an entire generation and the direction they’re headed. Where The Doom Generation seemed to be a wake-up call, Nowhere is more of a reflexive inquiry into the destiny of the seemingly apathetic youth who place more emphasis on style than substance. An ensemble piece with James Duval (star of all three of the films in the Teen Apocalypse Trilogy), Nowhere features a cast that mixes well-known faces—Ryan Philippe, Christina Applegate, Debi Mazar, Heather Graham, Guillermo Diaz, Denise Richards, Beverly D’Angelo, Shannen Doherty, and Tracy Lords—with up-and-comers.
Restored and remastered, Araki’s final version includes scenes omitted from the original release due to rating restrictions. Nowhere is a sexy and wild ride, so buckle up, remain seated, and enjoy the ultimate fast trip to oblivion.
Starring: Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins
Based on the Henry James story “The Turn of the Screw,” a psychological thriller about a woman who takes a governess job for two orphans in a Victorian home. She begins to see what she believes are ghosts and suspects the children’s bizarre behavior is the result of supernatural powers.
Starring: Steve Westerheit, Connie Speer, Richard Perrin, Benton Jennings, Sarah Paxton
The fraternity brothers at Delta Epsilon Delta are your typical red-blooded American party animals, that is except for Edgar Allen Lovecraft. He’s locked up in his room trying to cure death and finds a serum that works on the severed head of a recently deceased comedian. When a mafia hood steals the serum to use on his murdered squeeze, her reanimated corpse goes on a campus killing spree – let the corny puns and one-punch decapitations fly!
Reanimator Academy was produced down and dirty for the booming video store rental market by legendary producer David DeCoteau (Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama) and directed by the equally renowned Bret McCormick (The Abomination), under what is possibly the best pseudonym ever used in a film. This silly send-up of Lovecraftian lore and cinematic tropes will leave you feeling as hungover and headless as a three-kegger blowout.
Hosted by Matt Desiderio of Horror Boobs with free giveaways of Blu-rays, DVDs and collectibles. Followed by an after party in Lo-Res where Desiderio will DJ an all-vinyl set.
