Wednesday, June 8: Cockfighter Release Party & Screening

June 8th, 2011 by Dan Nadel

PictureBox Books and Monterey Media present an evening with filmmaker Monte Hellman in celebration of the brand-new edition of Charles Willeford’s book Cockfighter.

When: Wednesday, June 8, 6 pm.
Where: The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater: 165 West 65th Street near Amsterdam Ave.

The evening includes two films, a Q&A with director Monte Hellman, and a musical performance by Matt Sweeney.

The night begins at 6:00 pm with a sneak preview of Hellman’s movie Road to Nowhere, a deliciously twisty tale about a North Carolina filmmaker that Variety pronounced “one of his finest anddeepest, a twin peak to his 1971 masterpiece Two Lane Blacktop.”

Then, at 8:30, there will be a rare screening of Hellman’s adaptation of Cockfighter, aka Born to Kill, aka “one of the most explicit studies of repression the American cinema has ever produced.” A seething Warren Oates stars as a destitute individual in love with a bloodthirsty bird; Harry Dean Stanton co-stars.

Monte Hellman will introduce both screenings and do a Q&A after Road to Nowhere.

The event includes a book party in the Furman Gallery to celebrate Charles Willeford’s classic novel, Cockfighter, featuring a live musical performance by Matt Sweeney. Copies of Willeford’s book will be available for purchase.

Wednesday, June 8, 6 pm. $12. Buy tickets online here.