Nightmares in Red, White and Blue is a comprehensive history of the American horror film that aims right for the jugular. Starting with Thomas Edison’s version of Frankenstein and slashing its way through to Saw and beyond, this incisive documentary examines how these monstrous creations were gruesome reflections of their time.

Nightmares charts the genre’s shift from atomic age anxieties (Them) and Vietnam-era violence (Night of the Living Dead) all the way to post-9/11 xenophobia (Hostel), with stops at the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Camp Crystal Lake in between. Director Andrew Monument also explores the rebellious appeal of the outsider, starting with silent star Lon Chaney and later epitomized in Hannibal Lecter’s idiosyncratic pursuit of individual liberties.

With commentary from horror luminaries including Roger Corman, Joe Dante, John Carpenter, Larry Cohen, and George Romero, and featuring clips from more than 150 movies spanning over 100 years, Nightmares is a bloody master class on one of America’s most enduring and revealing art forms.

Who Is Harry Nilsson…?, a wildly entertaining, star-studded documentary tells the story of one of the most talented and versatile singer-songwriters in pop music history and the man The Beatles dubbed their favorite American musician. The Grammy® Award-winners “Everybody’s Talkin” and “Without You”…the quirky “Coconut” (”Put de lime in de coconut…”)…the whimsical “Me And My Arrow,” and the poignant “One” (”…is the loneliest number”)…these recordings are all the work of Harry Nilsson. The documentary, which Ain’t It Cool News said, is “everything a great documentary needs to be,” reveals his spirited relationship with John Lennon and close bond with Ringo Starr, as well as Harry the legendary “bad boy” party animal who was at the same time a devoted husband and father. Director John Scheinfeld brings added emotion and intimacy to the story with over 50 Nilsson recordings, rare or never-before-seen film clips, home movies and personal photos. To this are added compelling interviews with top music and movie personalities who knew Harry well. They include Micky Dolenz, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Al Kooper, Randy Newman, Yoko Ono, Van Dyke Parks, The Smothers Brothers, Jimmy Webb, Paul Williams, Robin Williams, Brian Wilson and many others. As film critic Leonard Maltin noted, “Who Is Harry Nilsson? is a vivid portrait of a gifted man…what a great reminder of his talent.”

For booking inquiries please contact Kevyn Fairchild at kevyn@kinolorber.com or by phone at (212) 629-6880.

Niko von Glascow is the director and co-writer of this triumphant spiritual documentary set in Germany. He himself was affected by Thalidomide; his arms are about three inches long. He doesn’t go swimming with his young son because he’s hesitant to take his shirt off at the beach. Now with great energy and idealism, von Glascow has created this glimpse into the lives and challenges he and eleven other Thalidomiders face now that they are grown up. After profiling them, he sets up a photo shoot with each of them posing nude for a public art project and a photography book. Von Glascow’s son even joins him in his picture.

Among the fascinating characters profiled in the film are Stefan Fricke, an astrophysicist in a wheelchair; Sigrid Kwelle, a lesbian tango dance instructor: Mat Fraser, a very witty actor and writer; Sofia Plich, a social worker; Theo Zavelberg, a gardener; Bianca Vogel, a world-class dressage rider; and Fred Dove, a broadcaster and presenter on BBC. As the conversations with these people unfold and we become more intimate with the details of their lives and their personal experiences, the beauty of their character shines out and we no longer even notice their disabilities. The film project lifts the spirits of these 12 people, creates a fresh sense of community among them, and signals to us the importance of viewing people who are different from us with openness and a keen respect for human diversity.

A sidebar of this extraordinary German documentary is the director’s futile attempt to talk to the president of Grunenthal, the company that created and sold the drug that stole and damaged so many lives. A final thought from the director Niko von Glascow:

“I’m a filmmaker who has short arms due to the effects of the drug Thalidomide. The first thing people react to when they meet me is how I look. Even if they don’t say anything, they either stare or look away. They show that they’re uncomfortable with me. I can hardly blame them; I’m very uncomfortable about myself. All my life I’ve tried not to think about my disability, tried to ignore the truth. Many disabled people find it hard to deal with the disgusted, confused, or pitying stares they receive when they’re out in public. Society needs to get used to the way we look, and stop seeing us as beings from another planet. Of course we look different, but it is possible to see beyond that.”

http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/films/films.php?id=19559

The New Museum will present “Brion Gysin: Dream Machine,” the first US retrospective of the work of the painter, performer, poet, and writer Brion Gysin (born 1916, Taplow, UK–died 1986, Paris). Working simultaneously in a variety of mediums, Gysin was an irrepressible inventor, serial collaborator, and subversive spirit whose considerable innovations continue to influence musicians and writers, as well as visual and new media artists today. The exhibition will include over 300 drawings, books, paintings, photo-collages, films, slide projections, and sound works, as well as an original Dreamachine—a kinetic light sculpture that utilizes the flicker effect to induce visions when experienced with closed eyes. “Brion Gysin: Dream Machine” is curated by Laura Hoptman, Kraus Family Senior Curator, and will be on view in the New Museum’s second floor gallery.

“An exhibition of an artist who died more than twenty years ago represents an approach to the notion of the new that is somewhat different from the Museum’s standard—one that emphasizes relevance and fresh information over chronology, and brings to the fore a relatively neglected yet very influential innovator who continues to have a strong impact on artists working today,” said Laura Hoptman.

In 1959, Gysin created the Cut-Up Method, in which words and phrases were literally cut up into pieces and then rearranged to untether them from their received meanings and reveal new ones. His Cut-Up experiments, which he shared with his lifelong friend and collaborator William S. Burroughs, culminated in Burroughs and Gysin’s The Third Mind, a book-length collage manifesto on the Cut-Up Method and its uses. Transferring this notion to experimenting with tape-recorded poems manipulated by a computer algorithm, Gysin created sound poetry and was among the earliest users of the computer in art. At the same creative moment, Gysin conceived of the Dreamachine. During the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, Gysin would continue his collaborations, and prove to be a mentor for myriad artists, poets, and musicians, from John Giorno to Brian Jones, to David Bowie and Patti Smith, to Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Keith Haring, among many others.

“Brion Gysin: Dream Machine” will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue co-published with Hugh Merrell, Ltd., featuring essays by Laura Hoptman; John Geiger, literary scholar and author of the definitive Gysin biography; Gerard Audinet, Chief Curator of the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, which houses Gysin’s artistic estate; James Grauerholz, Gysin’s friend and literary executor; as well as appreciations by contemporary artists, musicians, and poets including George Condo, Paul Elliman, Ugo Rondinone, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Cerith Wyn Evans, Shannon Ebner, Trisha Donnelly, and Sue de Beer.

http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/422/

“Mr. Séclier’s subject is a book that inspires as much passion in some circles as any religious tract.”
-The New York Times

“CRITICS’ PICK! Says something profound about the way art can both reflect and shape its world.”
– Miranda Siegel, New York Magazine

In the late 1950s and early 60s, more than 10,000 children were born with deformities due to the use of Thalidomide, a drug used in sedatives. Filmmaker Niko von Glasow was one of the victims, and in Nobody’s Perfect he tracks down 11 others who suffered the disastrous side-effects.

Niko is recruiting them to pose nude for a book of photographs, to give the ever- present gawkers a good, long look. He especially wants the executives at Grünenthal, the pharmaceutical company that produced the drug, to see the result of their crimes. He ends up stalking his way into their offices like a German Michael Moore, confronting them with images of their misdeeds.

The children of Thalidomide are the heart of the film, though, as they battle their body-image issues with courage and dark humor, while pursuing their diverse and successful careers. They are painters, champion horse-riders, actors, and astrophysicists, an inspiring group who overcame incredible odds to become extraordinary people.
“..if you’re up for spending 84 sugar-free minutes in the company of a dozen thoughtful, funny, and profoundly resourceful grown-ups, this is your doc.”
Cliff Doerksen, Chicago Reader

“A triumphant spiritual documentary.”
-Spirituality and Practice