This Valentine’s Day, Nitehawk’s BOOZE & BOOKS presents the infamous tale of LOLITA (a 35mm presentation).

The screening will have prize giveaways of Lolita shirts & gift certificates courtesy of our partner Out of Print along with an inspired cocktail and some heart-shaped goodies!

Stanley Kubrick’s cinematic vision of Vladimir Nabokov’s book Lolita (who also wrote the screenplay) may be an unconventional love story for Valentine’s Day but the film’s palpable depiction of obsession is eternally alluring…and scandalizing! After taking a room to let with a single mother, Prof. Humbert Humbert falls inappropriately in love and lust with her young teenage daughter Lolita. Lolita teases and takes advantage of his affections with cruelty as their dysfunctional relationship continues throughout the years. Love is never simple.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Booze & Books!

Comedian Kevin Maher visits the far-reaches of the galaxy, where life is cheap and the special effects are cheaper. This 2-hour cosmic adventure features multi-media presentations celebrating the sub-genre. With co-hosts Alex Robinson & Pete the Retailer (from the STAR WARS MINUTE podcast.) Expect lots of laser blasts, obnoxious robots, galactic melodrama and STAR WARS rip-offs. 

Plus Special Guests:
Stuart Wellington (The Flophouse podcast) 
Jenn Northington (Riot New Media) 
Crystal Beth (MTV, StarWarsMinute)  
M. Sweeney Lawless (Euphobia comedy troupe) 
Chris Radtke (Geek.com)

Nitehawk’s LOCAL COLOR series presents a special one nite screening of DIXIELAND, featuring a Q&A after the screening with director Hank Bedford, moderated by Bennett Miller.

Dixieland is an intoxicating portrait of life and love on the margins. Fresh out of prison, Kermit (Zylka), a mostly good kid mixed up with local drug dealers, returns home to his rural Mississippi trailer park. As he struggles to keep his nose clean, he falls for Rachel (Keough), his sultry neighbor who’s turned to dancing in a club to support her sick mother. Determined to overcome their inauspicious circumstances, the star-crossed lovers make a desperate, last-ditch effort to escape their dead-end town—but soon find themselves ensnared in a cycle of crime.

Nitehawk tells the Legend of the 1995 Kung Fu film THE BLADE. A 35mm presentation!

After the master of the Sharp Manufacturer saber factory abdicates and appoints On, his least popular worker, as his successor, On, unwilling to lead his surly colleagues, embarks on a quest of revenge to kill the evil, flying, tattooed kung fu master who killed his father.

Part of Nitehawk’s January THE LEGEND OF 90S KUNG FU midnites.

Look back on over 30 years of Ralph McDaniels’ Video Music Box. Featuring rare and unseen live-footage of Nas, Notorious BIG, Kool Moe Dee, Run DMC, Boogie Down Productions, Jay Z, Wu Tang Clan, and many more. Ralph will also be presenting his top 5 hip hop music videos of all time.

Nitehawk presents two special midnite screenings of the once lost DANGEROUS MEN!

Dangerous Men has many characters…like Mina whose life is shattered when two bikers with rape on their minds attack and kill Daniel, her fiancé. Driven by grief, she embarks on a killing rampage, wreaking vengeance upon all the menthat she seductively lures into her trap. In her twisted world, cops and killers are all the same – David, Daniel’s brother, is a cop who relentlessly pursues the killers, while facing a nest of drug dealers, followed by the FBI and the police SWAT team, also in hot pursuit. Mina, a victim of violence, carrying a twisted obsession for justice, is caught between opposing forces in a world of dangerous men.

In this Yuletide spectacular, comedian KEVIN MAHER welcomes guests to obsess over the holidays with a two-hour video variety show full of laughs and weird film clips.

Guest Segments include:

• Department Store Santa GLEN HEROY shares true tales from Santaland and other gigs as St. Nick.
• THE FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL presents a selection of found videos with a Christmas theme.
• Filmmaker CAROLINE GOLUM tells the story of a Jewish Christmas in New York.
• Word & Film blogger TOM BLUNT makes a case for why VH1’s A DIVA’S CHRISTMAS CAROL deserves to be canonized as a Holiday classic.
• ELLIOTT KALAN (The Flophouse Podcast and The Daily Show) takes a closer look at the Santa myth.
• Space Cat creator WENDY MAYS spotlights an overlooked holiday gem that may disgust you.

An assassin accepts a dangerous mission to kill a political leader in 7th century China.

Back with his first film in 8 years, legendary Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien wowed this year’s Cannes Film Festival (where he won Best Director) with his awe-inspiring THE ASSASSIN – a wondrous take on the traditional wuxia film. The story is simple, if elusive – in 9th-century China, Nie Yinniang is a young woman who was abducted in childhood from a decorated general and raised by a nun who trained her in the martial arts. After 13 years of exile, she is returned to the land of her birth as an exceptional assassin, with orders to kill her betrothed husband-to-be. She must confront her parents, her memories, and her long-repressed feelings in a choice to sacrifice the man she loves or break forever with the sacred way of the righteous assassins. Rich with shimmering, breathing texture and punctuated by brief but unforgettable bursts of action, THE ASSASSIN is a martial arts film like none made before it.

The third annual Nitehawk Shorts Festival is excited to introduce the debut MUSIC DRIVEN category this year screening music videos at midnite!

This screening includes an introduction by John Woods (Nitehawk Cinema), Sacha Jenkins (Mass Appeal) and filmmakers.

In this Music Driven screening at the Nitehawk Shorts Festival, we take a look at the early days and current state of the music video. Featuring the selected works of festival participants, the screening also focuses on on the time period before the emergence of big budget video directors such as Russell Mulcahy, Steve Barron, and Diane Martel. These early examples the music video genre were made with little or no record company support and, in some cases, before MTV or any other regular outlet existed. Even bands on bigger labels created memorable music videos despite time and budget limitations by devising a loose concept and shooting almost documentary style. We’ve chosen a small selection of early “clips” as they were known to illustrate some of the origins of what can still be a vital art form inside and outside the mainstream.

Accompanying the contemporary music videos selected from submission, Mass Appeal, who remains one of the biggest supporters of new music videos, will present some of the more recent original and groundbreaking clips they’ve featured. While this is a diverse program on many levels, the continuing innovation and creative execution of the music video remains the common thread.

LIMB & NECK (Crown the Invisible)
Theodore Collatos | 2015 | 3 minutes

CANAL (Ratking)
Eric K. Yue | 2015 | 3 minutes

Vintage selection from the formative time of the music video
1982 | 2 1/2 minutes

DIM THE LIGHTS (Wild Ones)
Montana Wildhack (Calvin Waterman and Peter Kearney) | 2015 | 4 1/2 minutes

RUBY (Charly Bliss)
Andrew Costa | 2015 | 2 1/2 minutes

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND COUNT TO FUCK (Run the Jewels)
A.G. ROJAS | 2015 | 5 minutes

ORION’S BELT
Megan Clement | 2015 | 4 minutes

Vintage selection from the formative time of the music video
1987 | 4 minutes

HIGH ROAD (Mastadon)
Roboshobo | 2014 | 4 minutes

DOUBLE HELIX (KNTRLR)
Matthew K. Esolda & Daniel Bowhers | 2015 | 5 minutes

Vintage selection from the formative time of the music video
1982 | 3 1/2 minutes

ARIGHT (Kendrick Lamar)
Colin Tilley | 2015 | 7 minutes

NO WILL (White Hills)
Ego Sensation | 2015 | 4 minutes

LONER (Kali Uchis)
Kali Uchis | 2015 | 4 1/2 minutes

Vintage selection from the formative time of the music video
1976 | 4 minutes

FIREWORKS (Josef Henry)
Megan Smith | 2015 | 2 1/2 minutes

LIKE ME (Joey Badass)
Nathan R. Smith & Joey Bada$$ | 2015 | 5 minutes

Vintage selection from the formative time of the music video
1979 | 3 minutes

BLAZING STAR LODGE (Jim Lopezzo)
Jim Lopezzo | 2015 | 4 1/2 minutes

I LOVE YOU TOO (Darlings)
Ricardo Villavincencio | 2015 | 2 1/2 minutes

Vintage selection from the formative time of the music video
1983 | 4 minutes

HILLSIDE (Lost Children)
Richard Joneleit | 2015 | 6 minutes

THARSIS SLEEPS (Throne)
Nicos Livesey & Tom Bunker | 2014 | 4 1/2 minutes

Program is subject to change.

Prize sponsorship provided by Heard City, a boutique audio post-production facility, and Nice Shoes, the full service, artist-driven design, animation, visual effects and color grading studio specializing in high-end commercials, web content, film, TV and music videos. One filmmaker will receive 14 hours (2 days) of Sound Design and/or Mix with one Sound Designer/Mixer courtesy of Heard City as well as 20 hours of color grading with a night colorist (valued at $16k) from Nice Shoes. The winner is selected by festival organizers and invited guests.

The third annual Nitehawk Shorts Festival is excited to have our MIDNITE category again this year! Co-programmed with Sam Zimmerman (Shudder), this program features short films by international filmmakers most appropriately viewed after the clock strikes midnite.

Screening includes an introduction by Caryn Coleman (Nitehawk Cinema) and filmmakers.

YOU’RE INVITED! Filmmakers Gathering pre-party in our downstairs bar, Lo-Res, from 10pm – 12am!

SON
Judd Myers | 2015 | USA | 14 minutes
New York Premiere
A sheltered kid cons his way into a sick day. Left alone for the first time, he stumbles upon a sinister family secret.

RAT TAIL
Adam R. Brown | 2014 | USA | 3 minutes
A young couple learns that pranks in the nude never end well.

VIOLENT FLORENCE
Jaime Snyder | 2014 | Australia | 12 minutes
New York Premiere
Florence rescues a stray cat. After taking the feline to an isolated building, her true intentions emerge.

TRAUMA
Ethan Young | 2013 | USA | 12 minutes
New York Premiere
Proving that there’s nothing menacing in the attic of her abandoned childhood home is the only thing standing between Isabelle and freedom. But even with her doctor’s insistence, something still seems amiss.

THE CHICKENING
Nick DenBoer and Davy Force | 2015 | Canada | 5 minutes
New York Premiere
This is a theatrical trailer for a fictional film in which Stanley Kubrick’s classic film The Shining has been artfully transformed into a new, poultry-­infused comedy adventure by digitally altering the film to create a new narrative.

PSYCHOTIC!
Maxwell Frey and Derek Gibbons | 2015 | USA | 7 minutes
In the Bushwick area of Brooklyn, a serial killer sneaks into a girl’s apartment only to find himself hiding out with the other guests of a surprise birthday party.

THE SUBSTITUTE
Nathan Hughes-Berry | 2015 | UK | 23 minutes
New York Premiere
A young teacher takes a job at an unusual private school where she soon discovers that the boys have a sinister power over the girls.

LARRY GONE DEMON
Matthew John Lawrence | 2015 | USA | 14 minutes
New York Premiere
A frenetic, punk-rock nightmare centering on one asshole of a roommate.

Program is subject to change.

Prize sponsorship provided by Heard City, a boutique audio post-production facility, and Nice Shoes, the full service, artist-driven design, animation, visual effects and color grading studio specializing in high-end commercials, web content, film, TV and music videos. One filmmaker will receive 14 hours (2 days) of Sound Design and/or Mix with one Sound Designer/Mixer courtesy of Heard City as well as 20 hours of color grading with a night colorist (valued at $16k) from Nice Shoes. The winner is selected by festival organizers and invited guests.