By Mabel Pais

REOPENING OF NEW YORK CITY’S CULTURAL LIFE

CENTERPIECE OF REOPENING OF INDEPENDENT THEATER

‘ABEL FERRARA’S CINEMA VILLAGE’

STARTS

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30

NINE DAY LONG RETROSPECTIVE AND TRIBUTE

$5 TICKETS TO FILMS, LIVE MUSIC, SPECIAL GUESTS

Cinema Village, after a year without cinemas in New York City, independent movie theater owner Nicolas Nicolaou has invited Abel Ferrara to jump start the re-opening of Cinema Village – now in its 58th year of operation – for a week-long retrospective and tribute to movie-going running Wednesday, June 30 through Thursday, July 8.

As a further celebration of the independent spirit, tickets for all shows will be $5.00. A ticket gets a filmgoer into any other show that day that is not sold out.

To kick things off, the advance screening Tuesday, June 29, 7:30 pm of the documentary “THE PROJECTIONIST” will be free. Ferrara and his band will be playing in the street that night. “Come share a movie in one of the great old school theaters,” said Ferrara.

Filmgoers are invited to join in celebrating a special screening of Ferrara’s newest film SIBERIA (Lionsgate), starring Willem Dafoe, alongside the New York theatrical premiere of “THE PROJECTIONIST” (Kino Lorber) a love letter to legendary New York City indie cinema impresario Nicolas Nicolaou himself and his four-decade legacy of operating the city’s most distinct neighborhood theaters. Nicolaou currently owns and operates Cinema Village in Manhattan, Alpine Cinemas in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and Cinemart in Forest Hills, Queens.

Cinema Village is located at 22 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10003 (east of Broadway). Tickets may be purchased in advance at cinemavillage.com or in-person at the box office.

‘ABEL FERRARA’S CINEMA VILLAGE’

PROGRAM (in alphabetical order)

4:44 LAST DAY ON EARTH

DIR: Abel Ferrara l 1h 22m

In a large apartment high above the city lives our couple. They’re in love. Skye (Shanyn Leigh) is a painter, Cisco (Willem Dafoe) is a successful actor. Tomorrow at 4:44 am, the world will come to an end far more rapidly than even the worst doomsayer could have imagined. There will be no survivors. As always, there are those who, as their last cigarette is being lit and the blindfold tightened, will still hope against hope for some kind of reprieve. For a miracle. Not our two lovers. They – like the majority of the Earth’s population – have accepted their fate: the world is going to end. Starring: Willem Dafoe and Shanyn Leigh.

THE CONFORMIST

DIR: Bernardo Bertolucci l 1h 48m

Synopsis: A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.

THE DRILLER KILLER

DIR: Abel Ferrara l 1h 41m

An artist slowly goes insane from struggling to pay his bills, work on his paintings and care for his two female roommates. This leads him to the streets of New York after dark where he randomly kills derelicts with a power drill.

DESPERATE LIVING

DIR: John Waters l 1h 30m

A neurotic society woman murders her husband with the help of her maid and, on the lam, escapes to Mortville, a homeless community ruled over by a fascist queen.

EL TOPO

DIR: Alejandro Jodorowsky l 2h 5m

A mysterious black-clad gunfighter wanders a mystical Western landscape encountering multiple bizarre characters.

HAPPY LIFE

DIR: Michael M. Bilandic l 1h 13m

New York Tunez, an all techno record store, is going under. The owner, Keith, a down and out trance DJ, struggles to cope with the changing cultural climate. In a final effort to save the store he organizes a rave. Unfortunately, 2009 is a far cry from the early ’90’s.

HONKY KONG

DIR: Stephen Gurewitz l 1h 18m

While touring Hong Kong on a work trip, an American chef stomachs the mounting regrets of a tumultuous affair from his past. Starring Sean Price Williams and Hannah Gross.

1. 45

DIR: Abel Ferrara l 1h 20m

A timid and mute seamstress goes insane after being attacked and raped twice in one day, in which she takes to the streets of New York City after dark and randomly shoots men with a .45 caliber pistol. Starring: Zoë Lund, Bogey, and Albert Sinkys.

PASOLINI

DIR: Abel Ferrara l 1h 24m

A kaleidoscopic look at the last day of Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1975. Starring: Willem Dafoe, Ninetto Davoli, Riccardo Scamarcio

cinemavillage.com/Now-Playing/pasolini-1.html

THE PROJECTIONIST

DIR: Abel Ferrara l 1h 21m

“The Projectionist,” by Abel Ferrara, the director of controversial cinema,  traces the life and livelihood of  friend and fellow cinephile Nicolas “Nick” Nicolaou, a Cypriot immigrant who moved to America as a young boy and began working as a teenager in a small neighborhood movie theater around Manhattan, defying gentrification, changing viewing habits and corporate dominance in the 1980’s, only to emerge decades later as one of New York City’s last independent theater owners (he currently operates Manhattan’s Cinema Village, Bay Ridge’s Alpine Cinemas and Forest Hills’ Cinemart). At once a walking tour of New York City’s evolving theatrical landscape, a history of movie-going over the last 50 years, and a moving tribute to friendship, tenacity and movie love, The Projectionist is an indelible tribute and timely paean to what going to the movies is all about. Starring: Abel Ferrara and Nicolas Nicolaou. cinemavillage.com/Now-Playing/the-projectionist.html

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW

DIR: Jim Sharman l 1h 40m

A newly engaged couple have a breakdown in an isolated area and must seek shelter at the bizarre residence of Dr. Frank-n-Furter.

SIBERIA

DIR: Abel Ferrara l 1h 32m l

Clint is a damaged man who has retreated to a wintry remote mountain cabin where he hopes to find serenity. He runs a modest cafe where the rare traveler or native of the region visits. But even in his relative isolation he cannot find peace nor escape. On a fateful evening, to confront himself, he begins a journey by dogsled to the world he once knew. He travels through dreams, memory and imagination in an attempt to find his true nature. Starring: Willem Dafoe.

https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/siberia

TOMMASO

DIR: Abel Ferrara l 1h 55m

The story of an American artist living in Rome with his young European wife Nikki and their 3-year-old daughter, Dee Dee. Starring: Willem Dafoe, Cristina Chiriac, and Anna Ferrara.

https://www.cinemavillage.com/Now-Playing/tommaso.html

(Mabel Pais writes on The Arts and Entertainment, Social Issues, Spirituality, and Health & Wellness.)