Our 2015 Nitehawk Naughties program begins with a Valentine’s screening of the infamous Swedish educational sex film, LANGUAGE OF LOVE.

Whether or not its intentions were to excite audiences, Torgny Wickman’s 1969 educational sex film Language of Love (Ur kärlekens språk) marks a groundbreaking moment in erotic cinema. Based on the book The ABZ’s of Love by Inge and Sten Hegeler, the film centers around discussions by (s)experts Inge and Sten Hegeler, Maj-Brith Bergstroem-Walan and Sture Cullhed. Their theories are then illustrated by the acts of “non professionals” through the usage of split screens and multiple camera angles.

While Language of Love may be best known today for its inclusion in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, it should be acknowledged for its frank representation of sex’s role in society, culture, and in the home. Considered to be the prototype for hardcore pornography, it’s one the first commercial features to show intercourse on the screen, tackle taboos, provoke heated debates and challenge international censorship laws. It wasn’t released in the U.S. until 1971 and rumor even has it that Swedish censor boss Erik Skoglund saw it twice and then had to take three days off! Hopefully you won’t have to do the same.

Part of the Nitehawk Naughties SCANDINAVIAN EROTIC CINEMA program.

Nitehawk Cinema proudly presents our 4th Annual ULTRA MEGA OSCARS on February 22nd!

What could be more glamorous than watching all the drama, tears, and glory of Hollywood’s biggest night on the big screen with tableside food and beverage? Who will win? Who will be outraged? Our celebration of all things movies from the previous year includes fun games and, of course, tableside food and beverage during the event.

See our menu below for the select food and drink specials inspired by the nominees. Our $25 food and beverage voucher saves your seat, so you won’t miss a second of all the glitz and glamor!

BOYHOOD
Best Picture/ Best Supporting Actor/ Best Supporting Actress / Best Director / Best Original Screenplay / Film Editing
Want Another Queso? ($10) – scallions, pickled jalapeno, cilantro, tortilla chips (Nitehawk’s famous queso with a free refill)
Texas Tea with hiding vodka ($10) – Tito’s Vodka with sweetened black tea and lemon

THE IMITATION GAME
Best Picture/ Best Actor / Best Supporting Actress / Best Director / Best Adapted Screenplay / Film Editing / Best Original Score / Production Design
Ultra ($13) – steak, mushroom, ale pie, carrots, peas, puff pastry
Enigma ($6) – Krombacher Dark Schwarzbier (12oz btl)

BIRDMAN
Best Picture/ Best Actor / Best Supporting Actor / Best Supporting Actress / Best Director / Best Original Screenplay / Best Cinematography / Sound Editing
Good Bird ($11) – hot and crispy chicken wings, dill yogurt sauce, carrot slaw
Method Gin Cocktail ($10) – New Amsterdam Gin, spiced apple syrup, fresh lemon, Angostura Bitters, ginger beer, cinnamon

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
Best Picture/ Best Actress / Best Actor / Best Adapted Screenplay / Best Original Score
The Universe in a (Wal)Nutshell ($8) – nutella filled brown butter crepes, candied walnuts
The Black Hole ($10) – Four Roses Bourbon, Averna, Angostura Bitters, Bourbon and vanilla soaked cherry

WHIPLASH
Best Picture/ Best Supporting Actor / Best Adapted Screenplay / Film Editing / Sound Mixing /
The Usual ($7) – buttered salted popcorn, chocolate covered raisins
Double-Thyme Sling ($9) – Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey, thyme syrup, Combier Liqueur D’Orange, fresh lemon

Gothamist presents… a special advance screening of LITTLE ACCIDENTS with director Sara Colangelo!

When a teenage boy goes missing in a small town already devastated by a fatal mining accident, three strangers find themselves drawn together in a tangle of secrets, lies, and the collective grief of the community.  Reeling from the disappearance of her son, Diane (Elizabeth Banks) finds herself drifting away from her husband (Josh Lucas), a mining company executive whose role in the accident has made her family the prime target for the town’s anger. When she forms a dangerous bond with the sole survivor of the disaster (Boyd Holbrook), truths will be uncovered that threaten to tear apart the few remaining threads holding the town together in this intense drama from writer-director Sara Colangelo.

Complimentary pre party for ticket holders in our cafe at 7pm.

Nitehawk and Noisey present a special presentation of San Diego post-hardcore doc IT’S GONNA BLOW!!! Q&A with Director Bill Perrine moderated by Devon Goldberg (Creedle) & plus special guests!

“It’s Gonna Blow!!! – San Diego Music Underground 1986-1996 is a feature length documentary film about San Diego’s influential DIY music scene and its uneasy relationship with the mainstream. Drawing from previously unseen performance footage and interviews with over sixty musicians, promoters and artists such as John Reis (Rocket from the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu), Justin Pearson (The Locust, Swing Kids), and Rob Crow (Pinback, Heavy Vegetable)… the film explores the birth of San Diego’s innovative post-hardcore scene and its early 90s ‘Next Seattle’ hype.”

Presented with our media partner, Noisey.

Celebrate Valentine’s day with Jean Cocteau’s dreamy adaptation of the BEAUTY AND THE BEAST love story with our Live Sound Cinema presentation featuring a live score by Reel Orchestrette!

Surrealist Jean Cocteau’s film adaptation of the French fairy tale “La Belle et Le Bete” (the first ever produced) is a marvel of stage design that’s heavy with innuendo and loaded visuals. The story of Belle, a farmer’s daughter, who offers herself as hostage to a mythical, tortured Beast in exchange for her father’s life. The film springs to life once she reaches The Beast’s secluded castle where everything, from the doors to the light fixtures, has a life of its own. Captivated by his hostage, The Beast falls for Belle, allowing her to return home every day on the condition that he will die if she doesn’t return, leaving Belle torn between her freedom and budding romantic (and sexual! shh!) feelings for the Beast.

Reel Orchestrette (Bradford Reed & Geoff Gersh) is dedicated to the art of live musical accompaniment to silent films. Reed & Gersh have been collaborating together for almost 20 years, they formed Reel Orchestrette in 2012.

Starring: Desiree Akhavan, Rebecca Henderson, Scott Adsit, Halley Feiffer

The Future of Film is Female is celebrating the first book by filmmaker Desiree Akhavan, YOU’RE EMBARRASSING YOURSELF, with two special brunch screenings that include a tenth anniversary screening of APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR (7/17) and the 2018 Sundance Award Winner, THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST (7/18). To make an additional $10 donation to The Future of Film is Female, select the “Event + Donation” ticket on the checkout screen.

Both screenings include an intro and Q&A with Akhavan as well as a book signing. Books are available to purchase with your ticket or at the event.

Desiree Akhavan’s personal debut film, Appropriate Behavior, was released in 2014. It’s a comedic and introspective look at a young woman, Shirin, who stumbles through her identity as she tries to be the ideal Persian daughter, politically correct bisexual and hip young Brooklynite but fails miserably in her attempts to be all three. With her sexuality being a secret from her traditional Persian family, she also deals with the disintegration of her relationship with her girlfriend.

Go here to get your tickets to our Sunday screening of THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST

You’re Embarrassing Yourself: Stories of Love, Lust, and Movies
Writer, actor, and director Desiree Akhavan shares the stories she was told to shut up about—hilarious, horny, heartbreaking tales of a life in pursuit of art, love, and a better haircut.

Two giants of rock, Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult, share the same stage in the feature length concert film BLACK AND BLUE. Introduction by Richard Christy, writer and composer of “Majestic Loincloth.” A special 35mm presentation.

In 1980, Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult co-headlined a nationwide tour called Black and Blue. Recorded at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island and never released on DVD, Black and Blue cuts back-and-forth between both bands’ sets, and features Ronnie James Dio blazing through tracks from the then just released Heaven and Hell, while Blue Oyster Cult hams it up with a gigantic fiberglass Godzilla.

Never before released on DVD, we’ll be screening Black and Blue from our own 35mm print. So break out your torches and sharpen your horns, because the Devil is coming to Nitehawk, and He’s brought friends.

One filmmakers quest to uncover the secrets behind the Philippines’ 2 ft. 9 James Bond, Weng Weng. Director Andrew Leavold will be in attendance for a Q&A!

Some of the most bizarre filmmaking from the 1970’s and 80’s came out of the Philippines. Under the thumb of an oppressive regime, the country became an unexpected hotspot for exploitation film makers out to make blood-and-guts skin flicks for dirt cheap prices. Though the scene often featured B-movie heavies like Pam Grier or Dick Miller, the boom’s breakout star was mysterious pint-sized action star named Weng Weng. The 2 ft. 9 James Bond died in 1993, but his legacy became emblematic of the country’s post-colonial struggle with censorship and strife, which lead an American video store owner on a crazed quest to uncover the secrts of Weng Weng’s life.

The second annual Nitehawk Shorts Festival opens with an evening featuring an incredible program of documentary, animation and narrative fiction shorts.

Introduction by festival programmers and Q&A with filmmakers following the screening. Plus, we announced the Festival prize winner and host and after­-party in Nitehawk’s downstairs bar from 11:30pm­ – 1:00am!

NITEHAWK SHORTS FESTIVAL: OPENING NITE PROGRAM
Efrén Hernández – Master Muscles (14 minutes)
Dean Peterson – Ving Rhames (9 minutes)
Sam Cullman and Benjamin Rosen – Black Cherokee (20 minutes)
Trinity Andersson and Barry Andersson – Me & Ewe (7 minutes)
Elizabeth Chatelain – Jenny and Steph (9 minutes)
Mickey Duzyj and Jeremy Johnstone – The Perfect 18 (7 minutes)
Paolo Bitanga – Mang Abe’s Ube (The Farmer and the Glowing Green Shell) (15 minutes)

Program 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 in Manhattan or Dumbo with one Sound Designer/Mixer courtesy of Heard City and 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 second annual Nitehawk Shorts Festival is excited to introduce the debut of a ‘Midnite’ category this year.

Co-programmed with Sam Zimmerman (Fangoria), this program features short films by international filmmakers more appropriately viewed after dark. Screening includes an introduction by Caryn Coleman, Sam Zimmerman and filmmakers.

Filmmakers Gathering pre-party in our downstairs bar from 10pm – 12am.

NITEHAWK SHORTS FESTIVAL: MIDNITE PROGRAM
Darren Banks – Interiors (ALT Ending) (10 minutes)
Peter McCoubrey and Luke McCoubrey – The Grey Matter (18 minutes)
Andrea McGinty – McDreamy (2 minutes)
Claire Ensslin – Pedestrian (7 minutes)
Ben Aston – He Took His Skin Off For Me (11 minutes)
David Cronenberg – The Nest (9 minutes)
Rick Niebe – Study for Interior with Figures and Sounds (4 minutes)
Jesse Burks – One Please (6 minutes)
Bonnie Black – Brute (15 minutes)
Ben Steiner – The Stomach (15 minutes)

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 in Manhattan or Dumbo with one Sound Designer/Mixer courtesy of Heard City and 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.