New York City may get all the new releases first, but there’s a lot more to the film culture here than just what’s in the mainstream theaters! Every week we bring you the top 5 cinematic events to check out.
1. An Evening Celebrating New Cinema From Haiti (FIAF/L’alliance Francaise)
Jonathan Demme, Ben Stiller, and other artists convene at New York City’s L’alliance Francaise for a celebration benefiting Haiti’s sole film school Ciné Institute. The Institute provides Haitian youth with a film education, sometimes incredibly hands-on: Immediately following the earthquake in 2010, students were documenting the damage via footage uploaded to social media sites. The celebrity guests will be introducing various films from this past year, which make up the genre called “Jollywood.” (Thursday, January 24 at 7 p.m.)
2. Repo Man (Nitehawk Cinema)
Expect Nitehawk to make it onto most of these lists, because their movie events are just so inventive. The Williamsburg theater has spent the month of January celebrating mods, rockers, and punks — and they wrap things up with Alex Cox’s 1984 dystopia-punk rock mash-up. Repo Man stars Emilio Estevez (!) as Otto, a disinterested youth who becomes even more so when he quits his job, gets dumped by his girlfriend, and finds out his parents donated his college fund to a televangelist. What other choice does he have but to join the Helping Hand Acceptance Corporation? But of course things don’t go smooth from there. (Fri-Sat, January 25-26 at12:15 a.m.)
3. Bubba Ho-Tep (Landmark Sunshine Cinema)
You thought that was the most bizarre movie of the week, didn’t you? Maybe Emilio Estevez as a punk rocker was enough for you. Maybe you don’t want to hear about Evil Dead‘s Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley, having faked his own death by switching places with an Elvis impersonator. Perhaps you’re uninterested in hearing about how Elvis teams up with a buddy at his nursing home who’s convinced he’s JFK, and they have to defeat an evil Egyptian entity. Oh, you’re interested? Then it might tickle you to hear this insane-sounding movie is from John Dies at the End writer-director Don Coscarelli. Enjoy! (Fri-Sat, January 25-26 at midnight)
4. The Black Kungfu Experience (Museum of the Moving Image)
If you’re in NYC you’ve got to get on this one ASAP — as in, today, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The Museum of the Moving Image is screening this documentary (free with museum admission) about the black pioneers who entered the kungfu cinema world in the 1960s and ’70s. Taking over roles originally monopolized by white and Chinese actors, they created a new genre. Martial artists Ron Van Clief, Tayari Casel, and Dennis Brown will be in attendance. (Monday, January 21 at 2 p.m.)
5. “New Yawk New Wave” (Film Forum)
With a name like that, how can you not love this retrospective grouping NYC filmmakers from the ’50s-’70s into their own bonafide movement? Film Forum’s new series groups together artists like Andy Warhol and John Cassavetes; there are 35 feature films in all, plus a handful of shorts. The festival has already begun, but this week you can catch classics like 1 P.M., Scorpio Rising, Hallelujah the Hills, and Women in Revolt. And wouldn’t you know, one of the movies I’ve listed is a Godard film. (Friday, January 11-Thursday, January 31)
