The month-long De Niro Retro concludes tonight with a sold out screening of Michael Mann’s HEAT at Nitehawk Williamsburg. In this episode, I’m graciously joined by Nitehawk Cinema’s Director of Programming, Cristina Cacioppo, to dive deep into the De Niro deep cuts she programmed for the January Late Round series at Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park. You may have noticed this is a jumbo sized episode and that’s because after my interview with Cristina I’ll be joined by my friend Kristine Gaddi to share our reactions to catching some screenings at Bobby’s World and Bobby B-Sides then discussing our takeaways from a month of examining the selected works of Robert De Niro.
Cristina Cacioppo has been programming in NYC for over 20 years. I could pick her brain for days but I’m just grateful for the time she gave me on this episode of the pod. I’m excited for you to hear what her career trajectory was like from being a teenager watching a rep screening of A Clockwork Orange then eventually becoming a director of programming at the University of Florida’s campus screening room. Once she landed in NYC in 2000 then she found herself meeting and collaborating with the folks at Ocularis — the formerly weekly cinema venue at Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg — and the rest is history. She noticed the programming in NYC leaned more academic and she set out to bring her distinctly fun and edgy voice as a programmer to the marquee by turning the focus on cult oddities, underground films about women, pre-code, over the top bombastic movies, and more.
She admits that the history of her programming work in the 2000s has been lost to time because some venues shutter and websites no longer work. So there’s no living documentation on the internet of what was screening back then. There’s not a lot of documentation in general from the avant-garde art house scene in NYC in the 1960’s - 1990’s. It’s kind of alarming how even the repertory calendars from even 15 years ago could be very difficult to dig up, too.
I can’t thank Cristina enough for sharing so many neat insights about the business of programming including her own incredible career story. I’m very lucky to have had her and Desmond on the show to give us a glimpse inside their work process, what inspires their programming, what is fueling their own inspiration, and all of it explains why Nitehawk Cinema is so special.
I wanted some help in the reaction segment of my coverage of Bobby’s World so I invited my friend Kristine Gaddi on the pod. She caught a few screenings in the film series (Jackie Brown, Midnight Run) and we got to see The Fan on 35mm together. Listen to our reactions on revisiting our De Niro faves on the big screen (Analyze This, Taxi Driver) and seeing some for the first time (Midnight Run, Angel Heart).
I’ve never participated in a retrospective at a cinema before but I have binged through a director’s filmography at home. It’s fun to examine a filmmaker or actor through a more precise lens when you’re doing a retrospective. I gained a lot of new insight on De Niro and his collaborators, somehow my appreciation for De Niro and his films were elevated, and I was shocked at how much I enjoyed laughing my ass off at a screening of Analyze This. I wasn’t expecting to see some of his movies again with fresh eyes.
Thanks again to Desmond Thorne and Cristina Cacioppo for talking with me on the pod. Big shouts to my friend Kristine Gaddi for partnering with me in covering this film series by watching movies across the month of January.
If you enjoyed this coverage format of the pod then feel free to let me know in the comments or write to me at marqueemixtape@gmail.com!
Stay tuned for what’s next in February!
Ep. 008: BOBBY'S WORLD, Pt. 2 with CRISTINA CACIOPPO