Nitehawk welcomes THE IRON MULE SHORT COMEDY FESTIVAL to the Nitehawk Shorts Festival!

After 13 years in Manhattan, the Iron Mule Short Comedy Film Festival comes to Williamsburg with a lineup of seven new films, featuring short comedy films from China, England, Russia, and… Brooklyn! Filmmakers will be in attendance and the screening will be followed by an after-party in Lo-Res where the audience and filmmakers can mingle.

The Iron Mule is New York’s only monthly short comedy film series, screening narrative, documentary, animated and experimental comedies from around the world. In their 13+ years they have presented more than 1,100 films, including early work from many celebrated filmmakers and comedians such as Stephen Colbert, Seth Macfarlane, Lena Dunham and Aziz Ansari.

Each screening features a guest judge from the world of film, comedy, television, or the New York art scene. Hosts Jay Stern and Victor Varnado interview attending filmmakers during the show, and each screening is followed by an after-party. In addition, Iron Mule produces the “Wanna Be a Star” contest, in which an audience member is chosen to star in a new film directed by an Iron Mule filmmaker to be shown at the following month’s screening.

NIGHT SHIFT
Written and directed by Richard Higson | 2014 | UK | 15 minutes
Lenny and Chris head to a mysterious manor house for a special job. But they haven’t reckoned on just who they’re there to kidnap, and who else might have had the same idea…

SHOE
Written and directed by Eric Fisher | 2014 | USA | 7 minutes
Soldiers in the American Revolution fight to survive. And to inherit a shoe. They mostly fight about the shoe.

PORTFOLIO
Written and directed by Nikita Tamarov | 2015 | Russia | 16 minutes
A body has been buried, but the relatives want to make a change. Funeral contractors have a messy job to do, all while staying “within the budget.”

MIXED UP
Written by Ian Lassiter, directed by Jeffrey Glaser | 2015 | USA | 14 minutes
A young, mixed-race jazz musician finds he has no African DNA, and struggles to figure out how the eff he will make sense of his life…

PANTY FAIRY
Written and directed by Juanwei Chen | 2014 | China | 2 minutes
In the midst of chaos, a hero emerges to save the day. Young teenage girls are constantly being robbed of their belongings and only one true fairy can pave the way towards a happily ever after.

He is known as…Panty Fairy.

DOIN’ EVERYTHIN’
Written and directed by Jacob A. Ware and Kate Dearing | 2014 | USA | 5 1/2 minutes
One of the only 10,000 part how-to tutorial series.

TERMINATOR 6
Part of our “Wanna Be a Star” contest, which stars a member of our previous show’s audience chosen at random! Written and directed by Jay Stern and Victor Varnado.

The third annual Nitehawk Shorts Festival continues with our DAY TWO brunch screening of documentary and narrative fiction shorts.

Screening followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and festival programmers.

YOU’RE INVITED: Official closing party celebration at Lo-Res (2pm – 4pm) where we will announce the festival winner!

QUINTAL (BACKYARD)
André Novais Oliveira | 2015 | Brazil | 20 minutes
Another day in the life of an elderly married couple in the suburbs.

THE TRIAL OF BARNABY FINCH
Sorrel Brae and Sam Stephens | 2013 | USA | 2 ½ minutes
To swat or not to swat? That’s the question an errant fly poses to our hapless hero, Barnaby Finch, at the penultimate moment of his job interview.

MONDAY SOCCER
Marina Loducca | 2015 | Brazil | 4 ½ minutes
A fictional story centered around a married man in Brooklyn, NY who leads a seemingly normal life.

DOMESTIC BLISS
Craig Friedman and Courtenay Cholovich | 2015 | USA | 11 minutes
World Premiere
A defiantly non-narrative experimental film on interior life.

GAME OF PRETEND
Christopher Bagnall | 2015 | USA | 7 minutes
A profile on an eccentric car mechanic who has spent years constructing his very own KITT car from his favorite TV show, Knight Rider.

THEIR SON RYAN
Noah Cohen | 2015 | Canada | 12 minutes
World Premiere
A dark comedy about a quarrel between a divorced couple over the ashes of their recently-deceased son.

IF YOU’RE READING THIS IT’S TOO LATE
Christopher Cole | 2015 | USA | 4 ½ minutes
This is the story of a Drake fan.

THEREFORE I AM
Peter McCoubrey & Luke McCoubrey | 2015 | USA | 6 ½ minutes
New York Premiere
A mysterious encounter between a man who claims to be from the future and the man who he claims is his former self.

BRIDGE
Danny Dwyer | 2014 | USA | 14 minutes
New York Premiere
An aging dancer at the end of her rope decides to cut her time short, but her plans are disrupted by a disturbing turn of events. A strange vagrant and a mysterious photograph bring her face-to-face with her choices.

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 continues with our DAY ONE brunch screening of documentary and narrative fiction shorts.

Screening followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and festival programmers.

PETIT FRERE (LITTLE BROTHER)
Remi St-Michel | 2014 | Canada | 14 minutes
Antoine, a problematic teenager 14 year old, spends a day with his tutor. For one last time before the latter’s departure for Russia, the two “brothers” mess around in the city streets.

TRUTH WITH WINE
Theodore Collatos | USA | 2015 | 17 minutes
New York Premiere
A personal documentary about the filmmaker’s family and, specifically, his relationship with his step-father.

TEST
Jay Lifton | 2014 | USA | 10 minutes
A seemingly unremarkable man spends a day taking a bizarre test at a mysterious facility.

CHICKENS
Susan Huyett | 2015 | USA | 2 minutes
Word Premiere
Chickens meet Herzog in this blended short.

PROCESS
Rob Silcox | 2015 | USA | 7 minutes
Two process servers have to deliver a subpoena by any means necessary.

RI THORAI (THE KING OF TORY ISLAND)
Eoin Mcaughlin | 2015 | USA/Ireland | 8 minutes
World Premiere
Patsy Dan Rodgers is the king of 100 people as he governs a tiny island off the northernmost tip of Ireland, in a tradition dating back well over 1,000 years.

UNFIT TO PRINT
Mark Lungariello & Liam McKiernan | 2014 | USA | 11 minutes
An earnest, and sometimes clueless, career changer is schooled in unorthodox journalism methods by a slimy, blowhard editor for a community weekly.

APHASIA
Luke LoCurcio | 2015 | USA | 11 minutes
A short film about the price of plugging in.

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.

Art Seen presents a special one night screening of six art-focused films for the third annual Nitehawk Shorts Festival.

Screening followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and Caryn Coleman (Senior Film Programmer, Nitehawk Cinema). There will also be free copies of the latest issue of frieze magazine!

Following last year’s screening of works by pioneer filmmaker and artist Aldo Tambellini, Art Seen will again present a special art-focused program for the Nitehawk Shorts Festival. This year, Art Seen screens six short films by contemporary artists and filmmakers that show a fantastical look at the world around us. Real life and the extraordinary collide in Academy Award Nominated director Zachary Heinzerling’s surreal film based on the practice of artist Hugh Hayden as well as in Ronni Thomas’ fascinating documentary on Victorian taxidermist Walter Potter, Julia Oldham’s animated imagining of the dog who orbited the earth, and Marcel Dzama’s Dadaist love story that will feature a live score by Luscious Skin. The imaginative realm goes even further with Takeshi Murata’s giallo and video game inspired CGI animation about a misfit werewolf. Firmly rooting the program in the real world is the new frieze video, in partnership with Arts Council England, on the history and present day artistic struggles in London.

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Frieze Video with Jonathan P. Watts | 2015 | 17 minutes
Critic Jonathan P. Watts takes a cross-generational look at how artists have survived in London from the 1970s until the present, and why they continue to stay. It’s the first in a three-part series of film and essay projects titled ‘Page and Screen’, supported by Arts Council England.

HUGH THE HUNTER
Zachary Heinzerling | 2014 | USA | 10 ½ minutes
A surrealist recontextualization of themes present in the work of artist Hugh Hayden through the form of a storybook fable.

LAIKA’S LULLABY
Julia Oldham | 2015 | USA | 6 ½ minutes
An animated short that tells the tragic story of the Soviet space dog Laika, who in 1957 became one of the first animals to be launched into space.

WALTER POTTER: THE MAN WHO MARRIED KITTENS
Ronni Thomas | 2015 | USA | 19 minutes
A short documentary on one of Victorian England’s most enigmatic and quirky characters, amateur taxidermist Walter Potter.

OM RIDER
Takeshi Murata | 2014 | USA | 11 ½ minutes
A suspenseful story of a murderous encounter between a punk werewolf and a dapper old man.

UNE DANSE DES BOUFFONS  (A JESTER’S DANCE)
Marcel Dzama | 2013 | USA | 36 minutes
Live score performed by Luscious Skin
In this Dadaist love story, there are many recurring themes: death and rebirth, multiple identities and doppelgängers, false prophets, love and love lost, the corruption of power and fragility of what is real or true.
Courtesy of David Zwirner, New York/London

ART SEEN is in partnership with frieze.
Program is subject to change.

The third annual Nitehawk Shorts Festival opens with a night of incredible documentary and narrative fiction shorts.

Introduction by festival programmers and a Q&A with filmmakers following the screening. 

YOU’RE INVITED! Official opening night party in our downstairs bar, Lo-Res, with complimentary drinks by Reyka Vodka!

MIRROR HEART
Mukunda Angulo | USA | 2015 | 7 minutes
An imaginative tale by The Wolfpack about a cast of dreamlike characters who unify around the necessity to create.

STAG
Kevin Newbury | USA | 2015 | 14 minutes
In the summer of 1963, fifteen-year-old tomboy Francesca  investigates the mysterious comings and goings in her father’s basement.

LET’S HAVE A SEIZURE
Azu Davidson | USA | 2015 | 4 minutes
World Premiere
On any old night alone at home, Harvey’s chaotic misgivings about love and desire wreak havoc on her emotional stability. She’s determined to make you see her worst side, if only she can pick which side it is!

BORN TO LOVE YOU
Jay Buim | USA | 2015 | 11 minutes
World Premiere
The film follows a young man named Khan who, despite an injury, dreams of a better life that can be achieved through playing professional hockey.

WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ZOMBIES
Stephen Elliott | USA | 2015 | 8 minutes
The zombie apocalypse won’t solve your relationship problems.

STOP
Reinaldo Marcus Green | USA | 2014 | 9 minutes
A young man’s livelihood is put to the test when he gets stopped by the police on his way home from practice.

YOU SEE WHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY
Henry H P English | USA | 1967 | 9 minutes
A rare film about the great free jazz musician, Marion Brown, in 1967.

ONE MAN’S TRASH
Kelly Adams | USA | 2015 | 17 minutes
A short documentary on NYC Department of Sanitation’s Nelson Molina and his collection of found objects in a sanitation garage in East Harlem, “Treasures in the Trash.”

THE STICK
Hail Mary (Perry Strong, John Orphan, Greg Wayne) | USA | 2014 | 9 minutes
A comedic film about two thieves break into a house and try to outsmart a crime boss.

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.

Nitehawk Cinema’s LOCAL COLOR and Tribeca Film Festival’s series on New York filmmakers presents a special screening of 3RD STREET BLACKOUT. Q&A after the screening with directors Negin Farsad and Jeremy Redleaf!

Mina and Rudy are that couple: adorable but not obnoxious. Intellectual but not condescending. Busy but still have time to post on Instagram. Yet, sometimes it seems this technology-obsessed duo can’t take their eyes off their screens.

3rd Street Blackout is a dark comedy – literally – that follows Mina and Rudy in the days after Hurricane Sandy left large parts of New York City without power. In this analogue world, their flaws are exposed, their commitment challenged and their mettle tested. How much would you pay to deliver a message during a blackout?

From the filmmakers, “We may lovingly satirize TED, web development and our over-dependency on technology, but we’re starting a conversation about intimacy in the world of hyper-connectivity and community-building in a world where we’ve all but forgotten our neighbors.” Rest assured, you’ve never laughed this hard in dim-lighting.

Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea, Karl Hardman, Judith Ridley, Keith Wayne, Marilyn Eastman

NOTE: This is a live music event creating a new film score for Night of the Living Dead. The original dialogue will be included!

What can be said about George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead? Not only did it give birth to the modern notion of what a “zombie” is and provided a socio-political context in which we can view the zombie (and horror film as a genre) but it is also one of the most important films of the 20th century. A true case of underground filmmaking capturing the current climate, Night of the Living Dead shows what happens when seven strangers wind up in a barnhouse during the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. And while the dead are rising, it’s the alive ones they really have to worry about.

Comedian Kevin Maher presents a two-hour video variety show of Horror footage and pop culture commentary.

LISTEN TO ME MARLON utilizes hundreds of hours of audio that Marlon Brandon recorded over the course of his life to tell the screen legend’s story.

With exclusive access to his extraordinary unseen and unheard personal archive including hundreds of hours of audio recorded over the course of his life, this is the definitive Marlon Brando cinema documentary. Charting his exceptional career as an actor and his extraordinary life away from the stage and screen with Brando himself as your guide, the film will fully explore the complexities of the man by telling the story uniquely from Marlon’s perspective, entirely in his own voice. No talking heads, no interviewees, just Brando on Brando and life.